Page 22 - HaMizrachi # 23 Sukkot Simchat Torah 2020 USA

GLOBAL RELIGIOUS LEADERS

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

Radical Uncertainty

here is something very strange made sense to call Shavuot – the day what it says it is: a hut, a booth, a tem-
about the festival of Sukkot. On of revelation at Sinai – the festival of porary dwelling. What, according to
Tthe one hand, it is the festival joy. But why give that title to a festival Rabbi Akiva, was the miracle? There is
supremely associated with joy. In the that commemorates 40 years of expo- no way of knowing the answer. But we
whole Torah, joy is not mentioned at sure to the heat, cold, wind and rain. can guess.
all in relation to Rosh Hashanah, Yom Remembering that, why should we feel
Kippur or Pesach, once in connection joy? If a sukkah represents the Clouds of
with Shavuot and three times in con- Glory – the view of Rabbi Eliezer –
nection with Sukkot. Hence its name: Besides which, what was the miracle? then it celebrates G-d’s miracle. If
zman simchateinu, the festival of our Pesach and Shavuot recall miracles. it represents nothing other than a
joy. But traveling through the wilderness sukkah itself – Rabbi Akiva’s view –
with only temporary homes was nei- then it celebrates the human miracle
Yet what it recalls is one of the more ther miraculous nor unique. That is of which Yirmiyahu spoke when he
negative elements of the wilderness what people who travel through the said: “Thus said the L-rd, ‘I remember
years: “You shall live in booths seven wilderness do. They must. They are on the devotion of your youth, how as a
days; all citizens in Israel shall live in a journey. They can only have a tem- bride you loved Me and followed Me
booths, so that future generations may porary dwelling. In this respect, there in the wilderness, through a land not
know that I made the Israelites live in was nothing special about the Israel- sown’” (Yirmiyahu 2:2).
booths when I brought them out of ites’ experience.
the land of Egypt, I the L-rd your G-d” It was this consideration that led Rabbi The Israelites may have complained
(Vayikra 23:42-43). Eliezer to suggest that the sukkah rep- and rebelled. But they followed G-d.
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They kept going. Like Avraham and
For 40 years, the Israelites lived with- resents the Clouds of Glory, ananei Sarah, they were prepared to journey
out permanent homes, often on the kavod, that accompanied the Israelites into the unknown.
move. They were in the wilderness, during those years, sheltering them
in no man’s land, where it is hard to from heat and cold, protecting them If we understand this to be the mira-
know what to expect and what dangers from their enemies, and guiding them cle, we can infer a deep truth about
lie in wait along the way. The people on the way. This is a beautiful and faith itself. Faith is not certainty. Faith
certainly lived under Divine protec- imaginative solution to the problem. is the courage to live with uncertainty.
tion. But they could never be sure in It identifies a miracle and explains Almost every phase of the Exodus was
why a festival should be dedicated to
advance whether it would be forth- fraught with difficulties, real or imag-
coming and what form this protection remembering it. That is why Rashi and ined. That is what makes the Torah
Ramban take it as the plain sense of
might take. It was a prolonged period the verse. so powerful. It does not pretend that
of insecurity. life is any easier than it is. The road is
But it is difficult, nonetheless. A not straight and the journey is long.
How then are we to understand the sukkah looks nothing like the Clouds Unexpected things happen. Crises
fact that of all festivals, Sukkot is of Glory. It would be hard to imagine suddenly appear. It becomes import-
called zman simchateinu, the festival anything less like the Clouds of Glory. ant to embed in a people’s memory
of our joy? It would have made sense the knowledge that we can handle the
to call Pesach – freedom’s birthday Rabbi Akiva dissents from Rabbi unknown. G-d is with us, giving us the
– the festival of joy. It would have Eliezer’s view and says that a sukkah is courage we need.

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