Sukkot
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Being both a Stranger and a Resident
וְהָאָרֶץ, לֹא תִמָּכֵר לִצְמִתֻת--כִּי-לִי, הָאָרֶץ: כִּי-גֵרִים וְתוֹשָׁבִים אַתֶּם, עִמָּדִי “You are strangers (gerim) and residents (toshavim) with Me.” (Leviticus 25:23) The Hassidic master the Maggid of Dubnov asks, How can God refer to Bnai Yisrael simultaneously as “stranger” and as “resident”? He answers that we live in this friction, this paradox. That when we have that balance of success with humility, conviction with curiosity, both the feeling of resident and stranger, that is when God "will dwell among you” וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם. (Exodus 25:8) |
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The Lulav as a Metaphor of Humility
The lulav represents the dignity of man, flexibility, because, while human beings must have dignity, an intelligent, moral religiosity, our dignity must not degenerate to stubbornness, a blind literalism of 'pious resolution.' And at the same time, the beauty of the lulav is that it has a remarkable resilience. It learns how to bend. It understands the meaning of making concession. |
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The Pleasure of Self Sufficiency
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A Technology for Humility
The focus on Sukkot, Chag HaAsif, the Festival of Harvesting, is about personal productivity and achievement: maasei yadai – “all that you have made with your own hands.” It is about the pleasure of ownership. Of self-sufficiency. And yet, the text in Leviticus that talks about Sukkot, also talks about a nomadic desert society, dor hamidbar, wandering refugees from Egypt, in a co-dependent relationship with God, receiving manna from the heavens in return for an undying devotion to the One God... READ MORE |
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Taking Ownership of Life
According to the Talmud, you cannot build a Sukkah directly under a tree as the tree is already established. Already accomplished. And not with your own hands. By your own effort. The mitzvah of building a Sukkah must be Talush, meaning, in the creation, in the doing, in the transforming, in the building, in the human physical effort... READ MORE |
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Living in the Friction of Being both the Stranger and the Resident
This is Sukkot as a social technology, a ritual, to assure humility. By leaving the comforts of our homes in order to sit in the desert dwellings of landless refugees, there is an induced recognition, a reaffirmation, that "only through the power and strength of God does our bounty flow." (Rabbi Riskin) And at the same time, we embrace our human sovereignty. A control of our own destinies rather than slaves to one that is fated, predetermined. A "Covenant of Destiny" as described by Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, where the Jewish people take control of events themselves, going from passive players to active players in their history... READ MORE |