c. 2000 Religion News Service
(Rabbi Rudin is the senior interreligious adviser of the American Jewish Committee.)
(UNDATED) The Jewish High Holidays of Rosh Hashana (New Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) demand intense introspection including a full day of fasting, and hours of prayer in the synagogue. The two holidays require profound spiritual probing, especially into a person’s ethical miscues, lost opportunities to express love, and sins of both omission and commission.
For me, these efforts are akin to undertaking a personal deep-sea diving expedition. Each year I temporarily leave the “real world” on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur and go deep within myself to focus on my spiritual state. Like a professional diver, I carefully tread through the murky areas that lie far beneath the surface of my life.
It is exceedingly hard work and, unfortunately, it does not become easier with each passing year. Growing older does not make us more ethical or compassionate. Because each of us plays many different roles within our families and among our friends and colleagues, the litany of errors, misjudgments and, yes, sins is always a long one.
But once the sun sets on Yom Kippur, I eagerly look forward to a special treat: the joyous eight-day biblical festival of Sukkot, or Tabernacles, that begins this year on Friday evening, Oct. 13. Five days after the conclusion of the solemn and sobering High Holidays, the liturgy bursts forth with an upbeat holiday filled with glorious hymns to nature and the erection of colorful tabernacles richly decorated with fruits of the earth and leaves of the fall foliage.
Thousands of years ago Sukkot originated in the land of Israel as an autumn harvest. During harvest time, farmers lived in their fields inside small lean-tos, or Sukkot. Once the fruits and vegetables were collected, the huts were taken down until the next year.
However, following the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt, the custom of dwelling in makeshift tabernacles became a primary symbol of the 40 years the slaves were forced to wander in the Sinai wilderness before they entered the Promised Land.
The Hebrew term Sukkot comes from the verb “to cover.” The hut, even a small one, must provide cover and shade for people. Traditional Jews throughout the world erect Sukkot and eat some holiday meals inside the huts.
Usually Sukkot appear in back yards of houses or within synagogues, but because many Jews today live in urban areas, Sukkot increasingly are set up on rooftops of apartment houses and even office buildings. Besides the fruits and flowers, the huts are usually decorated with pictures of Jerusalem and other holy cities of Judaism.
Eating a meal or saying prayers in a frail, temporary structure is a tangible way to become linked with the ancient farmers and the wandering slaves. As every good pedagogue knows, words alone, even prayers, are not sufficient to transform abstract ideas into realities. Specific physical actions are necessary, and that is why Sukkot, or huts, are used each year.
In recent decades a new meaning has been added to the holiday: respect and care for the Earth’s fragile environment.
It’s frequently forgotten the Hebrew Bible is basically the record of an agrarian people living in the land of Israel. That is why the divine Scriptural promises specifically include the gifts of bumper harvests, adequate rain, tender dew, warm sunlight, fertile fields, and verdant trees and vines. Vivid descriptions of almonds, figs, grapes, flowers, pomegranates and olives fill the pages of the Bible, and the virtues of farmers and vineyard keepers are extolled. The prophet Micah wrote: “And people shall sit under their vine and under their fig tree, and none shall make them afraid.”
The bright side of Sukkot was often downplayed during the bleak centuries when Jews were forced to live in dank, dirty ghettos in either Christian Europe or Islamic North Africa and the Middle East. Living in wretched, segregated areas behind closed gates and high walls inhibited Jews of yesteryear from fully entering into the agricultural side of Sukkot.
Happily, this grim situation has radically changed. Modern Israelis have re-energized the holiday of Sukkot in the land of its origins and during the holiday the Jewish nation is filled with Sukkot on its farms and within its cities. Many American Jews embrace the holiday’s emphasis on nature’s God and the extraordinary gifts of soil, air, seed and water.
In many ways the Bible is a “Green Book” and the fall harvest festival of Sukkot is a “Green Holiday.” Once again the teachings of an ancient holiday resonate with contemporary issues and concerns.
DEA END RUDIN
