The Zionist writer Achad Ha'am famously remarked that more than the Jewish people kept Shabbat,

Shabbat kept the Jewish people. There's a deep truth that is embedded in the organization of time,

the ritualization of communal ceremonies of remembrance,

praise, the recapitulation of the traumas and triumphs of the past. And that deep truth is that

the calendar can function as a source of national solidarity. Living in rhythm with the Jewish calendar and all that that entails is part of what

makes Jews Jews. It is the instrument that the Jewish people developed to systematically teach

our children Jewish history, the fundamental principles of Jewish life, and it is what sustains and reinforces those principles

throughout the span of a person's life. The Jewish calendar serves, you might say, as a national

strategy for national cohesion. Or you might say, Jewish nationhood depends on the organization

of Jewish hours, Jewish days, Jewish weeks, and Jewish months.

Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Silver. My guest this week has just published a new book

that interprets each of the Jewish holidays in light of how they contribute to Jewish national belonging.

Rabbi Mayer Silvecic leads congregation to Arith Israel, the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue.

He is the director of the Strauss Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yushiva University.

He is the impresario of the website Mayor Solovecich.com, where you can find all of his writing,

his many video courses and podcasts,

including his daily commentary on the Hebrew Bible, Bible 365. And he's the author of the new book,

Sacred Time, published in 2024 by Koran. This week, on the eve of the Jewish festival of Sukkot,

Mayor Soloveitchik is my guest.

If you enjoy this conversation, you can subscribe to the Tikva podcast on Apple Podcasts,

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