Every year at this time my
son and I get to bond while we assemble our Sukkah. As he grows older he is
able to help in a more constructive manner than just sitting and talking. While
we were putting the Sukkah together he shared with me something he learned in
school. He exclaimed that one of the commandments associated with Sukkot is to
be happy. He thought that this is a very difficult commandment to follow, at
least compared to the other commandments associated with Sukkot, such a eating
in the Sukkah and waving the Lulav and Etrog. He then asked a very poignant
question. “Abba how can you be commanded to ‘be happy’ if you in mourning?” I
asked him what he meant. He explained that since his Zeidy (my Grandfather) died at the end of
August and the whole family has been sad since then, and we are still in the
year of mourning, how can we be happy?” I stopped what I was doing and told him
that I wonder the same thing. It is hard to be happy when you have suffered a
loss. How do we do resolve the tension between how we feel due to a loss and
the feeling associated with Chag Sukkot?
Among
the most spiritually difficult and often perceived as harsh 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 seems to diminish 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. Kohelet
reminds us that there is only the Here and Now. The harvest and Thanksgiving
that is associated with Sukkot reminds us that there is only the Here and Now.
Next planting, pruning and harvesting is not in our control so why bother? Rather
we celebrate that we arrived at Now. We acknowledge our portion and celebrate it. Yes we may be spiritually scarred beaten and bruised.. Yes we might have
suffered horrible losses, perhaps devastating types of losses. Be we are here,
sitting in the Sukkah, shaking a Lulav and Etrog, and that must be acknowledged and perhaps worth
celebrating. Being having arrived in the Now just might be reason enough to be a certain type of Happiness.
As
we finished putting up our Sukkah, I finally figured out an answer for our son.
Maybe the lesson of Sukkot and the commandment to be happy, “VeSamacha b’Chagecha”, is to remind
ourselves to be happy with what we have, and not focus upon what we don’t
have. No we don’t have Zeidy, but he
have wonderful memories of him and the laughter that results from the sweet
memories of our son’s great grandfather.
Peace,
Rav Yitz
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