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Ben Lazarus

Sukkot under a cloud – a unique year to connect

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As I write this, we are coming up to Sukkot and Simchat Torah, a day that changed everything. My son like so many others jumped to action on that day and one year year later he is “offline” in war. This is no normal year and tragically we are seeing too many casualties and we still have 101 hostages away from their homes.

How should we consider Sukkot this year and its last day (or some day a separate festival of Simchat Torah) under this cloud.

Perhaps it is this cloud that we should consider and perhaps it is a good time to reflect on four aspects of the festival for some hope and comfort.

The first theme is exactly the cloud we sit under and the vulnerability we all feel. Whether a student on a university campus, a soldier in the field or like us in a shelter a few days ago without power as 181 ballistic missiles are launched and land nearby.

The central theme of Sukkot is that we are vulnerable and need God’s protection. Whether represented by the physical Sukka we construct and sit in to remind us of the temporary nature of our world and our dependence on the shelter we take for granted, and/or the Clouds of Glory God provided for us in the desert, the key point which I feel more than ever is that we live under His protection and we need it more than ever.

We are blessed with the technological clouds of protection in the form of Iron Dome, Arrow and David’s Sling for example but surely we need more. This is a time to reflect on that very vulnerability and strengthen our faith. We are not alone.

A second theme is the very strange Arbat Haminim – 4 species – we wave on the holiday. I remember being a young teenager walking along in London with them being photographed by a passing tourist bus. They are strange!

But there is a unique message in them. The Sages say that it is precisely the different nature of the 4 species that makes them whole. All are needed to make a blessing and they must all be held together. The Jewish people is made up of all shades and types. It is only through our unity and coming together that we are blessed. We must come together and respect each other and not hold ourselves as better than. It is our unique combination that makes us so strong and you see it with the composition of the IDF. We are stronger united.

Third, Sukkot in the Temple was special in that offerings were made for all the nations of the world. It is a time to recognize that we are one of many nations and there are many out there who support and respect us. We have a key role to play in a broken world and a coalition of the good and decent and often silent majority need to come together in order to defeat an evil we face today but many will face tomorrow. Those however who demand our annihilation have no place under this holy canopy. I am learning more each day that this axis of evil under the Iranian regime’s leadership is also crushing millions of others under its cosh and I hope this year sees an ending of this and a broadening of peace between nations.

Simchat Torah however was a day designated for the Jewish people to rejoice on their own in the beauty of the Torah and its unique inheritance. This year will be almost impossible but that is where my fourth point comes in.

As we sit in Sukkah we invite spiritual guests – something I never gave thought to at any serious level. We invite Abraham, Issac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron and David to join us.

These seven guests saw everything there is to see. The three Patriarchs and their wives were there at the birth of our people and saw terrible and great wonders. Joseph was kidnapped and held as a captive for years. Moshe and Aaron led us to freedom and a David ruled the first Jewish Kingdom.

They lived and came through huge challenges and are by our side spiritually. What we are going through is terrible and I literally live in fear of news from the front but as a Jew I must double down on my faith and ask God to protect us with his Cloud of Glory and as he did with Joseph to release the captives from captivity.

May we have better times and may our children and loved ones be safe:

Chag Sameyach

About the Author
I live in Yad Binyamin having made Aliyah 17 years ago from London. I have an amazing wife and kids including a son in Special Forces and two daughters, one soon to start uni and one in high school. A partner of a global consulting firm and a Parkinson's patient and advocate.
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