Seasons of Change – Haftarah Acharei Mot-Kedoshim

Amos 9:7-15

The time is coming, says the Eternal,
When the one who plows the field
will overtake the one who reaps it;
and the treader of grapes [will overtake] the one who sows seeds,
when the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
and all the hills shall overflow. (9:13)

The imagery in this passage from the prophet Amos is imagery of abundance. There will be so much produce to harvest, it will take until the next plowing season. There will be so many grapes to tread that the sowing of seeds will overlap with it.

It is also an image of overlapping seasons: the planting season overlapping the harvest season, the wine-making season overlapping the sowing season. Two things usually reserved as separate coming together in ways not anticipated.

As I sit here, in the midst of spring in New Jersey, I get the overlapping-of-seasons concept. It makes sense to me. This week alone, I have had to wear three different jackets, depending on the weather. But it makes sense for more reasons than that. We are approximately one-half way through the Omer right now. This Shabbat will represent the 25th day of the 49 day march from redemption to revelation. The walk through the wilderness and the waiting for word from God after having been saved by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. We are smack-dab in the middle of the season of our growth from slaves to a free, covenanted people.

We are not fully free, fully redeemed. Nor are we fully slaves, fully bound. We are in between. Since Amos’ vision of these overlapping seasons is an image of abundance, we should perhaps see this in between stage as a season of abundance. The ability to be in two places, two times, two seasons at once is the ability to have some sense of vision. It is the ability to have perhaps the fullest sense of what came before and what comes after.

Shabbat is, like this period of the Omer, and like the waiting in the wilderness, a time in between. We are in between creation and creation. We are in between human and divine. We are in between time and space.

In between redemption and revelation, in between planting and harvesting: that is where we stand. Ready to plow a field that is not fully harvested yet. Ready to sow seeds when the grapes have yet to be crushed. The overlap forces us to wait, to stop, to see what is in front of us.

The beauty of Shabbat, the Omer, and the seasons is the fact that they keep coming back to us, giving us that time to be in between. They allow us to experience life on both sides and then pause and reflect on what has come before and project to what will come next.

Shabbat Shalom