October 2003 - תִּשְּׁרֵי .. חֶשְׁוָן תשס״ד Tishrei..Cheshvan 5764

Gemar Hatimah tovah! May you be sealed for a happy and healthy new year! Friday evening, October 10, is the beginning of Sukkot this year. Sukkot is a time of thanksgiving and reflection. We are especially thankful to be living in a land of agricultural bounty, where we all have (or should have) enough to eat, security and potential. Sukkot is also a time to remember that we were slaves in Egypt and before we could enter the Land of Milk and Honey, we had to wander for many years in the desert. During our wandering we dwelt in simple movable huts called sukkot. Wind, sand storms and flash floods made our lives difficult and our homes constantly in danger of being destroyed. From this humble beginning, we gorged a nation under the leadership of Moses, Miriam, Aaron and Joshua, and by following the rule of law from the Torah. Today our lives are either in the Promised Land or in the desert approaching the Promised Land.

Wherever we are in our personal journeys, we are dwelling in sukkot, fragile and temporary shelters. We may be living as the financially successful, or we may be living a modest life-style; we may be healthy or recovering from illness; we may be surrounded by friends and family or we may be alone, but all of us are just one lottery ticket or one flash flood from a reversal of fortune. But none of this defines meaning for our lives. Meaning must come from within. Meaning can come from our glorious Jewish traditions.

Sukkot is a time for giving thanks. When we pause to thank God for the many gifts that fill our lives, our lives become a little richer. We thank God for food by reciting the appropriate blessings, but how do we thank God for family love or devoted friendship? We thank God in a minyan at the synagogue, but when we are on our own, how do we find the words to express our appreciation?

In the Jewish tradition words are never enough, our thanks and our praise must be accompanied by actions. It is not enough to thank God for the bounty on our plates, we must make sure no plate begins an empty meal.

When we come to the synagogue to thank God on the holiday of Sukkot, we should all bring cans of food, and boxes of pasta, toiletries and new clothes to distribute to the poor in our community. (Socks are an especially thoughtful donation to the homeless and destitute.) When we leave the security of our warm and dry homes to dwell in the temporary sukkah for eight days, we should all be thinking about the people around the world whose homes have been bombed away, about the people who have no shelter at all. When we look up at the stars through the branches that make up the roof of the sukkah, let us all to dare of a dream of a world free from hate, war, famine, and disease. And then we make a commitment to inspire ourselves, other peoples and our government to make this dream a reality. As a once popular Israeli song said: “You and I will change the world. Even if they said this before me, it does not matter; you and I will change the world.”

Chag Sukkot samayach! May you have a happy and meaningful Sukkot!

—Rabbi Harry A. Manhoff, Ph.D.

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