Sukkot 3
/SUKKOT SHABBAT CHOL HAMOED
Sukkot is really
a very strange
and wonderful holiday
all at the same time.
In contrast to the solemnity and
spirituality of Yom Kippur,
Sukkot is joyful,
a very different spiritual pursuit.
Sukkot is very physical
with shaking the etrog and lulav.
In fact, the mitzvah of the
Sukkah itself is one of the only
mitzvot that you can do with
your whole body,
just placing your body in a
Sukkah is a mitzvah.
But why do we have the mitzvah
of the Sukkah?
The simple meaning is that it
commemorates the dwelling of
our ancestors in Sukkot when
they left Egypt.
But what is so significant about
commemorating camping?
After all,
it seems from the Torah that the
Jews lived mostly in tents in
their journey from Egypt to the
Promised Land.
Bilam the heathen prophet
blessed the Jews:
Ma tovu oholecha Yaakov,
“How goodly are your tents O
Jacob” (Num. 24:5);
tents—not huts.
The deeper meaning, is that
Sukkot are more than huts.
It’s a state of being.
Sukkot are about stopping dead
in our tracks
i.e. build and sit in a Sukkah and
take time out to appreciate what
just happened to you.
To emphasize this point with a
passage from the Torah that
most people do not pay
attention to.
It tell us that Sukkot happens to
be the name of the 1st place
where our ancestors camped out
following their exodus from
Egypt (Ex. 13:20).
Perhaps there they built Sukkot
so that they could absorb what
just happened to them in their
miraculous escape from the
tyranny of Egypt.
And so we move into Sukkot
after Yom Kippur to take time out
to absorb the changes and
promises we made on the High
Holy Days.
What’s the message here?
• How much time do we take to sit back and appreciate what we have received, compared to how much time we invest in pushing onward?
• How much more do we expect of our partners, compared to how much we consciously appreciate what they have done for us already?
• Or how much they mean to us, as it is?
The moment our ancestors were
liberated from Ramses,
• They no doubt became entirely
focused on the journey ahead.
• They no doubt asked, “ what’s
nexton the agenda?”
rather than
stay a few moments with the
enormous gift of having been
liberated from slavery.
• They were therefore instructed
to construct Sukkot and to
camp-out in these flimsy,
temporary huts, and take
in what they had just received.
Judaism refers to this as
hakaret hatov, “
recognition of the good.”
This is what Sukkot is really
about:
taking time to recognise
the gifts in our lives,
whether it be
our health,
our wealth,
our partners,
our children and so on.
It’s the time to be grateful for
being given another year and to
then stop and take stock and
appreciate life’s gifts.
Can we not acknowledge our life
gifts in a house or a tent ?
Why a sukkah?
Because it’s temporary,
built anew every time
just as our gratitude
and
appreciation should be fresh
every time
and not just the same-old,
same-old refrains.
There is a beautiful story called,
“The Curse of Blessings,”
It’s a story that can be life-changing if you can absorb its message:
There is an Officer of the Law,
recent graduate,
proud as you can imagine,
in his beautiful uniform.
He wore a sword with a gold and
ivory handle.
He was as pompous as arrogant as could be
One day he was walking in an
alley.
He ventured into the darkness,
and there, in the distance, saw a man in rags.
“Come forward,”
he commanded.
“Come forward now!”
But the man in rags did not come forward. “
I am an Officer of the Law, and I command you, come forward!”
The man in rags did not move and spoke,
“I don’t know what I’m going to
do with you.”
“Do with me?”
the Officer of the Law mocked.
“Do with me?
You don’t do with me!
I do with you!
I am an Officer of the Law,
and I command you to come
forward.”
“Now I know what to do with
you,”
the man in rags said,
and
as he spoke,
he drew his sword.
“Now I know what to do.”
Without further word he moved
to attack.
The Officer of the Law drew his
own sword in defense.
“Stop that!”
he ordered.
“Put your sword down right
now!”
But the man in rags did not stop.
The Officer of the Law had to fight back.
“Stop!”
he said again.
The Officer of the Law was forced to retreat.
When it seemed the man in rags would win, the Officer of the Law just intended to protect himself, however killed the man in rags.
“I didn’t mean that,”
the Officer of the Law said. “
I didn’t mean to hurt you.
Why didn’t you stop when I
ordered you to?
Why did you attack me?”
The man in rags waved the
words away.
“I am leaving you,” he said, “
and as I do, I put upon you the
Curse of Blessings.”
“What do you mean?”
asked the Officer of the Law,
now quite confused.
“The Curse of Blessings.
Every day you must say a new
blessing,
one you have never said before.
On the day you do not say a new blessing,
on that day you will die.”
The man in rags closed his eyes.
The Officer of the Law looked
about for help.
There was none to be found.
When he turned back,
the man in rags had
disappeared.
He was gone.
” It was a dream,”
the Officer of the Law thought.
“Only a dream. I imagined it.”
The time was late in the
afternoon.
The sun was setting.
As much as the Officer of the
Law tried to ignore his
experience, he could not.
The Jewish day ends with the
sunset.
The Officer of the Law felt his
body growing cold and knew
from the chill that his life was
leaving him.
In a panic,
he uttered these words of
blessing:
“You are blessed, Lrd our Gd,
ruler of the universe,
who has created such a
beautiful sunset.”
At once warmth and life flowed
back into him.
He realised, with both shock
and relief,
the curse had been for real.
The next morning,
He woke with words of blessing.
“You are blessed that You
allowed me to wake up this
morning.”
His life felt secure the entire
day.
The next morning he blessed his
ability to rise from his bed
the following day that he could
tie his shoes.
Day after day he found abilities he
could bless.
• That he could go to the bathroom,
• that he had teeth to brush,
• that each finger of his hands still
worked,
• that he had toes on his feet and hair on his head.
• He blessed his clothes, every
garment.
• He blessed his house,
the roof
the floor,
his furniture,
every table and chair.
At last he ran out of things to
bless,
so he began to bless relationships.
• He blessed his family and
friends,
fellow workers,
and those who worked for him.
• He blessed the mailman and the
clerks.
He was surprised to find they
appreciated the blessings.
His words had power.
They drew family and friends
closer to him.
Word went out that the Officer of
the Law
was a source of blessing.
Years passed, decades passed!
The Officer of the Law found new
sources of blessing.
• He blessed
city councils and
university buildings,
scientistes and their discoveries.
He passed the age of 100.
Most of his friends were long
gone.
As he approached the age of 120,
he considered that his life was
long enough.
Even Moses had not lived longer.
On his birthday he made a
conscious decision not to say any
new Blessing and allow his life to
come to an end.
As the sun was setting,
a chill progressed inward from his
extremities.
He did not resist it.
In the twilight a figure appeared,
the man in rags.
“You!” the Officer of the Law
exclaimed.
“I have thought about you every
day for a hundred years!
I never meant to harm you.
Please, forgive me.”
“You don’t understand,”
said the man in rags.
“You don’t know who I am, do
you?
I am the angel who was sent 100
years ago to harvest your soul, but
when I looked at you, so pompous
and proud,
there was nothing there to harvest.
An empty uniform was all I saw.
So I put upon you
the Curse of Blessings,
and now look wat you’ve
become!”
Overwhelmed,
the Officer of the Law said,
“You are blessed, my Gd, ruler of
the universe, that You have kept
me alive and sustained me so I
could attain this moment.”
“Now look what you've done!”
the man in rags said in frustration.
“A new blessing!”
Life flowed back into the Officer of the Law,
and he and the man in rags
looked to each other,
neither of them knowing quite
what to do.
My friends,
like the Officer of the Law
was forced to recite blessing after
blessing
A lifetime of blessings
Sukkot commands us to recite
blessing after blessing
over the Sukkah,
the etrog,
the lulav,
the myrtle
and the willow.
Just like the Officer of the Law
could not stop saying blessings
even when his life was ending
So too may we absorb the gift of
another year and the message of
Sukkot,
which is,
to not stop saying blessings when
Sukkot is over.
Amen!
Best Regards
Jean-Pierre FETTMANN