Sukkot: Holiday of Our Joy
#sukkot #joy #holidayofjoy #zmansimchateinu #simcha #family #sleepinthesukkah #sukkah #fallholidays #tishrei #happiness #rina #ditza #simchah
Hi Everyone,
So, here we find ourselves leaving the many hours of synagogue time for a holiday centered right in your yard, or your deck, your balcony, or heck, even your camel if you happen to own one! Yes, it’s Sukkot, one of the strangest but most beautiful times of the Jewish calendar. It is at this time that we are commanded:
אַ֡ךְ בַּחֲמִשָּׁה֩ עָשָׂ֨ר י֜וֹם לַחֹ֣דֶשׁ הַשְּׁבִיעִ֗י בְּאסְפְּכֶם֙ אֶת־תְּבוּאַ֣ת הָאָ֔רֶץ תָּחֹ֥גּוּ
אֶת־חַג־יְהֹוָ֖ה שִׁבְעַ֣ת יָמִ֑ים בַּיּ֤וֹם הָֽרִאשׁוֹן֙ שַׁבָּת֔וֹן וּבַיּ֥וֹם הַשְּׁמִינִ֖י שַׁבָּתֽוֹן׃
Mark, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the yield of your land, you shall observe the festival of GOD [to last] seven days: a complete rest on the first day, and a complete rest on the eighth day.
וּלְקַחְתֶּ֨ם לָכֶ֜ם בַּיּ֣וֹם הָרִאשׁ֗וֹן פְּרִ֨י עֵ֤ץ הָדָר֙ כַּפֹּ֣ת תְּמָרִ֔ים וַעֲנַ֥ף עֵץ־עָבֹ֖ת
וְעַרְבֵי־נָ֑חַל וּשְׂמַחְתֶּ֗ם לִפְנֵ֛י יְהֹוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶ֖ם שִׁבְעַ֥ת יָמִֽים׃
On the first day you shall take the product of hadar trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the ETERNAL your God seven days.
Leviticus 23:29,30
I've been thinking about joy this week. Here we are, commanded to rejoice. There are many words for joy in Hebrew, including the word for this week, simcha. Then there are the words we express at the wedding ceremony: sason, gila, rina, ditza, and chedva (שָׂשׂוֹן, גִּילָה, רִנָּה, דִּיצָה, חֶדְוָה), and others.
I am imagining that there are as many types of joy as there are sweet spices in your spice cabinet. Each type of joy is felt a little differently: deep joy, fleeting joy, long-lasting joy, the joy of surprise, the joy of amazement, the joy of family and friends, the joy of celebration. So many different joys; sometimes pure, sometimes mixed with a bit of nostalgia.
Perhaps for this Sukkot we can enter into the holiday with an increased appreciation for what joy is. Whether you have a sukkah or not, take a moment to think back on joyous experiences you have had. Although we cannot predict what our next joyous experience will be, we can rejoice in the here and now. This moment, this day, this week.
If you do get into a sukkah over the next few days, whether rain or shine, take time to appreciate this strange command: to rejoice.
Yes, enjoy!
Leann
PS- This is a post I originally blogged in 2020. I've posted it again because it epitomizes the joy which comes with Sukkot.
Holiday of Our Joy
What if they gave a holiday and called it the "holiday of our joy"
What if all they asked of you, a city person, a person with two left hands, to build
a flimsy structure of sticks or wood,
and asked you, of all people, to complete that structure with a roof of branches,
hunting with your saw at the cusp of evening for maple or pine or oak,
dragging them down your street, yellow pine needles leaving a path behind you?
Your clumsy structure whose walls are old pink and purple bedsheets or flowered tablecloths
A structure that dances with the wind, bejeweled with pine cones
And the warm autumn sun slants down from between the branches overhead.
What if they gave a holiday and called it the "holiday of our joy"
And asked you to sit it that structure;
to eat in that structure, to speak, to study;
to take your children by the hand and sleep in that structure.
The kids drag sleeping bags onto the floor which is littered with crumbs
Shimmying in, shoulder to shoulder, pajama to pajama.
And what if the air was electric with excitement,
the children staring up at the stars between the branches,
eyes wide open, smiling lips, fingers pointing upwards:
"I can see the moon!"
What if they gave a holiday and called it the "holiday of our joy"
and asked you to sit with your people in this structure called a sukkah?
To offer your mushroom barley soup and the challah you struggled to perfect.
To offer others the chance to sit under your cranberried canopy
which you have created with your hands, even as it droops slightly to the left.
That structure where you have shared food with the bees,
who came uninvited and stayed until well after dessert.
And what if, in that sukkah where you have sat with your people and talked
an endless cloud of stories rising under the crown of filagreed branches
In this miraculous sukkah of simplicity and joy?
What if they gave a holiday and called it the "holiday of our joy"
And the memories that were made in that sukkah lasted forever
You taste the soup and look at your children's smiling eyes.
You taste the challah and think of your grandparents.
With each sip of wine that you share with your friends,
you sip the wisdom from your guests and have a taste of their lives.
The cool evening air carresses your face and know in your heart just what joy is.
You sit in the drizzle and your hair gets wet but you don't want to move.
You sit in this sukkah, which you built with your own hands, so imperfect, like each of us,
yet only through this holy imperfection can we view the light of the stars.
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