Page 23 - HaMizrachi # 23 Sukkot Simchat Torah 2020 USA

GLOBAL RELIGIOUS LEADERS

Each Sukkot it is as if G-d were surrounded by clouds of glory. It is the what our career or livelihood will be,
reminding us: don’t think you need only people who can live in a tempo- or what will happen to society and to
solid walls to make you feel safe. I led rary dwelling and yet rejoice. the world. We cannot escape exposure
your ancestors through the desert so to risk. That is what life is.
2
they would never forget the journey In Radical Uncertainty, the book
they had to make and the obstacles recently published by John Kay (econ- The sukkah symbolizes living with
they had to overcome to get to this omist) and Mervyn King (former unpredictability. Sukkot is the festival
Land. He said, “I made the Israelites Governor of the Bank of England), of radical uncertainty. But it places it
live in booths when I brought them a distinction is made between risk, within the framework of a narrative,
out of the land of Egypt” (Vayikra which is calculable, and uncertainty, exactly as Kay and King suggest. It tells
23:43). In those booths, fragile and which is not. They argue that people us that though we journey through a
open to the elements, the Israel- have relied too much on calculations wilderness, we as a people will reach
ites learned the courage to live with of probability while neglecting the our destination. If we see life through
uncertainty. fact that danger may appear from a the eyes of faith, we will know we are
completely unexpected source. The surrounded by clouds of glory. Amid
Other nations told stories that cel- sudden appearance of the Coronavirus uncertainty, we will find ourselves able
ebrated their strength. They built proved their point. People knew there to rejoice. We need no castles for pro-
palaces and castles as expressions of was a possibility of a pandemic. But no tection or palaces for glory. A humble
invincibility. The Jewish people were one knew what it would be like, where sukkah will do, for when we sit within
different. They carried with them a it would come from, how rapidly it it, we sit beneath what the Zohar calls
story about the uncertainties and haz- would spread, and what toll it would “the shade of faith.”
ards of history. They spoke of their take.
ancestors’ journey through the wil- I believe the experience of leaving the
derness without homes, houses, pro- More important than the calculation protection of a house and entering
tection against the elements. It is a of probabilities, they say, is under- the exposure of the sukkah is a way
story of spiritual strength, not military standing the situation, answering the of taming our fear of the unknown. It
3
strength. question, “What is going on?” This, says: we have been here before. We are
they say, is never answered by statis- all travelers on a journey. The Divine
Sukkot is a testament to the Jewish tics or predictions but rather by narra- Presence is with us. We need not be
people’s survival. Even if it loses its tive, by telling a story. afraid. That is a source of the resil-
Land and is cast again into the wil- ience we need in our interconnected,
derness, it will lose neither heart That is exactly what Sukkot is about. It hazardous, radically uncertain world.
nor hope. It will remember it spent is a story about uncertainty. It tells us
its early years as a nation living in a that we can know everything else, but
sukkah, a temporary dwelling exposed we will never know what tomorrow 1 Sukkah 11b.
to the elements. It will know that in will bring. Time is a journey across a 2 John Kay and Mervyn King, Radical Uncer-
the wilderness, no encampment is wilderness. tainty, Bridge Street Press, 2020.
permanent. It will keep traveling until 3 The authors derive this idea from Richard
once again it reaches the promised On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Rumelt, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, Crown,
2011.
land: Israel. Home. we pray to be written into the Book
of Life. On Sukkot, we rejoice because
It is no accident that the Jewish people we believe we have received a positive
is the only one to have survived 2,000 answer to our prayer. But as we turn to
years of exile and dispersion, its iden- face the coming year, we acknowledge
tity intact and energy unabated. It at the outset that life is fragile, vul- Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks is Emeritus
is the only people who can live in a nerable in a dozen different ways. We Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congre-
shack with leaves as a roof and yet feel do not know what our health will be, gations of the Commonwealth.

| 23