Reflections from Rabbi Ellis

Hag Sameach!

I love Sukkot, I love building the Sukkah, eating in the Sukkah, waving the Lulav and Etrog and just being in the Sukkah. The Torah tells us that on Sukkot we will have an extra measure of joy, but even without the Torah I would know that this is a special time of happiness.  The Gemara compares this time of year to the birth of a new child. Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, is the (re)birth of our world. We emerge into the year like a newborn baby. Eight days after our rebirth we have Yom Kippur. Like Brit Mila, Yom Kippur puts the stamp of Jewishness on our year. We emerge from Yom Kippur as children and the first thing G!d does is invite us to make a Jewish house and dwell in it, this is the Sukkah.

G!d puts us in the Sukkah to teach us everything we need to know to be Jewish. As such it teaches all the essential lessons for how we need to live our lives so that our children resist assimilation and stay Jewish. How does it work?

Before we even start Sukkot, we are already busy building it. There are two important lessons here. The first is that we place greater value on anything that we create, children especially. My son doesn’t like to eat, but he always eats whatever he makes because of all the energy he puts into making it. We love most the house that we build. We love our Sukkah before the holiday even begins because we made it with our own hands. This introduces the second lesson; we need to empower ourselves to create our own Jewish identity. There is no one way to be Jewish, by expressing my Jewishness in a way that is particular to me I ensure that it will remain meaningful and important to me. We are excited to live in the Sukkah we build, so too our children will only be willing to live a Judaism that they help to create.

The next thing is we live and eat in the Sukkah. The first lesson we learn from this is that our Judaism must be an active part of our lives. It is not enough to only engage our Judaism on Shabbat and holidays; we have to bring all parts of our lives into it. The second lesson is that we are going to have to live in the house we build. In the end, after one hundred twenty years in this world, we will all die. All of the things and accomplishments we have obtained will remain in this world, while our character, identity and acts of loving kindness pass to the next world. We need to concentrate on character and not achievements and build a house with love and respect as the foundation.

Finally, we have the Mitzvah of Lulav and Etrog. We combine four different plant parts -  palm, citron, myrtle and willow and wave them in the six directions. What does it mean? There are too many different explanations to list here (please join us in the Sukkah during Sukkot when I will speak about this). Waving the Lulav is us engaging in a purely symbolic act, this is the final lesson I wish to address now. Judaism gives us the symbols to mark our journey in this world with meaning. It is essential that we utilize our Jewish symbols. While their meaning might be debatable their significance is clear.

Sukkot is an amazing time of year and a great change to share the joy that we experience in Judaism to our children, family, and friends.

Shabbat Shalom and Hag Sameach!

Rabbi Yehoshua Ellis