Rabbi Roodyn

I won’t be posting over chol hamoed, so here is one short idea for sukkos.

Wishing you a good yom tov

The word that the Torah uses for the Yomim Tovim is Moadim. The term Moed means ‘meeting place.’ Just like we have the ohel moed, which is a meeting point with Hashem in space, so too do we have meeting points with Hashem in time. The moadim of Tishrei are therefore replete with unique mitzvos and opportunities to connect to Hashem. The experience of performing this mitzvos ought to be transformative, but it is self-evident that the full power of the mitzvos is only realised if we invest time preparing for their performance.

Inspiration is crucial to our yiddishkeit and we are fortunate that our calendar and lifestyle provides us with plenty of opportunities for it. However, there is a well known fact of life that inspiration never lasts, we can have a flash, or a spiritual high one moment and forget about it moments later. Life is far more about perspiration and hard work than the inspiring moments that motivate us.

If we use them correctly, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are essentially days of inspiration. They are unusual days with unique mitzvos and a state of being that is peculiar to the Yomim Noroim. Put simply, we behave differently on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur than we do during the rest of the year. On those special days we are conscious of that fact that we are being judged, we are more conscious of our actions and more mindful in our tefillah. However the clarity that we achieve on Rosh Hashana in terms of our emunah and Yom Kippur in terms of our actions and conduct is liable to dissipate very quickly if we don’t do something about it.

That’s where Sukkos fits in to the picture. On Sukkos we live our lives as normal, we eat, we sleep, we schmooze, we relax as we would on any day, except that for one week we do all of this in the Sukkah. On Sukkos we take our day to day physical activities and bring them under the ‘shade of emunah’ of the schach. The flimsiness of the schach helps us realise that everything we do is really under Hashem’s protective and guiding Hand. We are not the masters of our destiny and out material acquisitions are not the source of our security. By uprooting ourselves and relocating to the Sukkah we are palpably demonstrating the idea that Hashem runs and controls the world and everything we do, no matter how mundane takes place in His presence.

Our job is to cultivate within ourselves a real sense of both emunah and bitachon as a result of having dwelt in the Sukkah for seven days.  The Sukkah therefore is the arena wthin which we transform the inspiration of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur into something practical. If we focus on these ideas, then we can emerge from the Sukkah after the chag is over, ready to face the long winter ahead.