“Ufros aleinu sukkah sh’lomecha” – “Spread over us a shelter of Your peace”
194,467 people will sleep on American streets tonight. As we spend time in our sukkah this week, I’m reminded of the vulnerability we all face in the world right now. We have always been subject to weather events that may drive us from our homes, but more so now than ever there are extreme storms, fires, and destruction. Many have lost their income due to the pandemic and have been evicted from their homes or are living without electricity and water.
2020 has been a year when we are all living in a sukkah of some kind. Our laws and rights have begun unraveling and we are as unsure as never before. The world feels a lot less safe and more fragile to me.
I read recently about someone who sleeps every night in a small tent behind a convenience store. I can’t get that image to depart from my mind, nor do I want to. As we come upon the one-year marker of living in our new home with all its rooms and conveniences, alarm system, sound and weather insulation, surrounded by love, he sleeps without any of those. I am not as comfortable as I could be, knowing that he and so many others are outside in the elements, unsettled and alone.
We cannot invite friends into our sukkah this year, but the three of us have enjoyed lunches and dinners inside our lovely sukkah. I looked up to the sky, realizing that my life is finite and fragile. Am I doing all that I can to make our world better? How can I help bring justice, equality, and oneness to my fellow humans and help them overcome the many challenges we all face?
A sukkah is temporary and exposed to the elements. So too are we fragile… exposed to anti-Semitism, racism, persecution, violence, extremism of all kinds. We are vulnerable, overwhelmed, often hopeless.
Being in the sukkah is meant to remind us that we are fragile, but also resilient and divinely protected. Our human life is a gift. Our bodies are temporary housing for our souls and we are here for some purpose. We cannot overlook our fragility and vulnerability, but we must appreciate the gift of life for the opportunity it offers.
If any of my fellow humans are suffering, I am suffering as well. How can I help create something new and better out of this current situation?
Rob Bell writes in Everything is Spiritual, “The universe has been expanding for thirteen billion years, and it never stops inviting us to expand right along with it. Everything that comes our way, then, is another invitation to grow. The YES responses, the NO responses. The meltdowns, the injustices, the wrongs— all of it. Success, failure. Acceptance, rejection. There’s something lurking in all of it. An invitation in all of it. The universe is rigged in favor of our growth.“
A main theme of the holiday of Sukkot is oneness. We are to gather four specific things from nature that represent different types of people as well as different aspects within ourselves. As we unite them and acknowledge the spirit and wholeness that is everything and everywhere, we are also acknowledging that we need each other and we need all aspects of our own temperaments. There is a balance to everything. Hello Mussar!
The Jewish calendar has given us so many opportunities for healing and growth! Rosh Hashanah was a renewal; Yom Kippur a time for humility and self-reflection. Sukkot is a time to recognize our many blessings and also to remember that we are strongly linked to those who do not have enough.
For everything there is a season,
and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
He has made everything beautiful in its time; also the [wisdom of the world He put into their hearts, save that man should not find the deed which God did, from beginning to end.
I knew that there is nothing better for them but to rejoice and to do good during his lifetime.
And so, every man who eats and drinks and enjoys what is good in all his toil, it is a gift of God.
~ Kohelet/Ecclesiastes 3
