“It is appropriate for all of Israel to dwell in a single Sukkah.” - Sukkah 27b
That’s a mighty big Sukkah! Obviously, no Sukkah is large enough to hold the entire Jewish people. What is the meaning of this utopian vision?
I would often think of this Talmudic statement on the first night of Sukkot in Manhattan. As you can imagine, building a Sukkah there is complicated. Unless you happen to have a yard or an unobstructed terrace, you’d use communal or synagogue Sukkahs for meals. (Some people grew accustomed to making Kiddush and HaMotzi in the Shul Sukkah and then go home for their meals.) Some synagogues offer catered meals in addition to providing space for people to bring their meals. On the first night of Sukkot, we’d sit down to a meal surrounded by over 700 people spread out over five Sukkot!
The Sukkah has the power to bring people together, and we need this power more than ever.
On Yom Kippur, we saw a terrible scene in Tel Aviv as outdoor prayer services were disrupted by angry – and sometimes violent - protestors. The tensions between religious and secular are rising at an alarming rate. Fifty years after the Yom Kippur War demoralized Israel due to external enemies, this Yom Kippur, we are confronting an existential internal threat. One writer related how his granddaughter, who is in officer's training in the IDF, commented that Israelis know how to fight together and how to die together, but they do not seem to know how to live together. This is a frightening statement. It’s true that the numbers of the most extreme protestors (on any side) are relatively low, but these incidents have opened a deep wound in Israeli society.
The Sukkah teaches a path forward.
One Sukkah is enough for all Israel, but it need not be the exact same Sukkah for all.
Rabbi Baruch Epstein (Tosefet Beracha, Vayikra 23:42) notes there different spelling for the word Sukkot in the Torah. Sometimes, it is written in its full form – סוכות, and sometimes it is written with one fewer letter – סכות. These different spelling represents the different symbolism of the Sukkah – the clouds of Divine protection and the booths the Jews built in the desert. Sometimes, a Sukkah represents one, sometimes the other, and sometimes both. All Israel can find their place within the Sukkah. Some Jews prefer one type of service, some prefer another, and some don’t like any. The Sukkah teaches us that this is OK and to live – or pray – and let live.
Like a Sukkah, our commonality can be real even if it’s incomplete.
Friday night davening includes the following prayer: וּפְרושׂ עָלֵינוּ סֻכַּת שְׁלומֶךָ – Please spread over us a Sukkah of Your peace. Why do we pray for a Sukkah of peace? Why not a fortress of peace? Wouldn’t that be more secure? Rav Kook explains that Jewish law validates a Sukkah even when it has gaping holes, when it is built from little more than two walls or has large spaces between the walls and the roof. The same is true regarding peace. Peace is so precious, so vital, that even an imperfect peace between neighbors, or between an individual and the community, is worthwhile.
We should celebrate and amplify what we share and where we agree and not bemoan the differences. This is becoming harder and harder as people seem to think it’s their way and no other way and think those with different views are out “to get” them. We need to be bigger than that and see that we’re all in the same Sukkah as imperfect as it may be.
It is sadly ironic that one of the causes for fighting in Tel Aviv on Yom Kippur was whether the partition of flags set up for the prayer service was really a mechitza, outlawed by Tel Aviv, or not. Police Commander Micha Gafni deemed the frame acceptable because it was traversable, while Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai said it was a violation. This is a very Sukkah-themed dispute, so we should turn to Sukkah for the solution.
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov taught that we should fulfill the mitzvah of Sukkah with the following intention: Concentrate on being part of the entire people of Israel, with intense love and peace, until it may be considered as if all of Israel dwells together in one Sukkah. Some may say this is too vague or idealistic. I would say that we need to start somewhere.
Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, a longtime advocate of religious-secular dialogue who heads a yeshiva in Tel Aviv commented, “Maybe something positive will grow out of the resistance we saw…sometimes it’s wiser to sidestep a controversy than dive head-first into it…This dialogue is exactly what needs to happen on the local level. It would be a step in the right direction.”
Let’s invite each other – those with whom we agree and those with whom we disagree – out to the Sukkah to create a more unified and peaceful people.
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