Thank God For Sukkot

The holiday of Sukkot is a gift to the Jewish people, albeit one that we don’t often recognize. The High Holiday period begins with the sounds of the Shofar, proceeds to the delicious and sweet foods of Rosh Hashanah and then dives deeply into self-reflection and atonement at Yom Kippur. We emerge from the fast ready to start the year anew and the holiday of Sukkot provides us with myriad opportunities to do those mitzvot that really highlight who we are as Jewish people. We build a temporary shelter called a sukkah. If this alone does not represent the history of the Jewish people, moving from slavery to freedom, from a desert to the Land of Milk and Honey, and the many expulsions and exoduses that we have endured, the sukkah is a true symbol that reminds us of what is truly important: not the sukkah itself but, rather, what takes place inside its flimsy walls.

Building the sukkah itself immerses us in physical labor. Especially today, when computers, iPads, and smart phone screens seem to dominate, getting outdoors and reconnecting with our hands, building a shelter, sourcing palm fronds, and decorating the sukkah are a respite from our daily chores. 

My own favorite parts of the holiday are the joining together, outdoors, in a different type of setting and having friends and family over. We already know that each night we think about famous people in our collective history as being honorary guests, everyone from Abraham and Isaac to David and Solomon. However, I really enjoy the aunts and uncles, cousins and grandchildren, and those that I happen to run into on the way home from synagogue. Like the famous children’s story, there is always room for one more in our sukkah.

Sukkot is a time to begin anew. To begin our new year with family and friends, welcoming guests the same way that Abraham did. Remembering the only things really of value in this world are the non-tangible ones: the ways in which we fill the spaces between one another. And so, in the sukkah, we fill the space with love, with laughter, with compassion, with respect, and with reverence. We know that the sukkah will be taken apart in just over a week. The memories that we make in the sukkah will last a lifetime. The house we walked out of that holds all of our possessions, just stuff. I thank God for Sukkot. I need a reminder every once in a while of what really matters.