On the intermediate Shabbat of Passover, we read from Ezekiel the story of the valley of dry bones, and also the Song of Songs. Are these specifically related to the holiday, and if so, how? Or if not, why do we read them on this Shabbat?
In the reading from Ezekiel, the prophet is taken to a valley filled with dry bones, as if from a long-ago battle. God asks if they can be made whole? Ezekiel responds, as he does to all questions, that only God knows. The bones rise and sinew and flesh and skin appear on them until many bodies are standing. The next question is whether they can live again, and then the breath of life is breathed into them. This is interpreted as the return to Canaan of the Israelites, which Ezekiel is then told to prophesy to the people.
There has been controversy about whether actual physical resurrection is part of Jewish belief. This reading has been a large part of the debate: do we take it literally or not? The image itself is so powerful that the explanation that follows seems weak by its side. I will put this to one side, but let's not forget how much of the Christian symbollism of Easter comes from Passover.
The Song of Songs, a love song between a man and a woman, is one of the five scrolls which are read on five different holidays, and is very beautiful and vivid. There is so much expression of physical love, of panting desire, that there was serious question whether it would be included in the final version of Tanakh. I am one of many who are grateful it was included.
Here again, the rabbis tell us that it is a song of love between God and Israel. Personally, I think that is begging the question. The book is very oriental in its poetry, and such love poetry is common in the East. Again, I find the text itself so powerful that extraneous interpretation seems weak in comparison.
But what do these have to do with Passover?
Let's look at the seder plate. Some of the items on the seder plate have a direct connection to the holiday - the bitter herbs, the maror, the shank bone. But what of the other items - the egg, the green vegetable? No more than bunnies and eggs have to do with Easter. These are symbols of spring, of the promise of new life.
The promise of new life is inseparable from the story of the exodus from Egypt. The Israelites pass through the sea (a symbol of birth) and proceed to the brit at Sinai. After living as slaves for several hundred years, the Israelites have now the potential for a new life. They are not able to free their spirits, however, and it is their children who actually start the new life in the new land.
My rabbi says that one of the core beliefs of Judaism is belief in an afterlife. I do not believe that we live on except in the memories of those whose lives we have touched, and in the work we leave behind. But we believe that enjoyment of the good things of the world is part of a good life, including physical love and children, the beauty around us and the pleasures of our senses - within certain limits. And even dry bones can sprout new life, like Aaron's staff.
Chag sameach, and Shabbat shalom.