The most powerful, spiritual, exciting and celebratory pieces on our Jewish Calendar are the Holidays that occur every year within it. Each of these special days is present for historic reasons and theological ones as well. It is through our yearly Jewish calendar that we as Jews identify with our ancestry and history of the past, our Judaism of today, and our Jewish identity of the future.
The Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur start off our calendar every year and have been present in our lives ever since the time of the Bible. They are present to remind us that we are to start our lives over every year by asking for forgiveness from God and others in our lives and as the Bible declares: “We are to afflict our souls” (which the Rabbis explain later historically as fasting for one full day) during this most holy time of our calendar year.
But after the 10 days of repentance (which include both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur) comes a Holiday of harvest and celebration, the Holiday of Sukkot. Historically, Sukkot represents the Fall Harvest season, the time when Jews in the land of Israel began planting crops and preparing for a season of agricultural growth and success. Six months later, during the Spring Harvest season, which is from Passover until Shavuot, the crops would be ready for picking and of course, eating!
But Sukkot also has a religious and spiritual side to it as well. We build a portable home known as a Sukkah and eat, drink and even sleep in it for eight days. This Mitzvah is to remind us of the forty years that the Jewish people wandered through the desert and would constantly move form camp to camp building their portable Sukkot (the plural form of Sukkah). Sukkot also has one more powerful Mitzvah and ritual that we as Jews take part in each year. That Mitzvah is known as shaking the Lulav and Etrog (the four species which include the palm, myrtle, willow and fruit citron). We hold them together each morning on Sukkot (Except for Shabbat) and shake them in six directions acknowledging that God is everywhere and that we are blessed to have the abundant resources in nature that God bestows upon us each and every day.
There is a Midrash (a Rabbinic story) that teaches each of the four species represents different parts of the body. The Lulav (palm) represents our spine, The Hadas (Myrtle) represents our Eyes, the Aravah (Willow) represents our mouths and the Etrog (Citron) represents our heart. The understanding is that when we take all of them and embrace them together, we acknowledge that our commitment to God and to our Judaism takes our entire body. Our spine is used for physical action of good deeds, our mouths are used for the powerful and holy words that come out of them, our eyes can see what needs to be fixed and improved in the world and our hearts lead us to being present for others when they need us in life.
As we shake our Lulavim and Etrogim on this Sukkot, may God give us the guidance and strength to live up to such expectations. May our holiday of Sukkot this year be one that enhances our lives. May Sukkot allow us to think about how we can be stronger role models in bringing goodness, peace, holiness and friendship to the world. May our harvest season be one where we acknowledge the value of life that God has blessed us with. May our Holiday of Sukkot provide for us an understanding of what our purpose is in fulfilling God’s will within our world.
Chag Sameach,
A Happy and Fulfilling Sukkot for all of us,
Rabbi Micah Caplan
