The Autumn Leaves Blow through the Sukkah….
Friends, as a welcome respite from the endless traumatizing news cycles on the recent attack on the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, let’s think ahead to Sukkot starting this weekend. The autumn leaves are in our prayers too!
For those paying attention in the Shacharit morning prayers, in the Hodu prayer immediately preceding Pesukei D’Zimra (Psalms of Praise) there is a wonderful line quoted from 1 Chronicles 16:33 which echoes Psalm 96: 12-13 saying “Then the trees of the forest will sing with joy, [receding] before Adonai (God) when He comes to judge the earth.”
https://www.sefaria.org/Siddur_Sefard%2C_Weekday_Shacharit%2C_Hodu?lang=bi
The trees are starting to look lovely outside my window, and the fall colors have not yet peaked here. So come on down if you haven’t done Tashlich yet! We have until Hoshana Rabba (last day of Sukkot), or so I’m told.
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/564247/jewish/What-Is-Tashlich.htm
https://www.hamilton.ca/people-programs/inclusion-diversity-equity-accessibility/jewish-life-hamilton
I think it is amazing that our prayers are so linked to our positions in space and time and the cosmos. If one prays regularly or reads the prayer book closely one will notice the celebration of space and time - sunrise, sunset, twilight, the sun, moon, stars and planets, and the passage of the days, weeks, months, years, and seasons. May they be happy and healthy and meaningful for us.
One of the special prayers at Sukkot is for rain for the fall and winter season, and we make this shift until Passover in the Amidah standing prayer. As well there is a special prayer for rain that is recited during the Shemini Atzeret holiday, the last day of Sukkot on which Yizkor, the memorial prayer is said.
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3463470/jewish/Shemini-Atzeret-Praying-for-Rain.htm
Also, an interesting switch during Sukkot is the recitation of the phrase during the Birkat Hamazon (Grace After Meals) asking God to help us 'rebuild the tabernacle of David'. Here also is an older post from the Times of Israel on that:
https://www.sefaria.org/Amos.9.12?lang=bi
“Rebuild for us King David’s fallen tabernacle” — a Sukkot Dvar Torah
It has often been said that we build and dwell in Sukkot during the colder and sometimes rainy fall season, in flimsy huts with little but natural branches for roofing to demonstrate our faith in God and replicate the faith of our ancestors in the wilderness prior to the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai, which we commemorate at Simchat Torah and also at Shavuot.
In a way, we are all flimsy huts, and we are all vulnerable, especially now. Even our synagogues and Jewish community institutions are vulnerable, as recent attacks have shown. Our students are vulnerable on campus, and our people are vulnerable to vilification and marginalization in Canada's now-normalized climate of anti-semitism and escalating hate crimes.
We must depend on ourselves, and each other, and our trusted allies and our faith in God, and use our best judgement (like LGBTQ people do) on where it is safe to display our Jewish symbols openly.
There is a wonderful line in the morning prayers quoting 2 Chronicles 20:12 saying, "Oh God, we know not what to do, but our eyes are on you." This was the prayer of King Jehosaphat of Judah during a time of national calamity. They were answered by the arrival of the prophet Jahaziel who promised them that the battle was already won for them by God.
https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/2%20Chronicles%2020%3A12
https://www.sefaria.org/II_Chronicles.20.12?lang=bi
In the morning prayers on Mondays and Thursdays, this passage appears in the Tachanun prayers of repentance and pleas for divine protection from those seeking to harm us. Many of these prayers repeat the refrains of our high holiday services.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachanun
We must have faith in God but most of all we must have faith in ourselves. I strongly believe as my father (z'l) taught me that people will respect us when we know who we are and never pretend to be anything but that.
This requires us to study and practice our tradition faithfully, in all its diversity, and to act in ways that bring honor to ourselves and our community.
Here's my favorite version of Autumn Leaves, for good measure. I can see us driving to shul in our large family car with the windshield wipers keeping time to the rain and our radial tires hissing over autumn leaves on slick dark pavements. Perfect for Yizkor. Don't mess with the family Oldsmobile. Or these smart and sassy Jews.
Please join me this Yizkor season at Sukkot / Shemini Atzeret amid the bounties of the fall harvest season in supporting Leket Israel and your local Jewish Family Services Kosher Food Bank. Please support our secular food banks too! Canadian Thanksgiving is on its way.
Let's also help the folks at the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville rebuild THEIR tabernacle and repair their windows and make them safer in light of the recent attack. They have just announced a new Go Fund Me campaign. Please give generously.
Stay well and strong, and let's look out for one another. Chag Sukkot Sameach.
Am Yisrael Chai. We send our love from Canada.
