Post Yom Tov Blues

 It’s a strange feeling when Simchas Torah ends. It feels like well, now what? 

No more Yom tov after a whole month of just going, going, going. Like finishing a marathon. 

One time I actually ran a 10K sure if wasn’t a marathon but it was my first time running that far and I was really down for the next few days. I felt like I did all this hard work and now it’s over. What did I do all this for? 

Climbing climbing climbing 

Bam

Now what? 

Well now, 

I put up the laundry,

I washed the dishes, 

I swept the floor, 

And made myself a hot cocoa on the stove.

And as I look at my clean house and drink my hot cocoa 

I think, regular life is regular

(Though is there really such a thing as regular?)

But it’s still beautiful.

And the beauty is in the regularity.

The difference between ending Tishrei and finishing a marathon is that Tishrei is actually training for the marathon. That is, the marathon is the whole year. The purpose of Tishrei is to bring energy to the year to prepare us to feel Hashem  in the everyday. 

Hashem is not just with us when it’s Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sokkus and Simchas Torah. 

He’s with us cleaning the house.

He’s with us as we put on our rain-boots and winter coats and brave the wind and cold.

He’s with us as we go back to school, and work, and blessed routine.

ויעקב הלך לדרכו

And Yakov went on his way

With a spring in his step 

For he knew, this is the real deal

When the last holiday ends, the real marathon begins. 

But did I train well enough? Did I soak it all up? Perhaps another reason for feeling those post Yom Tov blues. The ever present Jewish guilt. 

And so I comfort myself in the knowledge that it’s never too late, perhaps a reason we do this all over again every year. And that, “The Holiest Yid in the world is you! And the Holiest time is the world is the time Hashem gave you! And the holiest place in the world is where Hashem put you”! ( Holiest Yid  in the World by Thank you Hashem) .