Shabbat Forshpeis
A Taste of Torah in Honor of Shabbat
SUCCOT AND EMPTY SYNAGOGUES
SEPTEMBER 20-21, 2002/ 15 TISHREI 5763
Synagogues have been packed. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are the busiest times for synagogues everywhere. In stark contrast, just five days after Yom Kippur, when Succot, the Holiday of Booths arrives, many synagogues will be far less crowded. But the truth is, Succot is more reflective of the genuine Jewish spirit than is Yom Kippur.
In his Ish Ha-Halakha, Halakhic Man, Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, distinguises between the universal religious person and the Jewish religious person. 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 these worldly pleasures. This is the philosophy of fundamental Christianity, of the Eastern religions. Theirs is a world of asceticism, of self-denial.
For the Ish Ha-Halakhah, 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-Halakhah, 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 energy-such as eating and cohabitation-are 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. It is a dramatic educational tool, used to remind people of the value of life.
Succot arrives on the heels of Yom Kippur so that no one would mistakenly think that Yom Kippur is the normative Jewish experience. Succot is a corrective, a counterweight to Yom Kippur.
In absolute contrast with Yom Kippur, Succot is the holiday that celebrates the physical. We eat in the Succaha booth whose roof must be constructed from that which grows from the ground. We take the fruit of the land-the four species-and 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, Succot is a sanctification of the world.
A story: A chasid living in Minsk decided to seek the heavenly world which 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 in. When he reached his destination, he noticed landscape, streets, homes and people that all seemed familiar. He was puzzled, but delighted to have found heavenly bliss. Heaven on earth. This is the mission of the Ish Ha-Halakhah and such is the message of Succot; to find spirituality in earthliness.
Sadly, for most Jewish Americans, however, there is only Yom Kippur, and not Succot. Taken by itself, Yom Kippur cannot communicate the goal of Judaism. Only in context, when experienced together with Succot can we understand Yom Kippur's message properly.
Rabbi Avi Weiss
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