A rabbi was once asked about the origin of the Jewish high holy days. The questioner was curious about the various Jewish “feasts,” like Yom Kippur and Hannukah. The rabbi said, tongue in cheek, “All of our high holy days eventually come back to this – Someone tried to kill us. We survived. So, we said, ‘Let’s celebrate.’”
The text at the end of the passage in Matthew 2, 13-18 which reads: “A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more” is one such example, not necessarily giving us the origin of a high holy day, but giving us some insight into God’s care for His chosen people.
The quote which St. Matthew cites about Rachel is from Jeremiah 31. It is a description of the tragedy of the Babylonian Exile, when large numbers of Jerusalem’s citizens (including children) were taken off as slaves to Babylon and many were killed before and during the Exile. That’s where Rachel’s cries came from! In the following verse in the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, God asks Rachel to stop weeping because her children “shall come again, return, from a foreign land.” And so, the purpose for including Jeremiah’s words is not exclusively to connect the reference to “weeping” for the slaughtered people (including children), but rather with the Child Jesus, who had gone to a foreign land (like Israel had before him), but who would return.
The Old Testament has many such references (including the “stories” of the Jewish high holy days), one of which is the killing of the Hebrew firstborn by Pharaoh at the birth of Moses. Such a connection would have been easily understood by Jewish readers. Again, “Someone tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s celebrate.” One could even make the case that the underlying theme for all of Judaism and all of Christianity is just that: no matter what has happened to us, no matter what is happening to us now, no matter what could happen … we can and must live with hope! God has promised to be with us, to be our protector, to be our advocate and our sustainer. No matter what happens around us or to us, all will be well; all manner of things will be well.
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Linked earlier this week, but worth the reminder for the Twelve Days of Christmas: https://familyatthefootofthecross.blogspot.com/p/catholic-12-days-of-christmas.html
