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our permanent homes for a few days to live in sukkot, in life of wandering. We practiced a life of wandering during
temporary tents, so that we ourselves could could experience the holiday of Sukkot, to see what impact it would have on
a taste of wandering and exile. We would remember that us and whether we would be able to survive if our land was
we were not always established citizens in Israel, but that taken from us.
we too had dwelled in sukkot when we left Egypt. Living in
sukkot helped us identify with other nations who had been This “practice” served us well. For when we lived in exile,
exiled and could not live in their own land, people who only our temporary homes were spiritually healthy, with an
knew a life of sukkot. atmosphere of permanence. We kept apart from nations
among whom we lived, creating spiritual kingdoms within
Temporary and impermanent – this is the tragedy of every the physical kingdoms of others. We fulfilled the dictum
wandering nation. A nation that dwells in its own land lives of ּורּוד ָּ ת ןי ֵע ְּ כ ּוב ְ ׁש ֵּ ת, “dwell in [sukkot] as you dwell [in your
a life of permanence and order. If there is value to its actions, homes]” (Sukkot 28b), not only during Sukkot, but all year
the value is lasting and does not change from day to day. long. Torrential rains of decrees and suffering poured down
And if there is holiness in its way of life, its holiness has upon us, and if the sun occasionally shone with promises of
permanence. But this is not the fate of wandering peoples, kindness, we still refused to leave our temporary sukkot for
whose lives are not in healthy order. Its people dwell in one permanent buildings that were not our own!... We recognized
land for a period of time and become accustomed to its ways, that we can never live in permanent dwellings in lands not
but are forced to move on to another land, and adopt their our own. And if our host nations came and destroyed our
ways instead. sukkot and sought to erase the memories of our past and our
This is the history of wandering. There is no nation in world hopes for the future from our hearts, we would leave that
history that walked in exile, whether willingly or against its place and build our sukkot anew in a different land.
will, that was not diminished in reputation and numbers. By Only in recent generations have we sought to truly dwell
definition, exile weakens a people, for their children inevita- among foreign nations. The wandering has become too much
bly assimilate into the host nation’s population. And if there for us; we yearn for a permanent home, and seek it in the
are groups of people who are permanent wanderers, such homes of others… We have ventured outside of our walls,
as the gypsies, they do not even qualify as proper nations destroying the mechitza that separated us from our neigh-
possessing their own unique culture and literature.
bors. If we still have temporary sukkot in our time, they are no
Only Am Yisrael, despite wandering for years in the desert, longer kosher sukkot, for they are not built from the materials
merited to be covered by the clouds of glory. Only Am Yisrael, of our own Land and they are also tainted with materials
despite our wandering, raised children who retained our that are ה ָא ְמּוט ל ֵּ ב ַק ְמ, susceptible to impurity.
identity and stepped into the shoes of their fathers who died
before their time. And not only that, but there, in our exile How beautiful were our sukkot when they stood in our own
in the wilderness, our national identity was formed and Land, and we dwelled in them with pleasure and joy! How
we received G-d’s Torah! But even as we lived in temporary beloved were our sukkot when they stood within our borders
sukkot, we hoped for future days when we would cease to be and aroused thoughts of building David’s fallen sukkah [the
wanderers and dwell in our own Land. Beit HaMikdash]! But how different are the sukkot that possess
no joy in the present nor hope for the future but serve only
Just as this hope for our own Land protected the generation as a place of refuge from the stones thrown at us…
of the wilderness, who despite their wanderings did not lose
their identity and preferred to wander in the wilderness than But today, [as the world is convulsed in war,] we see sukkot
to return to slavery in Egypt, so have we had many genera- that give us some hope. It is possible that through the many
tions since then of “temporary dwelling”, during which the “sukkot” in which millions of soldiers now find themselves,
spirit of Israel remained strong and our independent identity in the trenches and battlefields [of World War I] – perhaps
did not waver. Even as we wandered, the “clouds of glory” did through this experience the citizens of the world will begin
not leave us, and our children remained with us, accepting to understand the suffering of the stranger and wanderer.
the heritage of their father and preserving their unique Perhaps now, when so many millions are forced to leave their
qualities and achievements. From the exiles of Babylonia, comfortable homes for the temporary dwellings of war to
Spain, France and Germany through the exiles of Poland and fight for the freedom of their nations – perhaps now they
Lithuania in recent times, we were wanderers, but we did will have some sympathy for our people, for our yearning
not dwell in a “foreign environment”. We built walls of the for freedom and for our homeland…
spirit around us, and within these walls we lived in a world
of our own. We had great centers, of the Geonim in Babylonia,
of the wise men of Israel in Spain, and the Gedolei Torah in Only one year after this essay was published, on November 2, 1917,
other lands. And all this time we kept one hope within our Rabbi Meir Bar-Ilan’s hope for compassion from the nations mate-
hearts: that soon, in just a few more years, our nation would rialized with the issuance of Great Britain’s Balfour Declaration,
return to life in its own land. expressing the British government’s support for a Jewish homeland
in Palestine.
When we dwelt as citizens in our own land, we would test
our strength, to see if we possessed the endurance to live a

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