Dear Friends,
“How shall it be known that Your people have gained Your favor unless You go with us, so that we may be distinguished, your people and I, from every people on the face of the earth?” (Ex. 33:16)
So asked Moses of God, early in their trek from Egypt toward the Land of Israel. Their conversation followed the Golden Calf incident, and after that heresy, Moses needed reinforcement from God that he and the Israelites had security. Moses was concerned that we would truly remain a distinguished, unique people, and that we would always remain God’s people.
I guess it still remains our concern, millennia later.
The ancient sages selected this passage as the special Torah reading for this Shabbat during the festival of Sukkot, when we both celebrate the incoming harvest, and pray for the coming rain – a harbinger of another good harvest the following fall. It was a tangible way to recognize God’s continued devotion to us, that we were still in God’s good graces.
And, then today when our world looks topsy-turvy – with a pandemic, international tensions, domestic internecine-battling, financial insecurities, resurgent anti-Semitism and other xenophobia rising, and the earth’s climate deteriorating at an accelerating pace – the question still holds true: are we in God’s good graces? What is the evidence? It sure looks otherwise.
It would be easy to just throw in the towel and submit that the world of antiquity bears no commonality with the world of today, or vice versa. That today we are alone on this spinning planet, up to our own devices – after all, we have invented so many devices (cell phones, automobiles, airplanes, Ring doorbells, Tylenol, antacid, among others) to generate for us that very security which we once sought from God.
But, then the Jewish calendar spins around to the fall again, as it does every year, and following the sublimity and urgency of the High Holy Days, we get this fall montage of Sukkot, with lulav, etrog, Sukkah, pumpkins and corn stalks, gentler, sweet rains, and apples and apple cider, and… you know what? It looks good! It tastes good! It even smells good! And it feels good!
Somehow, Sukkot does renew us to security on the earth. It reminds us that we are still a special people, and that this unseen God of ours might still be taking care of us, after all. Just bite into a crisp apple in the sukkah, and there is the evidence!
Shabbat Shalom and Hag Sameach (for a Happy Sukkot!),
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
“How shall it be known that Your people have gained Your favor unless You go with us, so that we may be distinguished, your people and I, from every people on the face of the earth?” (Ex. 33:16)
So asked Moses of God, early in their trek from Egypt toward the Land of Israel. Their conversation followed the Golden Calf incident, and after that heresy, Moses needed reinforcement from God that he and the Israelites had security. Moses was concerned that we would truly remain a distinguished, unique people, and that we would always remain God’s people.
I guess it still remains our concern, millennia later.
The ancient sages selected this passage as the special Torah reading for this Shabbat during the festival of Sukkot, when we both celebrate the incoming harvest, and pray for the coming rain – a harbinger of another good harvest the following fall. It was a tangible way to recognize God’s continued devotion to us, that we were still in God’s good graces.
And, then today when our world looks topsy-turvy – with a pandemic, international tensions, domestic internecine-battling, financial insecurities, resurgent anti-Semitism and other xenophobia rising, and the earth’s climate deteriorating at an accelerating pace – the question still holds true: are we in God’s good graces? What is the evidence? It sure looks otherwise.
It would be easy to just throw in the towel and submit that the world of antiquity bears no commonality with the world of today, or vice versa. That today we are alone on this spinning planet, up to our own devices – after all, we have invented so many devices (cell phones, automobiles, airplanes, Ring doorbells, Tylenol, antacid, among others) to generate for us that very security which we once sought from God.
But, then the Jewish calendar spins around to the fall again, as it does every year, and following the sublimity and urgency of the High Holy Days, we get this fall montage of Sukkot, with lulav, etrog, Sukkah, pumpkins and corn stalks, gentler, sweet rains, and apples and apple cider, and… you know what? It looks good! It tastes good! It even smells good! And it feels good!
Somehow, Sukkot does renew us to security on the earth. It reminds us that we are still a special people, and that this unseen God of ours might still be taking care of us, after all. Just bite into a crisp apple in the sukkah, and there is the evidence!
Shabbat Shalom and Hag Sameach (for a Happy Sukkot!),
Rabbi Douglas Kohn