Sukkot Edition 5785: A Perspective on Life

GOOD MORNING! This week begins the holiday of Sukkot! This very special holiday begins Wednesday evening, October 16th and ends on Wednesday, October 23rd. Immediately adjacent to it is the holiday of Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah – which begins Wednesday night and, when outside the land of Israel, is celebrated for two days (Thursday and Friday).

This year, the first two days of the Sukkot and the two days of Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah are immediately followed by Shabbat, which in and of itself is a special time. Thus, these ten days are an incredibly unique opportunity to go from celebration to celebration to celebration. Given the state of the world, it could not come at a better time – as we all could use a brief respite from dangerous world events and crazy weather patterns.

The holiday's name is derived from the Torah mandated obligation to live in a “sukkah” – a temporary outdoor hut – which symbolizes that the Almighty sheltered the Jewish people when they left Egypt:

“So that your future generations will know that I sheltered the Children of Israel when I brought them out of Egypt” (Leviticus 23:43).

The wordsukkah comes from the materials that we use as a temporary roof to cover these huts called schach – which means to shelter. We are enjoined to live the seven days of Sukkot in our sukkah; we are obligated to eat our meals, sleep, and generally spend as much time in it as possible.

Sukkot is celebrated as a harvest festival; a time when we look at all the “fruits” of our labors. In other words, it is the time of year when we step back and appreciate all that we have achieved through our hard work. But it is also a time to appreciate all the good that the Almighty has bestowed upon us.

It is no coincidence that farmers – people who work the earth – are amongst the most religious of people, trusting in the benevolence of the Almighty. They take a perfectly good – often edible – seed and they stick it in the ground not knowing whether there will be rain, drought, floods, or pestilence. They put forth arduous work not knowing the outcome. They trust in the Almighty for their food and their very existence.

The mitzvah of dwelling in the sukkah teaches us that our lives are totally intertwined with God. We often lose sight of this key element of our existence. We tend to think that our possessions, our money, our homes, our intelligence, etc. will protect us. But during the holiday of Sukkot we are exposed to the elements in a temporary hut. Living in a sukkah puts life into perspective. Our corporeal bodies are even more transient than our possessions.

Life is vulnerable. Jewish history has borne out how our homes and communities are fleeting. No matter how well-established, wealthy, and “secure” we have become in a host country, in the end it too has been a temporary dwelling. Our trust must be in the Almighty who sheltered us when He took us out of Egypt and continues to do so every day of our lives.

Aside from the mitzvah of eating and sleeping in a sukkah, we have another unique mitzvah on the holiday of Sukkot. The Torah informs us in Leviticus 23:40 of a special commandment for Sukkot -- to take the Arba Minim – the Four Species. The four distinct species that we are commanded to take are 1) etrog – citron, 2) lulav – a branch from a date-palm, 3) hadassim – myrtle branches, and 4) aravot – willow branches.

Being a harvest festival, it is only natural that we collect different things that grow and incorporate them into our prayer services for this holiday. In the prayer section known as Hallel we gather these four species in our hands and wave them in the four directions of the compass as well as up and down. The waving is symbolic of several things, including a reminder that the Almighty’s presence is everywhere.

I am reminded of a funny story that is also quite topical. Anyone who has ever shopped for a set of Arba Minim knows that they can range in price from fairly reasonable ($25-$30) to outrageously expensive (sometimes in the many thousands of dollars). The main driver of the difference in the cost of the Four Species is, in general, due to the rarity of the citron.

A citran is one of the original varieties of citrus fruits. By contrast, the common lemon is a hybrid fruit. Lemons were bred to produce a citrus fruit with a smooth and thin rind, an abundance of interior fruit and an astringent flavor. Citrons have a thick and bumpy rind that is susceptible to all sorts of blemishes and have far less fruit within. Citrons also have a milder flavor than lemons. For this reason, many of the original citron varieties were grafted to produce a superior fruit.

Since the Torah mandates that a citron be used for the mitzvah of the Four Species, obtaining a graft-free citron is required. Thus, the provenance of the etrog has to be carefully documented. In addition, the Torah stipulates that the etrog must be particularly beautiful – thus it has to be blemish free, of a particular shape and color, etc. All these details can drive the price of the set of Four Species through the roof.

A friend of mine who prided himself on being able to snag bargains decided he would wait until the final day before the holiday to acquire his set of Arba Minim. In the closing minutes of the day, he went into his local Judaica store to negotiate a purchase. Seeing that there were many, many different citrons still available he calculated that store proprietor would give him an absolute bargain in order to not get stuck with them once the holiday began and they became “unsellable.”

He sauntered over to the table with the most expensive citrons, where the prices began at $100 each. He picked up the nicest one and told the shop owner he’d be willing to pay $20 for it. But the storekeeper was not having it. He told him that the best he was willing to do was $80. My friend argued for a full 15 minutes, pointing out that the holiday would begin in a couple of hours and at that point they wouldn’t be worth anything. But the shop owner held his ground. My friend was forced to pay $80 for it, but was somewhat consoled by the fact that he had managed to get 20% off the retail price. He collected the rest of the Four Species and started to head out the door.

As my friend was leaving an elderly Chinese woman entered the store and gestures at the tables of citrons. “How much for the lemons?” she asked the storekeeper. He looked at her, and without blinking he said, “They’re two for a dollar.”

There is an enormous lesson here. Almost every “thing” in life has no innate value – the real value is only what we assign to it. All the money, gold, and precious jewels in the world are absolutely valueless on a far-flung desert island with only one inhabitant and no commercial trade. The only “things” of true value are things that cannot be purchased – things like time, health, and relationships.

We must recognize that wealth is only a tool, one that we must utilize to improve certain aspects of our lives. Wealth is only a means to an end, not an end unto itself. Only the most foolish of people would waste the precious commodities of time and real relationships to acquire and collect vast sums of wealth that they will never even be able to spend.

This is the message of the holiday of Sukkot. It takes place during the season of the gathering of all our produce – a payday of sorts. Yet we are commanded to move into a temporary dwelling – one that represents the temporary and transient nature of both our lives and our world. According to our sages, the sukkah represents the sheltering embrace of the Almighty. We are made to recognize that the true purpose of our lives is to connect to the Almighty and live by His eternal value system.

When the baseline for happiness in our lives isn’t measured in terms of wealth acquisition, but rather by acquiring and maintaining a relationship with the Almighty, our loved ones, and living true Torah lives – we can then begin to appreciate all that we have, not what we do not.

In this way we are given the opportunity to focus on all the blessings in our lives. We should all try to internalize how fortunate we are to be living at a time that our ancestors could not even begin to imagine. The overall peace and tranquility we have experienced for the majority of our lives, not to mention the creature comforts and personal power that we take for granted, far exceeds anything previous generations might have ever thought possible.

It is for this reason that we read the book of Kohelet – Ecclesiastics – on the Shabbat of Sukkot. A major theme of Kohelet is the futility of mundane pursuits and pleasures, and the search for deeper meaning to life. Kohelet jars us from our contentment with the reminder that mundane accomplishments are fleeting and empty. Even at the close of the harvest, we must seek real achievement and fulfillment.

There is perhaps no greater reminder of the unpredictability of life than what took place on Simchat Torah of last year – the horrors of October 7th. Because Simchat Torah takes place next week, immediately following the holiday of Sukkot, I feel that it is improper to let the first anniversary pass without mentioning it. I have written about this tragic day – and what lessons we ought to learn from it – a few times previously, so I will not belabor those points again here.

But we MUST make a point of internalizing the events of that horrific day and what it says about the nature of our world. As we see in the book of Kohelet – life itself is dangerous and fragile. It is therefore doubly important to appreciate what we have when we have it – and be thankful to the Almighty for all the blessings in our lives.