My wife’s family has been spending the Holiday of Sukkot with us. They live in California. My three nieces and nephew have been amazed at how people deal with what they perceive as the rapid changes in the weather. Sun and Rain, single digits overnight to low 20’s during the day; wind and calm; and all that might occur within a twenty-four hour period of time let alone a week. They watch us in amusement as we take tables and chairs in out of Sukkah in order to prevent the furniture from getting wet. Most of all they are impressed that whatever the weather may be, everyone quickly adjusts and continues doing whatever it is they were doing. A little drizzle doesn’t stop us from eating in the sukkah or prevent us from walking to wherever it is we are walking. We don’t just stay indoors and stop whatever we are doing. Also, if the weather is beautiful or even not so beautiful, we tell our children to go outside and play or plan some kind of activity outdoors knowing what we will be “hibernating” in a few months. We have all noted the irony of the weather. We can control our preparation for Yom Tov. We can control ourselves, and how we express our joy and happiness during Sukkot. We can control many things that enhance our Sukkot experience. But we all have limits to the extent of that control.
Among the most spiritually difficult texts is the Sefer Kohelet the book of Ecclesiastes. We read it in its entirety once a year on Shabbat Chol HaMoed Sukkot, the Intermediate Sabbath of Sukkot. According to the tradition, Shlomo HaMelech, King Solomon, towards the end of his life, wrote this Megillah, this scroll. Tradition has this perspective because the language is not one of optimism but rather realism. This is a person who as “seen it all” – Ein Kol Chadash Tachat HaShemesh – There is nothing new under the sun! And yet there is a certain harsh realism and a certain sense of harsh optimism. The author provides us with a no holds barred sense of comfort. He does not coddle us. He does not baby us. Rather the author shoves our faces in this “reality” and gives us a perspective on how to deal with a world that is not as wonderful a place as we might have thought of in our youth, or even a few weeks ago. The question that so many of our sages have asked, is why is such a text, a text that does not offer such explicit hope, a text that does not offer explicit comfort, and is universally recognized as a “downer” of a text, why is such a text read on the holiday that is commonly regarded as Zman Simchateinu – the time of our joy?
In Eretz Yisroel, the Autumn Harvest is complete. We unabashedly celebrate our joy on a physical level because of a successful harvest. We also unabashedly celebrate our joy for having been judged favorably by God, (Rosh HaShanah), having been the recipients of God’s mercy (Yom Kippur). On Sukkot, we are commanded to Samachta b’Chagecha – celebrate in your holiday. Yet this text tempers our celebration. While the nature of the Sukkot holiday is to celebrate our unrestrained joy in receiving God’s blessing, we also know that very often it is human nature to forget God and celebrate our achievements and ourselves. Kohelet reminds us that, like the fragile nature of the Sukkah itself, not everything is as much in our control as we think. V’Zerach HaShemesh U’Vah HaShemesh – the sun rises and the sun sets- no matter what we do, no matter how much control we may perceive that we have, at the end of the day, we are ultimately powerless. God is the ultimate cause of all things. The sun rises and sets because of God, not mankind. Kohelet helps us maintain our perspective. Kohelet reminds us that we are not the center of the world. Kohelet reminds us that for all the physical pleasures we seek, for the all the material comforts we work hard to afford, such things are fleeting.
So how can such a text offer us comfort? Well if we have the perspective of Kohelet, then we can understand how an elderly person, who has seen everything: man’s goodness, man’s evil, the joy of life and the futility of life, offers us comfort. With control comes responsibility. With power comes responsibility. Kohelet teaches us that we should celebrate the fact that we have so little control. Kohelet teaches us that we should derive joy from the fact that we don’t need to worry about the sunrise or the sunset. We shouldn’t be so terribly joyous when life comes into the world or upset when life leaves the world. Intellectually speaking, life and death are not within our control. Living our life is within our control. Living the best possible life is within our control. Living a life that has spiritual meaning and the acquisition of wisdom is the crux of our existence, the purpose of our living. So our Los Angeles nephew and nieces learned to appreciate a 12 degree sunny few hours because the rains came, the weather grew colder and they had to go inside. They began to appreciate that they couldn’t control the weather, only how to plan and respond. Interestingly enough, they definitely appreciated the weather in Los Angeles because they didn’t have to worry about such changes in the weather over the course of a day.
Peace,
Rav Yitz
