Thursday, September 27, 2012

LIVE THIS SUNDAY@9:05 am:WDEL 1150 AM THE RABBI SPEAKS!


Rabbi Michael Beals                                                                                The Rabbi Speaks -September 2012

SUKKOT

 

                Tonight, at sunset, begins the seven day Biblical Pilgrimage Holy Day of Sukkot.  You may know it by its English name, The Feast of Tabernacles.  In Biblical days it was known as “heh hag,” THE Festival.  Now that’s not EXACTLY accurate.  In the days of the Temple in Jerusalem, there were actually THREE pilgrimage festivals or hagim: Pesach or Passover, the early spring harvest, Shavuot, Christians know it as Pentecost, marking the barley harvest in the late spring/early summer, and finally, in the fall, the harvest festival of Sukkot.

            But of the three, God commands the children of Israel on Sukkot to be “ach sameach,” TOTALLY joyous!!  If one were to look at the agricultural underpinnings of these three festivals, only Sukkot, in the fall, has a feeling of complete relief associated with it.  For Passover and Shavuot, there was always a chance that something could go wrong with the crop.  But Sukkot is on the other side of the harvest.  By the time you get to Sukkot in the agricultural calendar, you’ve made it.  There is a collective sigh of relief.    So important is the agricultural underpinning of this holiday and its connection to the Land of Israel, that long ago the rabbis instituted an occasional leap year in the Jewish lunar calendar, to ensure that each of these three agricultural-based holidays would always fall in the correct season, even though there is always some variance between the Hebrew date of the holiday and where it falls on the solar-based Julian calendar which governs our Western society. 

This lack of coordination between the Jewish lunar and secular solar calendars makes it very challenging for parents to explain to public school teachers and administrators, which days our Jewish kids need off. From a non-Jewish point-of-view, every year the Jews are changing the dates of their holidays.  But in the Hebrew lunar calendar, these dates, from Biblical times onward, are always the same: the 1st and 2nd days of the Hebrew month Tishrei for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, the 10th day of Tishrei for Yom Kippur, our Day of Atonement, the 15th day of Tishrei for the beginning of Sukkot, the 22nd day of Tishrei for Shemini Atzeret – the 8th Day of Assembly, and the 23rd day of Tishrei for Simchat Torah, the rejoicing of the Torah.

Sukkot is mentioned, either as a place name or as a holiday in every single book of the Torah, except Genesis.  The most complete description of this holy day occurs in the 23rd chapter of Leviticus, beginning on verse 39.  God says:

“Mark, on the 15th day of the 7th month, when you have gathered in the yield of your land, you shall observe the festival of the Lord to last seven days: a complete rest on the first day, and a complete rest on the eighth day.  On the first day you shall take the product of hadar trees, branches of palms trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.  You shall observe it as a festival of the Lord for seven days in the year; you shall observe it in the seven month as a law for all time, throughout the ages.  You shall live in booths seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in booths, in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt;  I the Lord your God.”

I felt compelled to quote the Biblical passage in its full form because NO other Jewish holiday as so many mitzvot, that is commandments, associated with it.  After coming off of the extreme NON physical, highly spiritual holy day of Yom Kippur, where we fast and remove ourselves from the material world, Sukkot, through its mitzvot, land us slam-bam right in the thick of the material world.  Because of the gratitude nature of this harvest festival, I often think that our Biblically inspired Pilgram founders were actually trying to recreate Sukkot and because they got things going kind of late in the game, ended up with their Sukkot Festival in November. We call it Thanksgiving --  a lovely excuse to eat turkey, gather with friends and family, and most important of all, watch the Macy’s Parade.

Let us returning to the Biblical description of Sukkot.  First, we are supposed to gather four species. “The product from the hadar tree” has been interpreted as the plump, yellow, refreshingly citrusy-smelling, citron-like etrog.

“The branches of palm trees” speak for themselves.  In Hebrew we call it the lulav, which is also the name we give to the three sets of branches bound together.  

“The boughs of the leafy trees” are interpreted as myrtle branches, or in Hebrew, hadas. The largest women’s and Zionist organization in the world is called Hadassah, from the root word, Hadas, named for Queen Esther, whose Hebrew name was Hadassah.  Hadassah is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.  The organization is most proud of the medical center in Jerusalem which bears its name, which prides itself on bringing the very finest in medical expertise to the Middle East, serving Palestinians of the West Bank with the same care, love and attention as their Jewish neighbors in Israel.

And finally, the willows of the brook is self explanatory, called aravah in Hebrew.

These four species share in common their need to grow with lots of water to thrive.  By parading around the pulpit in synagogue seven times, with lulav and etrog in hand, and by shaking of them in all six directions, the four cardinal points plus up and down, we are making the theological statement that God is truly everywhere. We are simultaneously beseeching the omnipresent God, to provide enough rain to sustain the land of Israel through the long winter ahead, making next year’s harvest possible.

If you go to religious neighborhoods of New York’s Lower East Side and Brooklyn, today you will see on the streets the faithful and devout taking great pains to visit outside vendors and choose the very best lulavs and etrogs possible.  It is certainly worth seeing these vendors at least once, although it is much more convenient to have your local Delaware synagogue just order a lulav and etrog set for you.

The second part of the commandment involves the building and living in Sukkot for seven days.  Like with so many other Jewish holidays, there is both a historical and spiritual nature to Sukkot, and the dwelling in booths or tabernacles.  First, the Biblical text itself states that we were to dwell in booths to remind us that God caused the Israelites to dwell in booths on their 40-year journey through the wildness, from Egypt to the Holy Land.  That’s the historical underpinning to Sukkah habitation.

On top of that, we have our children help us decorate the Sukkah, where we sit in a temporary, shaky dwelling, appreciating all that God has given us, including the permanence and safety of our sturdy homes which we temporarily abandon.  Excluding rain, traditional Jews spend all their waking and sleeping hours in their backyard Sukkah (Sukkot in Hebrew), while those less daring still take their meals in their Sukkot, and invite friends, family and neighbors over for hospitality.  During the evening, with some imagination, we invite special guests called Ushpizim, including the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, David and Solomon to visit during each of the seven days of Sukkot.  Modern and feminist Jews came up with an equal number of impressive women from Judaism’s past, including the four matriarchs: Sarah, Rebeccah, Rachel, Leah, Mose’s wife Tsiporah, the Judge Deborah, and Queen Esther – we have NO shortage of impressive Jewish women in our history, which is why Jewish women occupy such a place of respect in our tradition.

 

The Sukkah is created according to certain rules: the roof must be composed of organic material and be thick enough by day to allow for shade, yet thin enough at night to allow the stars and moon to be seen through its branches. It must have a minimum of two and a half sides.  I like to decorate my Sukkah with blinking colored lights so when you enter it is like dining inside a Christmas tree.  We also like to string all our High Holy Days as decorations.  The kids have a blast. You are welcome to come and visit our Sukkah at Congregation Beth Shalom during these next seven days.  I’ll keep a look out for you.

Wishing you a chag sameach! A joyous Festival of Tabernacles.  

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