We have come to the end. We have arrived at the beginning. We read the last parasha of the Torah this Shabbat, and at Simchat Torah, we begin again.
We sit under the sukkah this weekend for the last time this year. We rise up from it ready for the New Year.
What enables us to truly believe that a New Year will emerge? We could allow our cynicism and past experiences to cloud our hope. We could point to the last nearly three years, and to the fact that Covid still dwells among us, for example, and wonder if a new start is possible.
The Sukkah is our answer. And mud is our answer too. Why mud?
Rabbi Larry Kushner tells a story of the Israelites crossing the Reed Sea. He says that some of the Israelites moved especially slowly because they were focussed on how muddy it was during the crossing. Their feet kept getting stuck in the wet sand, and they were so uncomfortable. They crossed, looking down at their feet and the mud.
Other Israelites moved quickly, because they focussed on where they were going. They looked up most of the time. They kept their eyes on the horizon, and the other side of the sea. They too were uncomfortable but their attention was focussed up, not down.
The Sukkah is designed to encourage us to look up, not down. Our eyes are naturally drawn upward, toward the schach, towards the stars and the vast skies. When sitting in our sukkah, I barely notice the earth beneath my feet. I continually look upward, and feel uplifted in the process.
Rabbi Barukh of Miedzybosh.asked:’ Why do Jews constantly want to reach upward? Because they were already there at Mount Sinai!” In that moment of limitless love and awe, drawn together as one, we “hear” from the “mouth” of that powerful encounter: “I am the One who liberates you from all your Egypts, from all your narrow straits!’
During the High Holy Days, we sang שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד ‘Shiviti adonai l’negdi tamid’ I set God before me at all times.
We shake the lulav and etrog all around us, including up and down, to remind us to see God all around us. Look, and see God before me. If we only look backward, behind us from where we came, or down to see how muddy and challenging it is to move forward, we will get stuck in the past. But when we remember to look up, and around us, we see the vast eternal sky and the vibrancy of life, and we feel hope.
This Shabbat may your home be filled with God’s presence around you at all times. May sitting in the sukkah lift your eyes and your soul toward hope and joy. May the final days of Sukkot and Simchat Torah bring you joy.
I look forward to dancing at Simchat Torah with you all (Monday night, 6.00 pm at our campus) .
Shabbat Shalom and Hag Sameach,
Rabbi Marcia Plumb
