Why We Build Sukkot

Sukkot 5772
October 15, 2011

As a rabbinical school student as well as a Davidson student I had the opportunity of taking part in an education practicum, an internship of sorts. The responsibilities of interns vary from location to location however what is most important is that when needed you help out in any way possible. One week, right around Sukkot, a particular teacher was absent, a sub could not be found and so I was asked to teach the Gan class. So there I went, to teach a group of very precocious 5 year olds in mid-town Manhattan. Being unsure of what the students had already covered on Sukkot, if anything at all, I asked what holiday was upcoming and sure enough they all said Sukkot. I asked what are Sukkot and once again a hand shot up an exclaimed “tents”. Needless to say I thought I was off to a great start. We even took the students out to the synagogue’s sukkah so they could see it for themselves and be encompassed by it. When we got back to the classroom one of the students raised her hand and proclaimed that she goes camping with her family in the summer and sometimes even in the spring, so why would I (everyone know I plan the Jewish Calendar) plan a camping holiday in the fall, when its so cold. I tried to explain the different views on why we build Sukkot however each answer seemed less satisfactory then the one before…not only to the student, but to myself as well.

The question the student asked stuck with me and so I sought to find an answer that would both satisfy the student at the Hebrew School as well as the student in me.

We must admit that Sukkot is a strange holiday. Logic would clearly dictate that now would be the time when we come in from the cold, not a time for us to go out and live with the elements. Yet that is exactly what we are told to do. The liturgy refers to Sukkot as z’man simhatenu or the season of our joy and the Tanakh calls it chag he’asif a harvest festival. Yet that is not what our society is comprised of anymore. We are a society steeped in technology, rooted in capitalism (for good or bad), for those of us sitting here today I would argue that we are many things but we are not an agricultural society. Furthermore we are told that we must have an assortment of plants, known as the arba minim in order to represent growth in this new season, yet once again these are objects that we are unfamiliar within our day-to-day lives. It would seem at first glance that Sukkot is a holiday that in truth has little significance to us today. However, it is because of its apparent insignificance that the holiday is so incredibly significant to Jews living all over the world.

A number of years ago I read a sermon by Rabbi Norman Lamm in which he points out that the significance of Sukkot lies in the fact that “the sukkah is a symbol of galut (exile).” Why Galut, because the time in which our ancestors were commanded to build sukkot, they were neither in Egypt where they were born, nor were they in Israel, rather they were smack in the middle of the Sinai desert. Furthermore, the Talmud teaches us that we are supposed to leave our permanent homes and enter our sukkot, a temporary dwelling. This – as Rabbi Lamm points out – is the nature of being in exile. You are told to leave that which you know and feel comfortable to go live in a place that is wholly different from that which you are accustomed. The sukkah itself becomes the space for which we observe the holiday, a space that can be created anywhere. Or in more direct terms the Sukkah is our SCCUBA gear for the diaspora. It is, in essence our Self Contained Jewish Living Apparatus. For a sukkah can be built on both a boat and train (by the way, if you get a chance after chag to Google “Sukkah on a boat” the images will not disappoint). And so what is the point of Sukkot? According to Rabbi Lamm, and I most assuredly agree, Sukkot “teaches Jews how to live in the exile – and thus how to survive”!

For so long assimilation was seen as something good. As Jews we needed, in fact we wanted, to become part of the fabric of whatever country we lived in. A noble goal, however it becomes much trickier when the goal is to on one hand become part of society at large, while on the other hand staying true to our religion, our culture, and our history. However, it would seem that Jews have always known how to live in the Diaspora. The fact that we have two different Talmudic traditions is one example of how throughout our history we have always found a way integrate our Jewish identity while living in a foreign land. In short, our ancestors were exemplifying the lesson of Sukkot. That in order to survive culturally and religiously you must make for yourself a temporary dwelling within society at large or else you will become extinct according to the Prophet Zechariah as we read in this week’s Haftorah. Interestingly enough, this result will not just affect the Israelites but other nations as well. Those who do not observe Sukkot and as such do not learn the essential lesson of Sukkot will not survive in a world not their own.

So, why do we observe Sukkot? Because it is a microcosm of how we as Jews live our lives in the diaspora. The lesson is that we can be Jewish anywhere, we just need our metaphorical sukkah, our link to the past. Interestingly, the sukkah is not to be built in a manner that is impervious to the elements; on the contrary, it is supposed to be permeable. The rain should be able to get through the roof, just as secular life is able to penetrate our Jewish lives.

I believe it is this lesson that is the foundation of the Jewish education and more specifically the Jewish camping movement. The idea that we can give our teens a “Sukkot” like experience over the summer, that we can create an environment that teaches our teens how to survive culturally, spiritually and religiously in the Diaspora is quite possibly the most important legacy we can and should leave behind.

The answer to the question for which the student posed to me this week is a good one. A question for which I feel she may not be prepared for the answer, especially if it takes 4 pages. However I believe the answer is one that she will come to agree with over time, for if we are to truly live in a world with competing forces. Our religious and cultural convictions on one side and our secular framework on the other, then we will surely always need the protection of our sukkot to shelter us along the way. 

Shabbat Shalom