Reflection
There was no forethought to what my last mitzvot would be in this cycle when I picked the number 100. “100” was nice for the pitch (“100 plays in 100 days!”), but didn’t make sense with Maimonides’s schema. I cut myself off mid-book (The Book of Seasons) and mid-section (Laws of Festival Rest). I even cut myself off mid-verse. The 100th mitzvot is “to rest on Shavuot,” and the 101st is “not to do prohibited labor on Shavuot,” both derived from Leviticus 23:21. As the end approached, I wondered if I should adjust the project to conclude on a more thematically satisfying commandment.
And yet. Tonight is, in fact, the beginning of Shavuot. The cycle of this project has synced up with the cycle of the Jewish calendar. It’s a nice bit of symmetry, and as good a sign as any that I’ve reached a natural endpoint.
Shavuot commemorates God giving us the gift of Torah. It occurs 49 days after the end of Passover. 49 days after the exodus from Mitzrayim. 49 days in anticipation of revelation. More devout Jews mark the holiday by studying Torah through the night, something I’ve never personally done. I’ve never “marked” Shavuot.
But I did spend 100 days with the Torah, sifting through our gift at Sinai. A lot of it pissed me off or was maddeningly myopic. Because, of course, God didn’t “give” us anything. The Torah came from people. I’ll let you decide how much the divine was involved. But, without a doubt, people wrote this down, and then people read and interpreted and commented and translated and responded. These commandments are as bound by their historical moment as the plays I wrote a few millennia later. The fallibility of these commandments is a frustration, yes, but also a comfort. The fallible is much easier to argue with than the infallible.
The end of this project seems a decent way for me to mark Shavuot for the first time. I’ve no real conclusion to offer. I’m mid-book, mid-section, mid-verse. In anticipation of revelation, I suppose. The world is a frightening mess, and these plays are a paltry response to that mess. But this project did fortify my soul a bit, and I hope at times it did the same for you. It moves me more than I can say that you all joined me for this experiment.
The 100th mitzvot commands rest. So, I’m off to do that.
Chag Sameach y’all!
Eric Marlin