Reflection on Sukkot 5785
Menachem Mirski
You’re probably familiar with the expression “a way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” That was told to young women of bygone generations to encourage them to learn how to cook well so that they could “catch” a man. Well, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov teaches, the same is true of coming close to God – The way to your neshamah (soul) is through your stomach as well, through the feeling you feel in both, your soul and your stomach.
One one the experiences that can be really felt in our stomach is the experience of the passing of everything, the existential experience of the transience of everything. The experience of dwelling in the sukkah is about amplifying the perception of all things as temporary. It is to remind us that our permanent place of living is temporary as well. We notice this process when we repair our houses but it is not that tangible in our everyday life. What makes a home long-lasting is not walls and a roof, but the Shekinah’s presence. That should be our focus, that is the message of sukkot.
But this message, this idea – of the transience of everything needs to be put into context otherwise it can be terribly misunderstood and misused. If everything is just temporary we may think that there is no need to be particularly scrupulous in terms of morality – yes, we need to be ethical and follow a certain moral code but let’s not exaggerate – there are some little things causing little discomfort or pain, it will all pass, why should we be focus on them? This is a mistake that will be corrected when put into the context of the ethical teachings of the Torah, in which we must be at least as meticulous as in the matters of the ritual and halacha. This is something we sometimes forget. And our Torah reading for today, even though it is entirely focused on ritual matters, gives us one, only one, but important ethical insight:
When an ox or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall stay seven days with its mother, and from the eighth day on it shall be acceptable as an offering by fire to יהוה. However, no animal from the herd or from the flock shall be slaughtered on the same day with its young. (Leviticus 22:27-28)
It teaches us to be sensitive to the suffering of all living beings. It teaches us exactly what I just said – we should always be mindful whether our religious practices or our behavior, in general, does harm to other beings. We may feel that we are completely right in everything we do and this “feeling right” may blind us to the side effects of our deeds. Our perception of the outcomes of our actions as temporary may also make us less careful. What we see as a temporary outcome – emotional damage, for example, may stay in another person’s heart forever. Our material world is transient but our internal, spiritual world has a tendency to gravitate towards eternity and this means things may be remembered forever, without a possibility of being erased or simply disappearing. Let’s be then always mindful about the consequences of our actions and words and let’s be humble because we never know what chain of consequences our actions or words will start and how the whole matter will ultimately end, whether it’s going to be good or not necessarily good for us. Being (ethically) mindful protects us from most of the unpredicted and not pleasant consequences.
Chag Sukkot Sameach!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Mirski
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