Moadim L'Simcha Shaarei Kodesh,
I have to admit, I was a bit more tired than usual upon reaching the holiday of Sukkot. It was non-stop for us since the Tekiah Gedolah was sounded at the end of Yom Kippur on Thursday night, after an intense Yom Kippur, which was preceded by arguably the most challenging High Holy Day services all of us have had to hold in our lives, after a year and a half of this pandemic.
I usually have a couple of days to do some study before Sukkot, to get myself in the spiritual and intellectual mindset for one of my favorite holidays of year. Unfortunately, I learned less Torah than I would have hoped for before the holiday, but I learned some incredible Torah while I was decorating our Sukkah with our children. Our daughter was fastening some lights while standing on a ladder and started looking through the Skach (the material that makes up the roof of the Sukkah). She said, with pure joy and wonder, “Wow, I feel like I’m in the sky!”
I think that was the only Torah I needed to prepare for the holiday. The joy and wonder in her voice epitomizes the feeling of joy we should feel on Sukkot, the only holiday called Zman Simchateinu. We begin the process of exiting the intensely cerebral experience of the High Holy Days, to the expanse of the physical nature of the world. For a week, we put the book down, and pick the lulav and etrog up. We shake the lulav and etrog, we walk around the sanctuary during Hoshanot, we share meals in our sukkot, and we look up at the sky in wonder at the world God created through the skach/roofs of our Sukkot. We try to return to that feeling my daughter had on the ladder, looking up at the sky through the roof of the Sukkah, which she could not see in our home.
I was so pleased to see people take advantage of our 'open' sukkah at Shaarei Kodesh today, the first day of Chol HaMoed. Congregants and sacred guests came into our temporary home and shook the lulav and etrog. Please drop by our Sukkah any time, and if you come before 2:00 tomorrow or Sunday morning at 9:30, I will be happy to guide you on how to shake the lulav and etrog.
Wishing everyone renewed strength as you rediscover God, the world, your family and friends, and yourselves, during this time of joy.
Shabbat Shalom, Hag Sameach, and Moadim L'Simcha!
Rabbi David Baum
