Each of the five shortest books, Chamesh Megillot, of the Hagiographa (the kh, Ketuvim, of the Tanakh) is paired with a festival holiday. Sukkot, which began on Monday night, is connected to Ecclesiastes in the lectionary cycle. Kohelet, as the book is known in Hebrew, reminds us that just as there is a time for tearing down, there is also a time for building up (Eccles. 3:3).
Just as the High Holidays demand that we are torn down to our core, Sukkot is an opportunity to build back up once again with renewed intentionality. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks (ז"ל) called Sukkot, “the festival of insecurity,” saying that the fragile, impermanent sukkot we build for the holiday is a reminder that “[s]ecurity is not something we can achieve physically but it is something we can acquire mentally, psychologically, spiritually.” (Koren Sacks Sukkot Machzor) Sukkot is a holiday of radical vulnerability and in that vulnerability, we find our greatest strength. It is both a testament to our createdness within the natural world and an invitation to take an active role in its building. The sukkah we build is both exposed to the elements and open to visitors. We invite in ushpizin, Sukkot guests, — ancestors, friends, and strangers alike — in accordance with humanity’s shared precarious position in the world which we inhabit together. Dr. Brene Brown, herself a prophet of the power in vulnerability, writes, “[o]ur deepest human need is to be seen by other people — to really be seen and known by someone else. And if we’re so armored up, and we walk through the world with an armored front, we can’t be seen.” Sukkot is an invitation to take off our armor, to exit the our permanent, comfortable edifices, and to reconnect with the natural world as well as our fellow human beings. May we all joyously accept this invitation in the spirit of building an olam chesed, a world of lovingkindness.
YAHRZEITS Alice Bud Eva Finkelman Harold Flinker Marcy Lester Beatrice Linder Mark B. Schupack Janice Smith Ellin Reichart Zeisler Stanley Smith Lenore Rakatansky Lawrence Hoffman Sherry Royall
Gladys H. Jacober Dr. Henry Gewirtz Janet Engelhart Gutterman Melvyn Blake Joan Adler Mark Bernie Levine Anna Cohen Haberman Herman Haberman Donald David Jaffa Jean Moverman Jaffa Sloan Myles Jaffa Farrel A. Jaffa
YIZKOR ELOHIM The Congregation joins in mourning the death of
Sheldon Licht Jan Marc Orenstein Marion "Toby" Yale
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