From Creation to Blessing: Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot, and V’Zot HaBracha in the Light of Behavioral Science and Chassidic Wisdom.
On Rosh Hashanah, I received a letter from Sarah Bowen. It carried everything at once: blessings for the New Year, mention of Mabon, even National Cat DNA Day and “Meow like a Pirate Day.” Yet beneath the humor was a deep reminder — about interdependence, that neither humans, nor animals, nor the earth itself exist alone.
Now, as Sukkot unfolds, I reread this letter while sitting in the sukkah. And I reflect: Rosh Hashanah is not only the Jewish New Year. In our tradition, it is the day of Adam’s creation, the first human being. The world itself was created six days earlier, but with Adam came history. That is why our calendar counts from the creation of the world. Today, we live in the year 5786.
Rosh Hashanah sets the intention. Sukkot gives us the lived experience. We leave our strong houses and dwell in a fragile hut, with unsteady walls and a roof of branches open to the stars. And this very environment changes us.
As a graduate of the Graduate Certificate in Behavioral Analysis (Touro University), I read Sukkot also through the lens of ABA. Science teaches: behavior is shaped by environment. The sukkah is precisely such an environment — creating a new context for our behavior. At the same time, it evokes private events: memory, gratitude, and a felt sense of God’s presence. In the language of ABA, these are internal responses of the organism. In the language of Talmud and Chassidut, they are the awe and joy of the soul.
From the view of animal chaplaincy, the sukkah also teaches: we never sit in it alone. Birds, insects, the wind, cats and dogs, all life surrounds us. The Torah calls animals nefesh chaya — a living soul. We share one roof of Heaven with all creation.
Sukkot is called zman simchateinu — the season of our joy. In ABA, joy is reinforcement. In Chabad, joy itself is divine service, drawing light from Above and breaking all boundaries.
And so the aphorism rings true:
“In the sukkah we remember: the environment shapes behavior, but Heaven shapes the environment.”
The cycle completes with the Torah portion V’Zot HaBracha. Moses blesses all Israel before the Torah concludes and begins anew. This, too, is a form of reinforcement — the blessing that seals the year and launches us forward.
From the creation of the world to the creation of Adam, from Rosh Hashanah to Sukkot, from joy to blessing — we are reminded that all of life, human and animal, body and soul, lives together under one sukkah, beneath one roof of Heaven.
Rabbi Moshe (Mikhail) Salita is a Brooklyn-based rabbi, legal scholar, and emerging animal chaplain whose work unites Jewish spirituality, international law, and compassion for all living beings.
He holds a Master’s in International Law (with honors) from the National University “Odesa Law Academy,” where he is currently a PhD student researching the restitution of unlawfully confiscated Jewish communal property in Soviet Ukraine. He also earned a Master’s in Library and Information Science from Pratt Institute (New York) and a Master’s in Education and Special Education from Touro University, with graduate certificates in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and Bilingual Education.
Rabbi Salita is an ordained rabbi of the Jewish Spiritual Leaders Institute (JSLI), a Doctor of Ministry student in Jewish Spirituality at the Graduate Theological Foundation, and an Animal Chaplain-in-Training with the Compassion Consortium in New York. His mission is to weave together justice, mercy, and creation care into one sacred path of Tikkun Olam — healing the moral and spiritual wounds of the world.
He serves as Executive Director of the Salita Foundation, originally founded by his brother, Dmitriy Salita — former WBF World Champion boxer, and inductee of both the New York Boxing Hall of Fame and the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. Today, Rabbi Salita leads the Foundation toward a broader vision — uniting humanitarian ethics, environmental awareness, and cultural restitution.
Through the Foundation, he has launched the “Eco-Kosher Initiative,” a global program encouraging support for businesses and individuals who respect the environment, animals, and their communities. For him, “eco-kosher” is not limited to food — it is a moral philosophy of living in balance with creation, where sustainability and holiness walk hand in hand.
He is also devoted to preserving and gaining international recognition for the rare Israeli cat breed Kanaani — a living symbol of harmony between Jewish heritage and the natural world.
A descendant of Sruel ben Aharon Lekhtman, a Ruzhiner Hasid and brick-factory owner in Kitai-Gorod, Kamianets-Podilskyi — once a spiritual heart of the Ruzhin Hasidic movement in Tsarist-era Ukraine — Rabbi Salita continues his ancestor’s legacy of faith, integrity, and bridge-building. Sruel Lekhtman served as a close friend and estate manager for Pan Dembitsky, a Polish landowner remembered with respect in both Jewish and Ukrainian memory. Their friendship, crossing lines of faith and culture, remains a profound symbol of coexistence — especially meaningful for Ukraine today.
Although Rabbi Salita received Reform rabbinic education in the spirit of Jewish Universalism, he maintains a deep spiritual connection with Chabad, whose living Hasidic tradition unites intellect, compassion, and joy.
Following the example of the prophets — from Adam, the first caretaker of creation, to King Solomon, who understood the language of animals, and to Rav Papa, the sage who spoke kindly of cats — Rabbi Salita teaches that true holiness is revealed through compassion for all living beings. His life’s work is to show that caring for animals and serving God are one and the same sacred breath.
