Does anybody know how Labor Day came to be? Here it is in a nutshell: Pullman, Illinois, was a company town where the entire community worked for George Pullman, who was president of the Sleeping Car Company. In 1893, the company was caught in a nationwide economic depression, Pullman laid off a large amount of his workers. The enraged workers went on strike and even set fire to trains carrying the Pullman Sleeping Car. President Grover Cleveland, faced with nervous railroad executives, sent 12,000 troops to break the strike. 2 men were killed. Big outrage. 1894 was an election year and Cleveland was looking to get back on the good side of laborers, and he thereby gave birth to Labor Day - interestingly he wasn't reelected.

So with one big mistake, this date stuck. Contrast this happenstance concession with the pointed purpose of the High Holidays. Every one of our cherished Yomim Tovim, are chosen for a specific and lofty purpose. Rosh Hashanah is pointedly different than Yom Kippur, and the stark contrast, yet delicate segway, to Sukkot is apparent. Each day is chosen by our tradition to achieve a specific response. Not only are the individual dates chosen, but their critical placement on the calendar is also deliberate. According to the Maharal each Jewish holiday is not simply a commemoration - but rather it is a revisiting of inspiration from past generations.

To illustrate how important the reasons are behind maintaining a Jewish Holiday, the Talmud speaks of numerous dates on the calendar that will be abolished in the Days of the Messiah due to their obsolete reason. Moreover, there is a book called Megilat Taanit (which the Talmud refers to) which records numerous benchmark dates that have long since been repealed due to their lack of necessity in our times.

Maybe it's time to find a new reason for Labor Day.