| Shabbat Shalom and Happy What-Day-Is-It-Today, Anyway?
Whew! It’s been a whirlwind of High Holidays and Shabbos in the middle, and here we are with one more delightful moment of Shabbos bliss before we are back in holiday mood. Before we succumb to the overwhelm of going on and off holiday mode, I want to invite us all to take a deep breath and soak in the gorgeousness.
Sukkos, which begins on Sunday night, is a long-time favorite holiday of mine, and with it comes the “Season of our Joy”, a week-long festival called the “Rejoicing of the House of the Water-Drawing”, and a commandment to b – “ach sameach” – only happy!
Yet I remember the burden I used to feel around the Jewish holidays as a young twentysomething, working hard in the corporate world and balancing all that with full-time university studies at night. When the month of Tishri rolled around, I was filled with anxiety over all the work I couldn’t get done, shame over the side comments mad by coworkers about how much time I was taking off, and angst about being in the middle of it all. Going home was a ton of work – cooking, cleaning, hosting, going to synagogue – and I couldn’t quite explain to my coworkers the dynamics of it all. I would tell them, “Oh, it’s not like I’m having a fun time off. I’m so busy, it’s stressful!” and at home, all I could do was bemoan the work I was missing. I'll never forget leaving celebrations early on Simchas Torah to go home and study for a business strategy exam, and spending that night working from the moment of Havdalah to hand in a paper due at midnight. There was the Tishrei, I worked every Sunday to make up for the Mondays and Tuesdays, and overall, there was so much grief. So much complaining. So little actual presence
It was hard to sit back and relax and enjoy a holiday that felt like a burden, missing out on the work that I was committed to doing. And it was hard to express any joy to my colleagues when that was the feeling. So I sat there, and for years, I feel that I never quite gave Yontif the honor and appreciation she deserved.
Moving forward in life, I learned to love and appreciate and give Sukkos all the credit she is due – sometimes too much. I had holidays where I struggled to find a place to be, a sukkah that was open and warm and welcoming, where I could sing and dance to my hearts’ content. I thought about how the Sukkah is supposed to resemble the Clouds of Glory – the Divine Protection given to the Israelite people on their way out of Egypt, and how to me, sometimes, the Sukkah feels more vulnerable than anywhere else.
The Sukkah is a place where we are open to the elements, harsh or harmonious as they might be. We might get a rainstorm, a ton of sun, or a glorious afternoon in the perfect spring or fall weather. (Yes, in Australia Sukkos is in the spring!). We are completely vulnerable, at the mercy of nature; and yet we are also protected, with the Divine Presence hovering above us, holding us in Her soft embrace with the sweet green s’chach shading us above.
In my years of searching for and praying for a good sukkah, and finding the perfect places to be, I often wonder if this is a paradigm of how we are in our searching for the Divine to protect us in our lives. Our own spiritual journeys are a little like the demands placed on us between living in a linear world, and being open to the roller coaster ride that is Divine alignment.
In some ways, like my old corporate workplace dilemmas, we are ashamed, embarrassed to spend so much time chasing that shelter of the Divine. We feel like we’re missing out on the stability of living in a world that is logical and orderly and might make a lot of demands on us, but at least it’s predictable. We don’t necessarily enjoy all that time in Search of Divine Alignment – it feels exhausting, there are high prices to pay, and sometimes we are running around so much to create the ritual or the prayer that we forget to actually be present inside of it.
Like the Sukkah, we have a choice between being indoors, in the security of a permanent dwelling that sometimes holds us back from being all who we can become; or we can choose to expand, to go outside, and to be vulnerable to the elements and also – open to receive the Divine embrace.
The sukkah is a celebration of impermanence, of trust, of opening ourselves up to that Divine guidance. It’s a place that we cultivate a sense of presence, of learning what it is to tune in and to be with ourselves, with nature, and with God.
I want to bless us that we can spend this Sukkos riding the wave of that tension; learning to be present with our families, in our celebrations, and in our Sukkah. Don’t forget to check the schedule for a fabulous lineup of Sukkos events, and I’m grateful to invite you all to join me in my own Sukkah on Tuesday afternoon for singing (and some soup!). Drop in whenever you can between 3.30 – 5.30pm!
I look forward to seeing you and greeting you under the shelter of the Shechinah, the Divine Presence, as we exercise our powers of presence together.
With blessings for a good Shabbos, a good Yom Tov, and – as my aunt’s neighbor used to say – a Merry Sukkos!
Reb Rishe |
Affiliated with United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism