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G facebook.com/rzamizrachi e @rzamizrachiFor years my Israeli friends would ask me, %u201cWhen are you coming to Jerusalem for Sukkot?%u201d I always blamed my absence on the cost of staying in a hotel, how many days of Yom Tov I would hold by, and a myriad of other excuses only an Anglo could concoct. Now, having made Aliyah, I look forward to Sukkot in Jerusalem, where you can buy your lulav and etrog on the street in front of your home and build your sukkah on the mirpeset of your apartment. There is no other feeling like it.I recall building our first sukkah in 1979 at our new home in West Orange, NJ. Those who learned their traditions from the Jewish Catalog could refer to the instructions on page 129 on how to build one. It discussed the walls, the roof, and had a parts list of cinder blocks and lumber. We were set.The marginal notes said, %u201cNever make the sukkah overly comfortable. It should shake in the wind.%u201d It was uncomfortable in the fall evenings, and the walls rattled and shook. But who cared? It was our first sukkah, and we slept in it the first night.One day we decided our sukkah should no longer be built from scratch; we%u2019re moving up in the world. So, we bought a new sukkah with steel poles, with blue plastic and cloth walls, and bamboo poles for the schach. The instructions were easy, but I lost them. So, the next year it was up and down the ladder as I rearranged poles, fittings, and joints. And like socks in the clothes dryer, I was missing schach. After a few years, it was time for a wood panel model, with a door on hinges! Now I have bamboo mats for the schach, and we fit in nicely.Having a sukkah is a special time for children. They enjoy making the decorations, and like to see what their friends have done. Our daughter Alisa, then 8, went on a sukkah hop and came back to tell me in a whisper that she didn%u2019t think the sukkahat one of the houses was 100% kosher. %u201cWhy?%u201d I ask. In earnest, she says, %u201cIt looked like a part of the schach was under the shade of a tree.%u201d With alarm I asked, %u201cWhat did you do?%u201d %u201cI made the beracha, silly, in a part of the sukkah that I was sure was kosher.%u201dSuddenly, the kids are gone from our home, and we begin to spend Yom Tov with them at their homes. You find that an 8x10 is more than enough for a few days of Chol HaMoed. Yet, the construction fiasco continues, and we go up and down the ladder, and struggle to remember which way the windows open or whether the canvas was on the right side of the frame, and keep saying to ourselves, %u201cDid I do it this way last year?%u201dThe rabbis discuss what the sukkah symbolizes. Does it recall the protection of the clouds that hovered over the children of Israel in the desert? Or does it recall the actual construction of temporary booths built during the wandering? Of course, in true Fiddler on the Roof fashion, there%u2019s a third understanding %u2013 that both interpretations are true.The Talmud is clear that we are required to leave our permanent dwelling and live in a temporary one throughout the chag. Yet, the temporary nature of the sukkah poses a problem in many climes. Sometimes the temperature is very cold. Sometimes the wind is very strong and causes the schach to fall on our heads while we%u2019re in the midst of our meal. Other times, we awake in the morning to see mats on the ground. Heartbroken, we run to the Rav to get instructions on when and how we can repair the sukkah.I%u2019d like to suggest my own reason for a sukkah. To me, the sukkah represents life. Like living in the sukkah, life can be uncomfortable; it can shake as if blown by the wind, and sometimes the schach collapses around you. At the end of the day, despite our best efforts, the sukkah is not a solid structure. Neither is life.As we raise our families, we must admit that sometimes we put the pieces together backwards or upside down, and we may have to go up and down the ladder many times or take apart the poles and reassemble them to get it right.Sometimes things happen that no amount of climbing up and down the ladder can fix %u2013 a piece is missing. You then accept that what happens to us is the will of G-d. You don%u2019t ask why, but rather how do I fix the sukkah %u2013 my life %u2013 and you keep living.What the Sukkah Means to MeStephen M. FlatowStephen M. Flatowis President of the Religious Zionists of America-Mizrachi. He is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995 and the author of A Father%u2019s Story: My Fight for Justice Against Iranian Terror.Scan the QR Code to Donate to the Religious Zionists of America Israel Emergency CampaignFollow us!8 |