Can you deceive GOD or hide from Him?
Sukkoth is the last of the seven of GOD’s Appointed Times, HaMoedim, the Biblical Festivals. So many aspects of this festival make it difficult to understand. It is a seven-day holiday plus one extra day; it is the counterpart of Pesach, as they face each other, one in Autumn and the other in Spring; both have to do with agriculture, regarding the early and latter rains upon which the Israelites were totally dependent. The seventh day is called Hoshanah Rabah, the great day of salvation and the extra day is Shemini Atzeret – the eighth day. Our sages have added one more day – Simchat Torah (Joy of the Torah), which is a festival of joy. The joy of what? According to our traditions, we read the Book of Kohelet, Ecclesiastes, which at first glance appears negative but with deeper study, we learn that, in truth, it serves to bring us down to earth. Our sages have many teachings on Hoshanah Rabah but I have always taught you to trust in GOD rather than religious beliefs, traditions or superstitions. Also, according to our sages, today’s reading is taken from Shemot 33:12 – 34:26 and speaks of the rebirth of the Israelites after the incident of the Egel Zahav (Golden Calf). To better understand these festivals, we must learn about the people who received them.
At the end of these festivals, we will start from the beginning of the Torah with Bereshit, (Genesis). One of the most important things to remember is that it shows us that we must not depend upon man but upon the Creator. That’s what this festival Sukkoth is about.
Many people confuse being religious with having a relationship with GOD. That confusion is international. Many of us think that if we adhere to a set group of formulas, we are making points with GOD as if He is making a list of our good deeds and our bad and then at the end there is a scale and depending upon how many good deeds we’ve done, our names are written in or written out of His Book. Did the Creator choose only one day a year, Yom Kippur, when we can be forgiven for our sins? This is all tradition but what is the essence of this message in the Torah? What does our Creator want for you and me? Does He want us to be His slaves, to be miserable? Did He want us to constantly worry about who is on our backs or who is running away like Cain did when he was told he would run for the rest of his life? Or does GOD want us to carve out a full and happy life for ourselves?
One of the basic principles of the Torah is that you and I are responsible for our actions and their consequences; if we do something wrong, we need to admit it and do our best to make it right. Responsibility means that we work to develop good relationships with the people around us to avoid misunderstandings and problems. We tend to mistrust, judge and misunderstand each other, however, the Creator teaches us how to dig deep within to purge ourselves, to work on ourselves to eliminate the patterns of behaviour from the past that have contaminated us.
This season is not about fasting or being forgiven for our sins; rather it is about making things right with our neighbor…as well as ourselves. Once we reach Sukkoth, we can rejoice for being renewed and free to start again without a proverbial “monkey on our backs. This powerful process can only be done with the help of “Our God of Beginning Again”.
Let me ask you, at this moment what is bothering you; what is putting so much pressure on you that you cannot sleep at night? Why don’t you let it go?
Some of us only feel important or alive when something is bothering us or we have something to worry about; some to the point of having these things become our idols. They have become an obstruction to our relationship with the Creator. I’ve heard people say, “Oh I can’t do that. It’s not for me or I don’t like that.” They see everything in a negative light; but what does the Creator want for us? He gave us life and wants us to live a life filled with joy and gratitude for His gifts. He Is not a tyrant although some think He is a slave driver who only wants to make our lives miserable.
Sukkoth teaches us that this is a festival of joy!
This morning’s portion in Exodus speaks about how Moshe had to bring a second set of stones to the Creator because he broke the first set in anger after he saw the people worshipping the golden calf. The second set was placed into the Aron, the Ark to be carried everywhere with the people of Israel as they travelled through the desert. The only things written on those two stones were the Ten Commandments, not our traditions, not our superstitions, not our personal beliefs, and not a lot of manmade rules and regulations! These Ten were written in indelible ink by the Finger of GOD. The Creator has given every one of us our personal Ark – that is our heart! The heart is where we hold His beautiful words as a constant reminder of what it means to be alive. It doesn’t mean that we will never fail or do anything wrong.
Where is your Aron, your ark, your heart? Can you deceive GOD or hide from Him?
We are reminded of this when we look at the Sukkah. It is not made of strong materials; it is a temporary construction with a roof made of branches for us to see the heavens and He can see us. This depicts that we can never hide from Him. Our souls are transparent to Him. We can’t play any games to hide who we are from Him. He wants us to know that He is always watching over us and that He wants to protect us from the “elements”, from the things that can harm us.
We are close to the end of the High Holidays. We heard the shofar blasts of the shofar and now have reached the final day of Redemption, Hoshana Rabah. For the Creator there is no final day; that is a manmade invention. The Creator’s idea of salvation or redemption is not about reaching the Promised Land where we will dwell for a while but rather about walking forever in His Presence.
It’s time to be more honest with ourselves. We have become so good at lying to ourselves and others that we have lost the capacity to distinguish the real from the imagined. I have been doing a lot of reading about psychopaths. The major ingredient of a psychopath is that he has lost all of his conscience and is unable to discern right from wrong, like Pharaoh. The Creator wants us to keep our Sukkah open so that we can differentiate between right and wrong. This way we can be transparent, see who we are and not hide anything from Him or ourselves. We are to keep our conscience alive!
I hope that this year we can learn that observing the Biblical Festivals is not about adhering rigorously to steps one and two of the religious traditions, but rather about coming clean before GOD so that He can help us change for the better. Our sages have placed too many restrictions regarding the tradition of waving the four species (in Leviticus 23:40) in the Sukkah. These elements are the etrog (lemon-like fruit), the date palm branch, the myrtle branch and the willow branch. However, they have a beautiful teaching about them concerning the people of Israel.
The Etrog has both smell and taste; the date palm has a delicious, sweet taste but no smell, the Myrtle has a beautiful aroma but no taste and the Arov, the Willow has neither. Smell represents faith and love of the Torah and taste represents good deeds. They divide the people of Israel into four types. The Etrog with its good aroma and good taste represents those who have faith and are filled with the study of the Torah, so that their life emanates truth, producing good deeds. The Myrtle is like those who study the Torah but spend no time doing good deeds. The Date Palm, the Lulav, is the person who is so busy doing good deeds but knows little about faith and the study of the Torah, and finally, the Arov, does neither good deeds nor studies the Torah, living only for himself. Sadly, the great majority of people are like the Arov. Their lives are empty.
During this season, Sukkoth, the Torah sends us a message, With which one of these four characters do you identify? Are you honest with yourself? I like the expression…”What you see is what you get.” I prefer to have only one face for everyone. I am not an actor and I let people know how I feel. I warn them to get away from me when I’m in a bad mood. However, I can’t blame others if I am provoked to lose my temper. But when I do, I feel terrible afterwards and do my best to rectify it by apologizing. I know the Creator is dealing with me and I will do better next time. I also know that it is wrong to justify my actions by stubbornly thinking that I was right and that the other person provoked me by making me say things I didn’t need to.
I want to think before I react and that takes time. I need to know that the Creator isn’t there waiting to point His finger at me in judgment, to punish me when I do wrong. He is far more merciful than we are. I have learned that the GOD of Israel is the “God of Beginning Again”. He waits with open arms to forgive us when we approach Him with a humble heart and an honest desire to change. We have that hope.
Chag Sukkoth Sameach.
Ranebi רנב”י Rabbi Netanel ben Yochanan