Rabbi Isaac Jeret's October Bulletin Article

Dear Friends,

I write to you just prior to the onset of the Shabbat preceding Yom Kippur. On this Friday afternoon, I find myself reflecting upon the year ahead, a year that each of us is imagining and fashioning during these Days of Awe. As I consider the year 5767, I am struck by the fact that only five days after Yom Kippur – only five days subsequent to the heightened spiritual plateau of Yom Kippur – we celebrate another Jewish Festival, that of Sukkot. Sukkot is an annual festival of Israel’s ancient harvest and recalls the huts in which our ancestors lived while harvesting their crops. The huts that we build and eat in over the course of this festival are also intended to remind us of the temporary dwellings in which our ancestors resided as they journeyed from their enslavement in Egypt to their freedom in The Promised Land. The Sukkah is understood as a shelter of peace in a world of uncertainty.

Strangely, our tradition encourages us to learn of a secure and lasting peace from the symbol of a temporary shelter that cannot even withstand a strong wind. Imagine taking your first swimming lesson in a raging sea! Surely, a heritage as wise as our own must be trying to share with us an important message with this odd pairing. But, just what is this message?

The human tendency is to build fortresses to provide for personal and collective security. We build sturdy homes and office buildings, able to best withstand earthquakes and hurricanes (okay, there is still a little bit of Florida left in me!). We install alarm-systems to prevent intrusion. We live in gated communities to discourage those who should not gain entry from doing so.

As important as any of the above might be for self-preservation and security, our tradition has us begin each New Year with a stark reminder that they are merely substitutes (and poor ones at that) for a peaceful and harmonious world. By dining and sharing with one another in the natural beauty of a Sukkah, we aim to transcend our own, naked vulnerability in a world that can be hostile, encouraging us evermore to work toward a world of compassion, reason, and peace.

May our festival of Sukkot usher in a New Year of great hope, one in which we might see a turn toward genuine peace the world over. May God grant us a world in which we can break down the walls of our fortresses and dine together in the peace of our Sukkot, only not for seven days of a festival but all year long and the world over.

May we work together to make it so.

B’Shalom – With Blessings of Peace and Wholeness,

Rabbi Isaac Jeret
Spiritual Leader