Chapter 15 may ceremony

Spring is almost over and summer is coming.The noon sun shone hotly through the kitchen window.This is the third time we meet.Before starting the conversation, the Archmage poured me a glass of water. With ice?he asks. That's fine, I said. That's fine with him.He sang: No ice cubes?that would be nice but no ice cubes We headed back to his office, passing a large photograph of him as a young man.In the photo, he is standing on a mountain under the bright sunshine.He was tall and strong, with black hair combed back, that's how he always looked as long as I could remember as a kid

Great photo, I say. It was a proud moment. Where was it filmed? Mount Sinai. Is it where God gave the Ten Commandments? Completely correct. When was it filmed? 1960s.I went with a group of scholars.A Christian climbed up the mountain with me, and he took the photo. How much time did it take? for hours.We climbed all night and reached the summit at sunrise. I glanced at his aging body.It is now impossible to engage in such activities.His thin shoulders were hunched, and the skin on his wrists was loose and wrinkled. He continued walking towards the office.I noticed a small detail in the photo.In addition to his white shirt and prayer shawl, the Archmage carries a traditional phylactery.Devout Judaizers would tie such small boxes of scriptures around their heads and arms during their morning prayers.

He said he climbed the mountain all night. In other words, he climbed the mountain with his phylactery. Rituals such as these are extremely important in the life of an archmage.morning prayer.Vespers.Only eat certain foods and nothing else.On the Sabbath, rain or shine, he walked to the synagogue on foot, obeyed the Jewish law, and did not operate a car.On holidays and festivals, he participated in traditional customs, held a seder on Passover, and threw bread into the brook on New Year's Day, symbolizing the abandonment of sin. Just like Catholicism has vespers, sacraments, and Holy Communion, just like Islam has five prayers a day, wears clean clothes, prepares prayer mats, and Judaism has many rituals to keep you busy for a whole day, a whole week, and a day. whole year.

I remember when I was a child, I heard the archmage admonishing the congregation that sometimes they are gentle and sometimes not so gentle. Traditional procedures such as lighting candles and prayers must not be omitted, especially don’t forget to recite the mourning prayer (Kaddish) for the deceased relatives, otherwise it will be tantamount to neglecting the ceremony. , tantamount to making the ritual disappear. Although he repeatedly called on the congregation to be more rigorous about the ceremony, year after year, the congregation stretched their fingers and lost more bit by bit.A prayer skipped here, a holiday there.They marry Gentiles just like me.

I would like to know how important he still thinks ritual is now that he has so few days left. Lives are at stake.He said. Why?Deep down, you already know what you believe. Mitch, he said: Confidence is in action.When you look at a person, it's what he does, not just what he believes. Yes, for the Archmage, he not only performs rituals every day, he uses rituals to shape his daily life.He is either praying, or studying the scriptures, which is an important part of his faith, or doing charity work, or visiting the sick.In this way, his life is quite regular, maybe even a little monotonous by American standards, isn't it? We Americans are conditioned to regard the same as something that should be excluded, and we try our best to make everything new and interesting.But the Archmage wasn't interested in novelty.He never follows fads.He doesn't do Pilates, he doesn't play golf (he was once given a club; it sat in his garage for years).

But his pious life had a calming effect.He follows one tradition after another, like a golfer who putts hole after hole; Can see the stars ②.For example, every week he kept the Sabbath, dividing the world into six days and one day, six days and one day. My grandparents did that.My parents did the same.If I drop this pattern, what do I take their life for?What do I take my own life for?For how many generations, by means of these rituals, we have He turned his palms, looking for the right word. contact?I said. ah.He smiled at me: connect. ①Passover (Passover) is the most important festival of the year for the Jews, commemorating the salvation of the Jewish people from the slave life in Egypt.On this day, eat a lot of symbolic food and remember the history of the Jewish people.

② Sukkah is an important festival for the Jews. To commemorate the wandering life during the Exodus period, everyone arranges huts together and feasts in the huts.The Feast of Tabernacles falls on the 15th day of the seventh month of the Jewish calendar, following the big festivals of Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur, and the festival lasts for seven days.