In praise of Sukkot

This piece by Rabbi Berel Wein zt'l comes from the Destiny Foundation archives. 

Sukkot comes at exactly right time of the year, psychologically and emotionally speaking. If it were not for the advent of Sukkot and all the preparations involved regarding this festival of joy and happiness, we would all be very depressed at having to climb down from the pinnacle of Yom Kippur to everyday mundane existence.

The Torah allows us to contemplate our future year with a sense of happiness and satisfaction. The sukkah signifies the protection that the Lord will provide us with for the whole coming year. Though the actual sukkah may be small and relatively flimsy as compared to our homes, it nevertheless symbolizes faith, serenity and confidence in the eternity of Israel and its Torah.

The four species of vegetation that are an integral part of Sukkot reinforce our appreciation of the beauty of God’s world. It reminds us that the world can be a Garden of Eden and we should endeavor not to destroy it or be expelled from it.

The different species represent the harmony of nature, the flash of its color and its built-in symbiotic nature. Whereas pagans worshipped nature, Judaism stressed its role as being one of the great wonders of God’s creation.

Abraham had it right when he stated that people wonder at the magnificence of a beautiful building but ignore the genius of the architect that designed it. Judaism, while always impressed by the wonder of the building itself, always looks intently to recognize and acknowledge the architect behind it.

Sukkot helps remind us of the necessity to always search for that architect in all of the facets of our lives and world.

Sukkot also reveals clearly our dependence upon Heaven for rain – for water. Without water in abundance, life cannot function and grow. The Torah tells us that the Lord sent us purposely into a land where water is a precious commodity. There are no great rivers or giant lakes that appear on the landscape of the Land of Israel. We are therefore dependent on the winter season’s rains.

We pray on Sukkot for those rains to be abundant, gentle and saturating. Rain has a cleansing effect not only on the air we breathe but on the life spirit that exists within us. Hence its deep association with the joy of Sukkot.

Rain and water also symbolize Torah and purification. Moshe, in his final oration to Israel, states that his words of Torah should be felt as gentle rain and dew descending on the Holy Land. The prophet Yeshayahu compares Torah to water as does King David in Tehillim.

The holiday of Sukkot reinforces this connection with its own link to Simchat Torah, the day that marks the conclusion of this great and noble holiday period. For as obvious as it is that the Land of Israel cannot survive and prosper without water, so too the people of Israel will be unable to prosper and survive without an attachment to Torah, its commandments and values. The message of Sukkot is the perfect conclusion to the spirituality of Yom Kippur.

Looking back at The Sukkot Season

The festive season has come to an end. While the mitzvot associated with Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah have now passed, we are still left with many thoughts, feelings and memories to process. The month of Mar Cheshvan, which will soon be upon us, provides an ideal opportunity for reflection, introspection and contemplation of the impact that Tishrei and its momentous occasions have made on us.

Here, in the first of three post-Sukkot items on the blog that look back to last week's festivities, we bring a short and colourful YouTube clip by our member Heshy Engelsberg, "The Sukkot Season", which succinctly captures the atmosphere in the streets of Jerusalem when our beautiful and eternal capital goes into celebratory mode. 

You can click through to "The Sukkot Season" here.

Deflation and inspiration -- where physicality balances the spirit: Sukkot 5785

We often experience a feeling of spiritual deflation immediately after we emerge from the exalted atmosphere of Yom Kippur. To plunge directly into the icy waters of  everyday life is a very challenging task. We have just been given an entire day to nurture our souls, to exist as angels without the need to fulfill the requirements of our bodies. So the Lord, so to speak, allows us a more gradual descent into our physical, everyday lives. We are asked to forgo the creature comforts of our homes for a period of time, to dwell in a sukkah, exposed to the heavens and the natural world. 

The sukkah, like Yom Kippur itself, is a place of the soul and not of the body. This is because, no matter how elaborate and luxurious we attempt to make it, the sukkah remains a temporary and exposed environment. While the body is aware of this situation and is somewhat discomforted by it, the soul revels in it. It is in this way that the soul clings on to the last vestiges of Yom Kippur right through to Hoshanah Rabbah, before our bodies return to dominate our lives. 

The day of Hoshanah Rabbah is considered as a High Holy Day in its own right and not merely a regular day of Chol HaMoed.  Though none of the restrictions of Yom Kippur are imposed on that festive day or throughout any of the joyous days that follow the first day of the Chag, the spiritual atmosphere of Yom Kippur is still present, for we are living amongst holy clouds and not in physically strong structures. 

Jews the world over are willing to spend sizeable amounts of money in the fulfillment of the commandments of the holiday of Sukkot. We are all aware that the price of a lemon, an orange or any other citrus fruit at the local greengrocer is of little consequence to us. Not so the price of an etrog! It is not the fruit itself that makes it so valuable to so many. It is our ability to fulfill the will of God through an etrog – itself a gift of God’s bounty – that makes it so valuable as to be almost priceless. 

The physical instruments that we use throughout our lives are a means through which our souls connect to our Creator. Just as the value of an etrog lies in what lies behind it–- in what it represents and who ordained its use on the holiday of Sukkot -- would that we would view everything in life, all of our goods and possessions, friends and families and our society generally, with such a perspective. 

In essence, that is the basis of Jewish thought and the moral code of the Torah. On Yom Kippur we spurn physicality; on Sukkot we learn to use physicality to help to connect us to our Creator. And it is that spirit of understanding our role in this world of eternal values that truly occasions within us the joy and happiness that radiates from the holiday of Sukkot. 

Chag Same’ach, Rabbi Berel Wein