THIS IS THE TIME FOR SIMHAH—HAPPINESS

Sukkot through Simhat Torah is zeman simhateinu, the time of our happiness.  In Judaism, there is holiness in happiness.  It thus makes sense that a happy period follows the somber Yamim Nora’im.  If Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur remind us that our fate lies with a God who evaluates our imperfect lives, Sukkot teaches us that God is gracious and wants us to live fully.  That’s Judaism.  Whatever the reason for anxiety, there are always greater reasons for joy.

There are two principal mitzvot on Sukkot.  The first is found in Leviticus 23:42-3: “You shall live in booths seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in booths, in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.  I am the Lord your God.”

These humble huts or sukkot teach us something about human dignity.  It isn’t a function of the clothes we wear or the houses we live in.  It is not measured by the number of digits in our take-home pay.  Human dignity is a question of our fidelity in marital relationships, honesty in business practices, generosity in human interrelationships, and curiosity in learning about the world around us.  Those virtues require that we have faith in ourselves, our communities, and God.  It takes a great deal of faith to live in a structure as temporary as a sukkah.  And that’s what God wants us to remember: the important role of faith in our sophisticated lives.

The second mitzvah of Sukkot is found in Leviticus 23:40:   “On the first day you shall take the product of hadar [that’s the etrog] trees, branches of palm [that’s the lulav] trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.”  By waving the lulav and etrog in all four directions, up and down, we point to the inescapable presence of God.  The faithful can never be alone; for them—and ultimately for us—God is always accessible.

In referring to a festival as important as Sukkot, you may hear some call it Yontif, a Yiddish pronunciation of the Hebrew Yom Tov.  What exactly is Yom Tov and why is it so important?

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