We just started Sukot with a two day beginning followed immediately by Shabat. We'll do the same later this week with Shemini Atzeret on Thursday and Simhat Torah on Friday, followed by Shabat Bereshit. (The l_o_n_g weekends started with the worldwide two-day Rosh HaShana, and will continue with shorter weekends for Passover and Shavuot.)
In Israel, the Festivals (Shalosh Ragelim) have one day at the beginning and one day at the end. "B'hul" - outside of Israel - an extra day is added at the beginning of all the festivals and an extra day is added to the end of Sukot and Passover.
Added up, the total of days off for Jewish holidays is more than the average worker's vacation time:
Rosh HaShana = 2 days
Yom Kippor = 1 day
Sukot = 4 days
Pesach = 4 days
Shavuot = 2 days
And that's not counting the intermediate days (hol ha'moed) of Sukot and Pesach which the more observant take off as well.
Working for an Israeli company - at least in my experience with them in the U.S. - offers no benefit; Jewish holidays are ignored in order to be "real" American companies; never mind that these Israeli companies DO recognize the non-Jewish religious holidays of Christmas and Easter as paid holidays.
(Granted, both of the best known non-Jewish holidays have been so subsumed by merchandisers that any religious "taint" is almost obliterated, but that does NOT make them "American" {civil} holidays.)
THE REASON we have extra days to the festivals is, I was told, because at one time runners were dispatched from Jerusalem - or wherever the Sanhedrin was sitting - throughout the world were Jews were present.
Even back in Biblical times, we were scattered throughout the "known world." There were Jews in what is now Morocco when the second temple stood.
Since a runner could hardly reach, say, Bene Malal in time for the Jews there to celebrate the new moon at the proper time, the rabbis declared that all Jews outside Israel's borders would celebrate two days of the festivals - "just to be sure they had the right date."
That was then.
This is now.
We have had accurate calendars for centuries. We KNOW when there is a new moon, even when the skies are overcast. We KNOW when the first day of each month falls, and because of that, we likewise KNOW, without any doubt, when the first day of a festival occurs. We even know when to light candles before haggim and Shabat for our neighborhood ! (Plug in your longitude and latitude and, BINGO!, the times magically appear on your computer screen; or you can print out calendars with exact times for tallit and tefillin, for Shama, etc. for your particular corner of the world. You can even "get an app for that" on your smart phone or tablet.
So why do we still celebrate two days when we KNOW - exactly - when a holiday starts?
Reform long ago did away with the second day. 'Course Reform did away with a lot of things; some would say it "threw out the baby with the bath water." Apparently, most Conservative congregations officially celebrate two days at the beginning and end of Sukot and Passover, but I suspect that, as in many observant/traditional congregations, there are many empty seats on the second days.
For all the years I worked in the U.S., I never had a traditional, 10-day/two week vacation. I used up all my vacation days - and then some - in synagogue.
Some years were "better" than others when the beginning or end of a holiday included Shabat when I didn't work in any case.
My wife, a teacher at a Jewish day school, had the holidays off; at some schools, even the moed were paid holidays.
About the only ones to benefit - at least from my back of the shul perspective - are the rabbis and synagogue financial officers. Most congregations sell honors on the holidays; even when congregations have high membership and building and other annual assessments, a goodly portion of the congregation's operating capital is raised as members and guests bid for synagogue honors, for themselves or for others. Congregations of "wealthy-as-Rothchilds" get thousands of dollars for each "kavod" (honor); congregations such as mine are lucky to get bids of "101" for a "plain" aliyah - the last aliyah with kadish, and the maftir aliyah go for a premium, but even then, the donation rarely is in the thousands.
For the average working man (or woman) synagogue goer, the holidays are an expensive proposition. Lose money by taking time off from work, spend money for "incidentals" such as lulav and etrog, kosher-for-Passover foods, extra costs for electricity (leaving lights and stove/blech/oven and water urn on for the duration of two or three days).
Since most Jews have to work during the moed, visitors - parents, mostly - must go to the children, and while most children are delighted to host and honor their parents, the visitors ARE an added expense. On the other hand, Mom (-in-law) can help in the kitchen and with the children if both the wife and the mother are agreeable. (My mother-in-law is perfect.)
We KNOW beyond a doubt when the holidays are to start and end, just as we know when to light Shabat candles; the reason for the doubled days is history.
Maybe it's time to do the holidays are they are done in Israel. If it means making a "kavod-less" donation to the synagogue's operation, I'm willing to do that to give today's working Jew a break.
Or maybe it's all a plot to get us to move to Israel. Now THAT's a thought.
