Your baby steps to the Sukkah…
The journey out into the Sukkah is a scary one, it is the transition from the heady days of the Ten Days of Repentance into the real world. The ‘not real world, real world’. The Sukkah is perhaps the soft-landing place after Yom Kippur, to try out this new world with a clean slate.
What is interesting about Sukkot is its simplicityto paraphrase the words of Rabbi Alan Lew z”l, 'we sit in a house, the house that is not a house, that reminds us that our ultimate protection is not the homes we live in.'
Yom Kippur is kinda straight forward, the fast is the most important thing, for those who are able, fast! Ensure that nothing passes your lips for 25 hours and take this opportunity for deepening spiritual reflection. Let the words of the day wash over you: ‘הוּא מוֹחֶה פְשָׁעֶֽיךָ’, God Who blots out your transgressions, ‘לִפְנֵי ה" תִּטְהָֽרוּ’, before the Holy Name, you will be cleansed, ‘מַעֲבִיר אַשְׁמוֹתֵֽינוּ בְּכָל שָׁנָה וְשָׁנָה’, Who removes our trespasses year on year. I have held this vision of the last years on Yom Kippur of the uttering of spells. I have no idea what happens in the ‘God realm’, my stake is to say these words in meaning and reflection, in hope and aspiration and literally to bathe in them, like immersion in the holy mikveh, our cleansing ritual bath. Pop out the other side and feel up for the year ahead, re-jew-vinated (sorry, couldn’t help myself!)
The day after the night before is a bit more complex but maybe it dunna have to be. I think of the world of Halacha, Jewish law, that we land in after Yom Kippur. The laws of building the Sukkah, our temporary hut for the days of the festival, on days that might otherwise feel like spiritual overwhelm; they are a strong guide. The Sukkah, at least two and a half walls, not too small, not too tall, the roof must have on it leaves and branches, nothing which is still attached to the ground, nothing human made. No blessing for building it but we only bless when we actually sit. Oh and don’t forget, this will be a festival when we are ‘אך שמח’, only happy. All of this is such a tall order, for many too much – if you peaced out after the fast ended, fair, but you might miss a crucial crescendo that is to be carried out into the days after.
Religious life can be a comfort blanket, a blankey, in the wilds of the outside world; our spiritual guide, the Torah, offers an option, be guided, be held, be led. There is much in our lives that is contingent on our own decision making. In 2024, almost everything is up for grabs, who you are, what religion you practise or don’t, where you travel, your work, how you vote, what you watch, who you follow…there are few things that you can’t decide on and change your mind again tomorrow. The parameters of Halacha, give us options in the year to be lead, lead through changing seasons, lead through a world transforming itself. Lead through tumult and sadness.
Halacha is a gentle backdrop to the unending brutality to which much of the world looks like at this time. On Sukkot we go outside after ten days of maximum reflection and accounting of our own lives and simply put one nail into a piece of wood. We make sure there are some walls, a roof with some leaves and try and make a blessing over wine and some bread on the first and second day (starting Wednesday night), and say the blessing, ‘בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' אֱלֹקינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ לֵישֵׁב בַּסֻּכָּה’. And just for one moment can you lean into the ‘אך שמח’, only happy. The world burns but can you lend a small part of yourself for this week to experience joy and appreciation for the delight and bounty around you. This is Sukkot.
Hag Samayach.
