Making sense of the sedra: Succot

Rabbi Doron Perez had two sons. One, Daniel, was injured, kidnapped (and 163 days after 7 October was confirmed murdered), the other, Yonatan, injured on 7 October, married on 17 October. Rabbi Perez has become world famous for his sons’ stories and his unwavering faith and awesomely inspiring words, written and spoken, as a rabbi, father of a hostage and a heroic Jewish leader.

He wrote a booklet for the High Holy days. In this booklet he describes how he has now understood the words of the book of Kohelet, that we will read in shul this Shabbat:

“King Solomon, the wisest of all men, highlights in chapter three that for every time, and every hour beneath the sun, there are different experiences: a time of life and a time of death, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time of peace and a time of war, a time to mourn and a time to celebrate. I had always previously understood that Solomon was talking about different times in our lives. Life can be divided into good times and bad times – sometimes it’s a time for happiness and growth. Sometimes, it’s a time for mourning and destruction. I understood for the first time in my life that this is not necessarily the case. Perhaps King Solomon, in his great wisdom, was teaching us that sometimes all of these things happen together.”

We can all think of examples in our personal lives where we hold conflicting emotions simultaneously. I am writing this shortly after the United Synagogue’s 7 October memorial events, where we hosted Barak Deri, Oriya Mevorach and Yadin Gellman, who shared first-hand accounts of their experiences on that day. They all shared a common thread in their themes.

While going through unimaginable horrors, the stories shared on that day are not mourning what happened to them. In fact, not one person was thinking about themselves in their moment of terror. They thought of their loved ones, family and friends. Barak said that his permanent injuries are in fact the best thing that happened to him, as he appreciates life so much more now.

The Jewish people are tasked on Succot to build a succah and dwell in it for seven days, with this time being known as z’man simchateinu, the time of our happiness. Bringing all the wisdom of the people I have mentioned above, we can see that real happiness is not having it all. This is not possible, nor does it guarantee happiness.

Rabbi Sacks z’l put it stunningly, “Kohelet finds life short. The prospect of death threatens to rob him of all happiness, until he realises that mortality is the very condition of our happiness. Because life is short, every moment is precious. That is the knowledge most of us are only taught through pain or crisis or loss. Work, love, life itself: these are the sources of joy. The rest is gift-wrapping. Happiness lies in being, not in having.”

When we gather in our succahs this year, let’s feel our pain at the continuation of the plight of the hostages and continued conflict, while feeling the joy of each precious moment we have with the gifts God has given us.