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of willow. It is a time when we briefly liberate ourselves Most majestically of all, Sukkot is the festival of insecu-
from the sophisticated pleasures of the city and the pro- rity. It is the candid acknowledgement that there is no life
cessed artifacts of a technological age, where we take time without risk, yet we can face the future without fear when
to recapture some of the innocence we had when we were we know we are not alone. G-d is with us, in the rain that
young, when the world still had the radiance of wonder. brings blessings to the earth, in the love that brought the
The power of Sukkot is that it takes us back to the most universe and us into being, and in the resilience of spirit
elemental roots of our being. You don’t need to live in a that allowed a small and vulnerable people to outlive the
palace to be surrounded by Clouds of Glory. You don’t need greatest empires the world has ever known. Sukkot reminds
to be gloriously wealthy to buy yourself the same leaves us that G-d’s glory was present in the small, portable Tab-
and fruit that a billionaire uses in worshiping G-d. Living ernacle Moses and the Israelites built in the desert even
in the sukkah and inviting guests to your meal, you discover more emphatically than in Solomon’s Temple with all its
that the people who have come to visit you are none other grandeur. A Temple can be destroyed. But a sukkah, even
than Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their wives (such is if broken, can be rebuilt tomorrow. Security is not some-
the premise of ushpizin, the mystical guests). What makes thing we can achieve physically but it is something we can
a hut more beautiful than a home is that when it comes to acquire mentally, psychologically, spiritually. All it needs
Sukkot there is no difference between the richest of the rich is the courage and willingness to sit under the shadow of
and the poorest of the poor. We are all strangers on earth, G-d’s sheltering wings.
temporary residents in G-d’s almost eternal universe. And
whether or not we are capable of pleasure, whether or not
we have found happiness, nonetheless we can all feel joy.
Sukkot is the time we ask the most profound question of
what makes a life worth living. Having prayed on Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur to be written in the Book of Life,
Kohelet forces us to remember how brief life actually is, and
how vulnerable. “Teach us to number our days that we may
get a heart of wisdom.” What matters is not how long we
live, but how intensely we feel that life is a gift we repay by The Rabbi Sacks Legacy
giving to others. Joy, the overwhelming theme of the festival, perpetuates the timeless and universal wisdom of Rabbi
is what we feel when we know that it is a privilege simply Lord Jonathan Sacks as a teacher of Torah, a leader of
leaders and a moral voice. Explore the digital archive,
to be alive, inhaling the intoxicating beauty of this moment containing much of Rabbi Sacks’ writings, broadcasts
amidst the profusion of nature, the teeming diversity of life and speeches, at www.rabbisacks.org, and follow The
and the sense of communion with those many others who Rabbi Sacks Legacy on social media @RabbiSacks.
share our history and our hope.

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