The holiday of Sukkot begins a few days after Yom Kippur. Having atoned for transgressions, errors, and mistakes, the Jew, according to tradition, should immediately begin building a sukkah—a flimsy construction vulnerable to wind, rain, and, sometimes in Montreal, snow. The idea is to mobilize inner resources after a 25-hour fast before taking in food and drink.
Sukkot, the Festival of Booths, is the only one designated “the time of our joy.” One achieves this joy by leaving behind the possessions accumulated in a solid house under a reliable roof and settling for a week in a temporary, fragile hut. This conveys a message particularly relevant to our era of online shopping: real, durable happiness comes from enjoying relationships with loved ones, admiring nature, and finding time and serenity unencumbered by smartphone notifications. A dialogue between Jose Mujica and Noam Chomsky convincingly explicates this attitude, albeit without reference to Sukkot.
The Jewish dictum found in Pirke Avot stipulates: “Who is happy? The one who is content with what one has.” This is not a vow of poverty or a call to passivity and fatalism—hardly a Jewish ideal—but a reminder that one can attain happiness even with very little, in a brittle sukkah open to the vagaries of climate.
This brings to mind another flimsy construction that is part of Jewish ritual: the huppah, or nuptial canopy. The new couple enters a life together that may be as unstable and shaky as the huppah itself. The two must be ready to face difficulties, develop resilience, and show constancy and commitment, building a rock-solid home from under an uncertain, rickety canopy.
The sukkah is a commandment that one literally lives in with one’s entire body. If phylacteries are donned on the arm and the forehead, and if giving charity involves the hand, the sukkah is a holistic experience that envelops the entire person. The challenge, however, is to internalize this experience, not to leave it on the surface or limit its relevance to the seven days of Sukkot.
The concluding holiday of the season is Shemini Atzeret, the “eighth day of assembly.” Unlike Sukkot or Passover, it requires no specific ritual—no four species of plants or unleavened bread. One can internalize the Torah without external mediators, just as at Mount Sinai, where the entire community could imbibe the holy word directly, or almost directly, with only the help of Moses. This may be the reason that Shavuot, the Pentecost, which in rabbinic Judaism celebrates the giving of the Torah, is also devoid of specific ritual foods or objects.
Upon entering the sukkah, one should embrace the serenity of being, the gratitude of living, and a constancy of commitment to humility—a character trait that enables an intimate connection with God and with oneself.
Hag sameah!
