Page 31 - HaMizrachi #33 Sukkot 2021 USA

In contemporary terms it means that speak of their conversion. The practical closeness to G-d that we feel on Shem-
our common humanity precedes our outcome of this dual theology – the uni- ini Atzeret, when all the other guests
religious differences. It also means that versality of G-d and the particularity of have left. Shemini Atzeret is chamber
by creating all humans in His image, Torah – is that we are commanded to music, not a symphony. It is a quiet
G-d set us the challenge of seeing His be true to our faith, and a blessing to time with G-d. We are reluctant to
image in one who is not in our image: others, regardless of their faith. That is leave, and we dare to think that He is
whose colour, culture, class and creed the Jewish way. reluctant to see us go. Justice is univer-
are different from our own. The ulti- Shemini Atzeret reminds us of the inti- sal, love is particular. There are some
mate spiritual challenge is to see the macy Jews have always felt in the pres- things we share because we are human.
trace of G-d in the face of a stranger. ence of G-d. The cathedrals of Europe But there are other things, constitutive
of our identity, that are uniquely ours –
Zechariah, in the vision we read as the convey a sense of the vastness of G-d most importantly our relationships to
Haftarah for the first day of Sukkot, and the smallness of humankind. The those who form our family. On Sukkot
puts this precisely. He says that in the small shuls of Tzfat, where the Arizal we are among strangers and friends.
End of Days, “Hashem shall be King and Rabbi Yosef Caro prayed, convey On Shemini Atzeret we are with family.
over all the earth; on that day Hashem a sense of the closeness of G-d and
shall be One and His name One” the greatness of humankind. Jews,
(Zechariah 14:9), meaning that all the except when they sought to imitate Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks was the Chief
nations will recognise the sovereignty other nations, did not build cathedrals. Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations
of a single transcendent G-d. Yet at the Even the Beit HaMikdash reached its of the Commonwealth from 1991 until his
same time, Zechariah envisages the greatest architectural grandeur under retirement in 2013. He spent decades bringing
nations participating only in Sukkot, Herod, a man better known for his spiritual insight to the public conversation
the most universal of the festivals, and political ruthlessness than his spiritual through mass media, popular lectures, and
more than 30 books. Rabbi Sacks passed
the one in which they have the great- sensibilities. away in 2020, leaving behind a legacy as
est interest since they all need rain. When all the universality of Judaism one of the greatest Jewish thinkers of our
He does not envisage them becoming has been expressed, there remains generation, one who bridged the religious
Jews, accepting the “yoke of the com- something that cannot be universal- and secular world through his remarkable
mands”, all 613 of them. He does not ised: that sense of intimacy with and and ground-breaking canon of work.

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