Rabbi Ron Segal
One of the gifts of Sukkot is that it gives us permission to be a little less serious.
After the introspection and solemnity of the High Holy Days, Sukkot arrives with a very different invitation: “Come outside. Sit down. Eat something. Invite some friends. Look up. Enjoy.”
There is something wonderfully simple about sitting in a sukkah. We leave behind, at least for a little while, the walls and comforts that normally surround us and enter a space that is intentionally temporary and imperfect. We eat our meals outdoors. We decorate with our children and grandchildren. We welcome and spend time with friends. Maybe we shake the lulav and etrog. And if we are lucky, we look through the covering of the sukkah and see the stars.
Perhaps this is all part of what makes Sukkot such a joyous and celebratory holiday. It reminds us that joy does not always require something extraordinary. Sometimes it simply requires that we notice. On Rosh HaShanah eve, I spoke about Rabbi Heschel’s idea of radical amazement – the capacity to encounter the world each day with a sense of wonder, to resist the temptation to take the miraculous ordinary things of life for granted.
The Festival of Sukkot provides us a wonderful invitation to practice this kind of amazement:
To notice the changing light at the end of the day;
To laugh, share a meal and celebrate with people we love around a table;
To relish the first signs of autumn;
To look up through the roof of a sukkah and truly take in the majesty of a star-filled sky.
Sukkot asks us to pause long enough to experience the world rather than simply move through it. This year, I hope we will find at least one – hopefully many! – opportunity to celebrate Sukkot, not by merely fulfilling its rituals, but by truly allowing ourselves to enjoy them.
Sit in a sukkah. Invite someone in. Eat something delicious. Shake a lulav. Look at the sky. And for a few moments, let yourself be amazed by the simple, beautiful fact that we are here – and that we get to share it with one another.
