DEFINING SIMCHA
You shall dwellin sukkot for seven days…in order that your [future] generations shall knowthat I caused them to dwell in sukkot when I brought them out of Egypt. (Leviticus 23:42-3)
The phrase in orderthat your generations shall know, suggests that Jewish tradition shouldhave developed, analogous to Passover, a Sukkot Haggadah and Sederas vehicles for re-experiencing with our children the story of our ancestors’forty year, miracle-filled wanderings in the Sinai desert.
Jewish practice (Halacha),however, is devoid of any such Sukkot Seder service. On the contrary, Halachastates that even if a person remains totally unaware of the historical eventswhich the sukkah commemorates, he nevertheless fulfills his halachicobligation simply by eating (and, in warm climates, where safe, sleeping) inthe sukkah.
Jewish tradition, therefore, doesnot view the sukkah as commemorating any particular historical event,but rather as celebrating an ongoing reality. The sukkot in thedesert were merely an illustration of that reality.
An indicatorthat Sukkot does not ultimately commemorate any particular historical event maybe found in our liturgy’s description of Sukkot as zeman simchateinu(“the time of our rejoicing”) - a characterization that evokes no specifichistorical occurrence. The parallel liturgical characterizations of bothPassover and Shavuot, in contrast, do point to specific historical realities,namely, “the time of our liberation” and “the time of our receiving the Torah”.
The phrase“time of our rejoicing,” in contrast, evokes an inner state of mind and emotions,independent of historical catalysts, be they past (Divine protection in thedesert) or present (a successful harvest).
The ongoing reality which wecelebrate on Sukkot is perhaps best described as the radicalinter-dependence (in this world) between God and Israel as the means for theredemption for all of humanity.
The simcha whichthis interdependence evokes in us is not primarily a mystical experience,although that element does exist. Rather, it is a cognitive-ethical realizationof the fact that God has chosen us to act as His agents in this world, to modeland to communicate His values to each other and, ultimately, to all humanbeings. This fact endows our lives with infinite significance and, therefore,with potentially infinite value.
Our message tothe non-Jewish the world is that all human beings, insofar as they are createdin God’s image, are also mandated with Divine missions. This concept mayexplain why, in the Holy Temple on Sukkot, we offered sacrifices on behalf of allseventy paradigmatic nations of the world.
The differencebetween our mandate and that of the rest of the world is that we alone areassigned to self-actualize as a “delivery system” for this message, boththrough modeling (Deuteronomy 4:7-8) andthough teaching (e.g., Jonah).
Every humanbeing needs redemption, which translates, in the Jewish world view, into theopportunity for self-actualization as a servant of God. He must be taught -convinced - that he is endowed with infinitely significant Divine missionswhich, ultimately, are uniquely his own. Awareness of this reality catalyzesjoy.
Chag sameach!