SUKKOT 2009

So we have traveled through the ups and downs of Rosh HaShanna and Yom Kippur, and we now find ourselves in the holiday of Sukkot, where it is customary to eat and sleep in small huts or booths, fragile structures with roofs made of tree branches, corn stalks, or other organic material. One should be able to see the stars through the roof material; this is a time when we are living in a temporary dwelling and the separation between us and the heavens is reduced. The sukkah reminds us of the temporary shelters in which the Israelites lived during their years of wandering in the wilderness, and at the same time it brings us a visceral, embodied experience our vulnerability to the elements, to the passage of time, and to the viscisitudes of circumstance.

On Sukkot we read Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet in Hebrew. You may be familiar with a traditional, and rather bleak translation of the beginning of Kohelet:

Vanity of vanities; all is vanity…

But in a more contemporary translation of the text, Rami Shapiro gives us an alternative perspective on these words and on the deep meaning of Sukkot. His translation, THE WAY OF SOLOMON, Finding Joy and Contentment in the Wisdom of Ecclesiastes, begins:

Emptiness! Emptiness upon emptiness!

The world is fleeting of form, empty of permanence, void of surety,

Without certainty.

Like a breath breathed once and gone,

All things rise and fall.

Understand emptiness, and tranquility replaces anxiety.

Understand emptiness, and compassion replaces jealousy.

Understand emptiness, and you will cease to excuse suffering

And begin to alleviate it.

Solomon, the presumed author of the original text, is passing on his own hard-won wisdom to us, his heirs, on Sukkot. He is telling us that we all fall into the same traps that have captured us for millennia. He is saying that we are constantly trying to get somewhere, accomplish something, all ultimately in a vain attempt to ward off our awareness of life’s impermanence. He repeatedly asserts that we suffer because of our illusions of permanence, separateness, and control.

And just when we feel overwhelmed by the harsh reality which he insists we confront, he offers us his prescription for peace:

Life is fleeting, the passing of moments upon moments.

Embrace them as they come; do not cling to them as they go.

In this alone is there tranquility.

So, this year as we spend time with community in the sukkah, may we be blessed with the wisdom to be present with What Is, savoring the sweetness as it lands on our tongues,

Opening to whatever is in front of us, with trust and faith.

- Laura Goldman, LCSW