September of the year 1901 was a very bad month for the United States. On September 6th at 4:00 PM in the Temple of Music at the Pan American Exposition right here in Buffalo, New York, President William McKinley was shot by Leon Czolgosz. He did not die right away, and after hours of intensive care, was brought to the Milburn House on Delaware Avenue infirm.
For a while it was looking good, and the country hoped to celebrate a National Jubilee Day. As described in Margaret Creighton’s The Electrifying Fall of Rainbow City: “It would begin with the click of a telegraph key, and this in turn would signal a simultaneous Hurrah across the country. Church bells would ring. Factory whistles would steam and toot their joy. Cannons would fire. And the whole United States would resound with happiness.”
But, alas none of this would come to be. The President had a setback and a short while later was dead. For me this moment of national exuberance, is exactly what this week’s Torah portion, Vayakhel, is all about. After the episode of the Golden Calf, the community is ready to celebrate. As the Torah tells us in Exodus 35:21: “And they came, everyone whose heart stirred them up, and everyone whose spirit made willing.”
Back at the turn of the twentieth century, President’s Day was whenever the President came to visit or any time the country declared it to be. They were all too painfully aware that sadness could be just around the corner, and therefore a celebration was always in order. Our ancestors felt the same way. They had been through a lot, and would celebrate in full joy, whenever God called them to be together. Here, with Purim and the second anniversary of the pandemic only a few weeks away, we should take their cue and celebrate any time, any way that we can.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alex