רפואה מן התורה
Healing from the Torah

A Short Reflection of Sukkot
Rabbi Adam Ruditsky

     On Yom Kippur afternoon we read from the book of Jonah for good reason.  The highlight of Jonah is the time he spends in the belly of the great fish and what that means. We learned in a Midrash that “Gehenna has three entrances: one in the desert, one in the sea, and one in Jerusalem.”  The desert is a forsaken place that speaks to need and Jerusalem is the place where Torah is read and sacrifices were offered, awakening human imperfection and brokenness that calls for tikkun, but what of the sea?  Regarding Jonah’s time in the sea within the fish Ibn Ezra wrote, מקום עמוק, הפך שמים שהוא מרום,  “the deep place is contrary to the heavens above.”  מקום עמוק (makom amok) is not just a “deep place” but a dark pit, a place with no light, where only total blackness is seen.  Contrary to מקום עמוק is the highest of the heights (שהוא מרום), the שמים, the heavens, a place beyond human imagination.  In other words, Jonah had no place to go but up, and it took being in the darkness of that fish’s belly to get him to see so.  In fact, look at Jonah’s prayer, he did not ask for help or repentance but he gave thanksgiving to God within the darkness anticipating something else, saying, “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; and my prayer came into you, into your holy temple.”  It is through the seas metaphorically that we enter the darkness of Gehenna only to rise above again.

     There was another dark time in Israel, it was their slavery in Egypt.  However, before any mention of this festival of Sukkot we really should look back at Exodus 12:37 that says, וַיִּסְעוּ בְנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵרַעְמְסֵס, סֻכֹּתָה, “and the children of Israel (after leaving Egypt) journeyed from Rameses to Sukkot,” where they would lay their heads that first night.  According to Torah, the place of Sukkot was where Jacob built “booths” for his family and animals to sleep (see Gen. 33:17), and now the people of Israel who left the harshness of slavery in Egypt have arrived at the same place.  Sukkot is not just a celebration, but a place, a place where the people would dwell.  Yet regarding the celebration of Sukkot the 16^th century mystic, Yeshayahu ben Avraham Horowitz, wrote that Jews were to “Sit for seven days, the secret of the mysteries in the treasures of the Supreme Wisdom, hidden in the glitter of the beginning of thought.”  There was a deeper meaning to Sukkot that Horowitz called a secret, but what?

     Jonah in the fish had no shame; only good things can be in front of him, anticipating his freedom in the end.  The Hebrews who came out of Egypt came out of darkness, resting the first night in Sukkot, a place of safety and hope for the future, a place where for the first time they had no shame and were now free.  On Yom Kippur we pounded our chest and said the Ashamnu and Al Chet, words that were like a mirror to our humanity, reminding us that we are flawed, filled with human limitations and imperfections, broken and in need of repair, reminding us of our own darkness.  Rabbi Jonathan Sacks taught that the community shame of the human condition was sent away with the Azazel, the goat sent into the wilderness. The Azazel removed the embarrassment of shame so the people could embrace t’shuvah, repentance, allowing all Israel to stand as one in equality, no one was not quality, so together all were made innocent.

     Yom Kippur can be like that deep place where we looked at our brokenness, that place of מקום עמוק (makom amok), followed by the celebration of Sukkot, a higher place of שהוא מרום (shehu marom) called זמן שמחתינו, the time of our rejoicing. We decorate our Sukkah’s and have candy and fruit, a place of celebration with our invited quests, no longer alone in our self-introspection that lasted from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur.  Sukkot is a symbol of life, it is a holiday where we are told to be happy, a time of freedom and rest.  We are happy because we do not have to owned by anger or unforgiveness, fear or greed, hate or revenge, instead we are defined by love and goodness, care, and compassion, joy, and gladness. We read in Leviticus 23:34, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast of tabernacles (chag sukkot, חַג הַסֻּכּוֹת) for seven days unto the LORD,” and we get seven days, plus one, to enjoy that higher place.  This is the mystery of what is hidden, but really, it is right there to grasp.

Chag Semeach Sukkot!