10/24 The festival of Sukkot started this past Wednesday (it lasts a week). This holiday (ah, there are SO MANY!!) celebrates the harvest (we can just think of it as being thankful for food and those who grow it) and, since the teaching is that God determines at Sukkot how much rain will fall in the coming year, it also celebrates God giving us water. It is supposed to be the most joyous of all holidays, and it culminates on the eighth day in an even more joyous event called Simchat Torah, which is to celebrate the conclusion of the daily reading of all 5 Books of the Torah. Jews go crazy on this day, singing and dancing with great happiness! Our kids might remember actually building a sukkah (a frond-covered shelter) on the deck during Sukkot when they were little. The idea is to remind us of the fragility of the world and God’s protection of us in that world. So put on your dancing shoes (if only metaphorically, dear ones) and find time to rejoice! 😊
10/24 Dear Beloved Family, tonight is the end of Simchat Torah. Literally this holiday marks the end of the reading of the 5 Books of Torah and the beginning of the reading/study cycle once more. Whatever your perspective, I think there are a few lessons to be learned. One is to honor the cycle of things – of seasons, of illness and health, of life and death. There are always beginnings and endings… and new beginnings. The other lesson comes from the question – why do the Jews keep reading and rereading Torah? Here too the answer, I think, is that there is always more to be learned. This is true especially when it involves the word of God, but it applies to life generally – the world around us, the people with whom we share that world. It may seem ironic given some of the difficulties some in our family have been experiencing that it is probably the day of greatest rejoicing in the entire Jewish calendar, but it may also remind us that just when things look dark, we need to respond with dancing, trusting that this is just one more cycle 😊.