The Book of Jubilees, a text not found in the Hebrew Bible but considered scripture by some, gets pretty specific about the calendar. It envisions a perfectly ordered world, where time itself is a testament to divine harmony. But, and this is a big but, it all hinges on us getting it right.
The text states, "for everything will fall out in them according to their testimony, and they will not leave out any day nor disturb any feasts." This is a stunning claim! It puts humanity in a crucial role, almost as if we are the guardians of time itself.
But what happens if we mess it up? What if we do neglect the calendar, ignore the appointed times, and generally lose track?
That's when things get dicey. According to Jubilees, "if they do neglect and do not observe them according to His commandment, then they will disturb all their seasons, and the years will be dislodged from this (order)." Yikes!
And the consequences? They ripple outwards, affecting everything. "[and they will disturb the seasons and the years will be dislodged] and they will neglect their ordinances." It's like a domino effect, a cosmic calendar catastrophe! : our actions, our choices, have the power to either maintain or disrupt the very fabric of time. Heavy stuff. The passage continues with a stark warning: "And all the children of Israel will forget, and will not find the path of the years, and will forget the new moons, and seasons, and sabbaths, and they will go wrong as to all the order of the years." We forget the Rosh Chodesh, the new moons, the Shabbatot, the Sabbaths. We lose our way in the grand sweep of time.
It is a pretty sobering thought. Jubilees isn't just talking about a simple scheduling error. It suggests that neglecting the calendar, neglecting the sacred times, leads to a deeper forgetting – a forgetting of our connection to something larger than ourselves, to the rhythms of the universe itself.
So, what do we make of all this? Is Jubilees being overly dramatic? Maybe. But it certainly gives us pause. It invites us to consider the profound significance of time, and our role in honoring it. Maybe paying a little more attention to the calendar, to the cycles of the moon and the seasons, isn't just about keeping appointments. Maybe it's about keeping our place in the cosmos.