Shabbat Forshpeis
A Taste of Torah in Honor of Shabbat
SUKKOT: MAYBE THE HIGHEST OF OUR HOLIDAYS
AS IT REFLECTS THE TRUE JEWISH SPIRIT
OCTOBER 10-11, 2003 / 14 TISHREI 5764
Our synagogues
are packed on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. In stark contrast, however, just five days after Yom Kippur, when Sukkot, the Holiday of Booths arrives, synagogues will be empty. But the truth is, in many ways, Sukkot is more reflective of the genuine Jewish spirit than is Yom Kippur.
In his "Ish Ha-Halachah," (Halachic Man) Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik distinguishes between the universal religious person and the Jewish religious person.
The universal religious person perceives the body and soul to be in conflict. For this individual, the pathway to spiritual bliss is the rejection of the body, the limiting of the physical, the escaping from this-worldly pleasures. This is the philosophy of fundamental Christianity and of Eastern religions. Theirs is a world of asceticism and self-denial. For the Ish Ha-Halachah, however, the body is neither to be glorified nor denigrated, deified nor rejected; rather it is to be sanctified. The pathway to spirituality is not the rejection of the physical, but rather the discovery of meaning and spirituality within it. For the Ish Ha-Halachah, there is no activity devoid of religious significance. The way one loves, the way one conducts himself/herself in business, the way one eats, are all no less holy than praying and fasting.
Viewed in a vacuum, Yom Kippur is the universal religious experiencean escape from this-worldly pleasures. Those activities which are associated with life energysuch as eating and cohabitationare prohibited. On Yom Kippur, we look more like angels than people, as we wear white and wear no shoes. Yom Kippur is a simulation of death, intended to help us better appreciate life.
Sukkot arrives on the heels of Yom Kippur so that no one would mistakenly think that Yom Kippur is the normative Jewish experience. Sukkot is a corrective, a counter-weight to Yom Kippur. In absolute contrast with Yom Kippur, Sukkot is the holiday that celebrates the physical. We eat in the Sukkaha booth whose roof must be constructed from that which grows from the ground. We take the fruit of the landthe four speciesand joyously recite blessings over them, using them as instruments through which we sing songs and praises to God.
With all of this, we sanctify the mundane, we elevate the physical. We compress the infinite spirit of God into the finite world. We elevate earth to heaven, and draw heaven down to earth. Far from a fanciful flight from the world, Sukkot is a sanctification of it.
A story: A chasid living in Minsk decided to seek the heavenly world which he had been told was in Pinsk. Overnight, he slept in an open field, having carefully left his shoes pointed in the direction of Pinsk. As he slept, a scoundrel came by and turned his shoes around. The next morning, the chasid continued on in the direction that he found his shoes to be pointing. When he reached his destination, he noticed landscape, streets, homes and people that all seemed familiar. He was puzzled, but delighted to have found that it was his earthly life that was truly heavenly bliss.
This is the mission of the Ish Ha-Halachah and such is the message of Sukkot: to find spirituality in earthliness.
Sadly, for most Jews, however, there is only Yom Kippur and not Sukkot. Taken by itself, Yom Kippur cannot communicate the goal of Judaism. Only in context, when experienced together with Sukkot can we understand Yom Kippurs message properly.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Avi Weiss
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