NOTES for Lev 23:1-37

Why do we love holidays? Ask those around you. It is interesting what they will answer. The most common answer for a Soviet or post-Soviet person may be: "Because on holidays you do not have to work!" No, in general one can work, go to the dacha, plant potatoes, or hill them, or harvest them; but what matters is that it is for oneself and not for "the boss." We feel it this way: all weekdays we strain ourselves, labor for someone else, but holidays are ours, they are "all for me."

But in the book of Leviticus God establishes holidays forever for His people, and the logic of this establishment is absolutely opposite. Weekdays are when we do our own affairs, while holidays are what we dedicate to God; they are days given to God, and on these days we make an offering to God: of sacrifices, labor, time, and finally ourselves.