As a child, I was always overwhelmed by this time of year. The movement from school opening, to Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur and finally Sukkot. The feeling of overload during one particular month out of the Jewish calendar perplexed my younger self. Why such emphasis on a diverse number of religious elements - Hashem’s kingship, personal reflection and forgiveness culminating in a joyous Sukkot celebration. I had the feeling there was a thread that was carefully woven through these three themes that were escaping my understanding.
During my first year at Yeshivat Hakotel, following Rosh HaShanah night tefillot and dinner, my rebbi, Rabbi Reuven Taragin, led an hours-long tisch reflecting on the deep meaning of Rosh HaShanah. He explained that throughout the entire liturgy of the tefillot it never used the word kaparah, atonement. Instead, it reflected on a sense of happiness that is experienced when one reaches the truth about Hashem’s kingship over the world. While he quoted many phrases from the Rosh HaShanah tefillah, one phrase stood out to me:
וּבְכֵן תֵּן פַּחְדְּךָ יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ עַל כָּל מַעֲשֶֽׂיךָ וְאֵימָתְךָ עַל כָּל מַה שֶּׁבָּרָֽאתָ. וְיִירָאֽוּךָ כָּל הַמַּעֲשִׂים וְיִשְׁתַּחֲווּ לְפָנֶיךָ כָּל הַבְּרוּאִים. וְיֵעָשׂוּ כֻלָּם אֲגֻדָּה אֶחָת לַעֲשׂוֹת רְצוֹנְךָ בְּלֵבָב שָׁלֵם.
Let the dread of Hashem be placed on all that He made and the awe on all of His creations. All of His creations should fear Him and bow before him. And then, everyone will join together, in one cohesive unit, to complete the will of Hashem with a full heart.
During the section known as Kedushat Hashem, the holiness of Hashem, we are reminded that with the right frame of mind and appreciation for Hashem, we are able to bridge the divisions that exist between us and collaborate with full commitment and appreciation toward each other and Hashem. This idea is deepened by the liturgy during the Yom Kippur tefillot where we reenact the procedure of the Kohen HaGadol, the high priest, and with jubilation sing in celebration upon his successful efforts of atonement on our behalf. He represents the ability that our nation possesses for growth and development if only we place the right emphasis on the correct understanding of our relationship with Hashem.
Yet, with this deeper understanding of Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, I was left bewildered by what the holiday of Sukkot was meant to teach us. Is this simply a week-long celebration of gaining another year of life, another year to rectify the wrongs of the past or is it something else entirely?
The two mitzvot of Sukkot - sitting and eating in a sukkah and taking the lulav and etrog - shed light on our question. In the Sifsei Chaim, Rabbi Friedlander explains that the sukkah and lulav are not haphazard mitzvot plucked from obscurity and placed immediately following Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. Rabbi Friedlander explains that Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur are meant to be times where we can reflect on the lost opportunities of the past year, the time we will never get back, and what we could have accomplished if we had made more of it. This guilt, this fear as mentioned in the liturgy of those days, are meant to stir in us a call to action, a call to change.
That call is the same call we hear year after year. Yet, each year we return to Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur with the same need to remind ourselves of what is truly important. Sukkot is meant to be the action that awakens this call within us, inspiring us not simply to know that we need to change, rather, to realize and enact it.
The sukkah reflects our deep seeded trust and appreciation for Hashem in how He both cares for us, supports us and provides us with safety and security. The sukkah, our temporary home, resembles our dedication to the words said on Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. It is a time to gather as a family, welcoming the community into our personal spaces and sharing the message of the lulav, a binding of 4 species that have nothing to do with each other, into one bundle, celebrating their diversity and the beauty of their collaboration.
What, in the end, is the source of that beauty and joy? What work ultimately brings this collective together with one heart? The beauty of the Torah which we culminate and celebrate at the end of Sukkot on Simchat Torah and which we begin anew the following Shabbat. This renewal of the Torah represents our expression of renewal as we realign with the Hashem, with our family and community, to bring these relationships into action throughout the year to come.