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Emanations:
An exploration of the Jewish Holidays based on our Jewish sages' words that offers deeper meanings & insights into the Jewish calendar that we cherish.
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Sukkot
A Universal Holiday?
The Talmud relates that in the future, when the nations of the world will complain about the apparent discrimination against non-Jews as compared to the treatment enjoyed by the Jews, they will be told that the difference stems from the Jews’ adherence to the Torah.The nations will then plead, “Offer us the Torah anew and we will follow it.”“You foolish people,” God will answer, “he who prepares on the eve of Shabbat can eat on Shabbat, but he who made no preparations, what can he eat? Nevertheless, I have an easy commandment called sukkah, go and fulfill it….”
Why is it called an easy commandment? Because it has no expense. Immediately each one will build a sukkah on his roof, but God will cause the sun to blaze as if it were the summer solstice. Each one will then kick his sukkah, and leave.…
Thereupon God will laugh, as it is said, “He that sits in heaven and laughs” (Tehillim 2:4). (Avodah Zarah 3a–b)
Although this passage is a difficult one, I would like to focus on one of its main themes: that non-Jews will not be able to keep the commandment of sukkah. The reason that this is so strange is that of all the holidays, Sukkot has been perceived as the most universal. The Talmud teaches:
Why are seventy offerings brought on Sukkot? For the [merit of the] seventy nations of the world. (Sukkah 55b)
Rashi explains:
To bring forgiveness for them [the seventy nations], so that rain shall fall all over the world.
The Sages stressed that Sukkot has a universal element which is clearly absent in the other festivals: Pesach represents the Exodus from Egypt and the emergence of a Jewish nation, while Shavuot celebrates the giving of the Torah. It seems paradoxical to find this expression of the inability of the nations of the world to relate to God specifically in the context of Sukkot. We may theorize that specifically on Sukkot, when the Jews concerned themselves with the welfare of non-Jews, the non-Jews were expected to respond and to relate to God directly. There is, however, another passage which makes this approach untenable.
And it shall come to pass, that everyone who is left of all the nations who came up against Yerushalayim, shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the God of Hosts, and to keep the holiday of Sukkot. And whoever does not come…to Yerushalayim...upon them there will be no rain. (Zecharyah 14:16–17)
This passage from the prophecy of Zecharyah describes the aftermath of apocalyptic battles, when the vanquished nations will celebrate Sukkot. How, then, can the Talmud suggest that the nations will be given the commandment of sukkot and fail, when the biblical passage describes their successful adherence to this precept in the future? While the Talmud contains many explanations of biblical teachings, the Talmud does not have the mandate to argue with the prophets. Our question, then, is quite simple: How can the Talmud relate that in the future the nations of the world will be unable to keep Sukkot when the prophet tells us that they will keep Sukkot in the future?
I believe that in the resolution of this apparent contradiction lies the essence of Sukkot.
There are two distinct aspects to the holiday of Sukkot, represented by two commandments in the Torah:
On the fifteenth of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep a festival for God seven days…. And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of a hadar [etrog], branches of palm trees [lulav], the boughs of thick-leaved trees [aravot], and willows of the brook [haddasim], and you shall rejoice before your God seven days. And you shall keep it as a holiday seven days a year; it shall be a statute forever to celebrate. You shall sit in booths [sukkot] seven days, every citizen of Israel shall sit in the sukkot, in order to inform all generations that in sukkot the Jews dwelled when I liberated them from Egypt. (Vayikra 23:39–43)
The Torah speaks on the one hand of “gathering fruit” and, as a response, “taking” produce, while on the other hand it speaks of sitting in the sukkah, as the people who left Egypt had done. We see two commandments: 1) taking the four species, and 2) living in booths or “sukkot.” One commandment has an agricultural impetus, the other a historical one. The agricultural aspect of the holiday is clearly universal, while the historical aspect is particular to the Jews.
The relationship between the gathering of the fruit and the four species seems clear: After gathering the new fruits, to express our gratitude to God, we collect these four species. The species which we gather are a tool used for prayer, in order to thank God for the produce we have just harvested and implore that a generous amount be allocated for the coming year. Our Rabbis teach that the allocation of water for the year takes place on Sukkot:
On Chag [Sukkot] we are judged regarding water. (Rosh HaShanah 16a)
In fact, much of the celebration which took place in Yerushalayim on Sukkot was connected to water, including the Simchat Beit HaSho’eivah ceremony. This, too, was a ritual connected to water, of which the Mishnah says:
Whoever did not see the Simchat Beit HaSho’eivah never saw real joy in his life. (Mishnah Sukkah 5:1)
The verse spoke of “rejoicing before your God,” referring to the Temple in Yerushalayim. Sukkot was uniquely celebrated in Yerushalayim: Armed with the four species, the Jews would come to the Temple and pray for more rain and bounty.
What, however, is the meaning of the other aspect of Sukkot? We are commanded to dwell in booths, because God delivered us in booths. What is the symbolism of these booths? The Talmud records two opinions. Rabbi Eliezer likened God’s protection of the Jews, described by the biblical term “sukkah,” to a cloud of glory. Rabbi Akiva taught that when the Jews were liberated from Egypt they lived in actual booths which protected them from the elements. Both opinions agree that the sukkot signify the special relationship which the Jews have enjoyed with God. The difference lies in respect to the historical reality. Were we protected metaphysically, by a cloud, or were we protected via a physical entity — a sukkah?
Either way, the Jews ventured into the desert, vulnerable to the elements, putting their faith in God. This is what we commemorate today. This faith in God is the key to Sukkot. For the Jew to leave the comforts of his home and live in a booth, a temporary abode, is the essence of the sukkah experience. We are commanded to make these temporary abodes into our homes for the duration of the seven days of Sukkot. This serves as a reminder of the temporary nature of our existence, helping us focus on the proper relationship between the physical and the spiritual. But most importantly, the sukkah is an expression of trust, the trust that we had in the desert and the trust which we hopefully have today.
Now perhaps we can resolve the inconsistencies. There are two sides to Sukkot: the need for the physical, on the one hand, and the rejection of the physical, in favor of trust in God, on the other. The need for physicality is real, and nothing is as representative of our physical needs as rain. The Hebrew word for rain is geshem, which means physical. Yet the source of rain is the clouds referred to by Rabbi Eliezer, clouds of glory, symbolizing the spiritual, the metaphysical.
Clouds are ethereal, beyond our grasp, beyond our understanding. Specifically on Sukkot, we pray for rain. In the wake of Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, when we prayed for our very existence, on Sukkot we are concerned with “quality of life.” We pray for the physical; we pray for rain. With dialectical elegance a synthesis is created: We are commanded to leave our homes, the physical anchor in our lives, and enter a home under the clouds, protected by our trust in God.
Our physical existence is brought into sharp contrast with our spiritual life, and the two aspects of Sukkot coexist.
Now we return to our original question: Will the nations of the world be able to observe the holiday of Sukkot? Surely, the answer must consider each aspect of the holiday separately. The passage in Zecharyah that spoke of observance by non-Jews of Sukkot stressed that it was in Yerushalayim — “before God.” This aspect of Sukkot finds unique expression in Yerushalayim; this is the aspect of thanks and prayer for rain. In fact, the verse continued:
And whoever does not come…to Yerushalayim...upon them there will be no rain.
The reason for coming to Yerushalayim was to receive the blessing for rain. This aspect of Sukkot surely can be fulfilled by non-Jews. It is, in essence, a recognition of cause and effect; it is pragmatic. The nations of the world can perform this type of service.
However, the other aspect of Sukkot, the building of the sukkah, what the Talmud called a “simple mitzvah,” is what the non-Jewish religions, and certainly the pagan religious experience, found so foreign. Here there was no pragmatism, merely trust — trust and love.
Go and cry out in the ears of Yerushalayim, saying, “Thus says God, ‘I remember in your favor the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, when you followed Me into the wilderness, into land that was not sown.’ ” (Yirmiyah 2:2)
The sukkah is testimony to that love. Simply being “with God,” away from the physical, perhaps only minimizing our physical side, is foreign to the pagan mindset. They were accustomed to difficult commandments which involved giving, sacrificing something dear, in order to find favor with the gods. Conversely, the Talmud asks why it is called an “easy mitzvah.”
Why is it called an easy commandment? Because it has no expense.
This the pagans found bizarre: What is a God who asks for nothing? The Talmud further relates:
But does not Rabba say whoever is vexed [by the sukkah] is freed of the obligation of sukkah? (Avodah Zarah 3b)
A law of sukkah is that someone extremely bothered by the sukkah is exempt; therefore, the non-Jews who found themselves in a hot sukkah were technically exempt. This is even more alien to pagan ideas; if a god asks for something difficult, are you exempt? The response of the non-Jews was to kick down the sukkah, as if to say, “Enough is enough. How can man be expected to relate to such a deity?”
This aspect of sukkah is a uniquely Jewish experience: living with God, remembering the days of our youth when we followed God like a lovesick bride, not questioning, accepting, trusting. This aspect of Sukkot cannot be enjoyed by the non-Jews who will, in Messianic times, seek equal treatment. To our great joy and pleasure, we may enjoy this unique and exclusive relationship with God each year on the occasion of Sukkot.