Weekly Torah Portion: Festival of Sukkot 5781

Weekly Torah Portion: The Joy of Living in a Sukkah 2020
The offering of Sukkoth is unique in three ways: First, they include a total of 70 bulls, to invoke protection for the seventy gentile nations; Secondly, the numbers of bulls are different for each day of the festival; Thirdly, there is a special water libation, which was performed every morning of Sukkoth.
It is regarding Sukkoth that the Torah instructs us “to be Joyful on your holiday”. Now, joy, like almost all other emotions is not something that can be turned on and off like a faucet. A person either feels joyful or not. You cannot tell a person who is sad and depressed to just magically feel joyful and expect that that should somehow happen. The Rabbis have already remarked that since we have just passed through the cleansing processes of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippurim and feel relieved, forgiven and confident in our faith and in our relationship to the our Creator, it is only natural to expect that we will feel joyful at this time of the year.
But, to a certain extent, this type of answer really only begs the question. It is quite difficult for anyone to feel completely satisfied with one’s self and one’s actions after undergoing a thorough, honest and often painful self-examination? We are now privy to our faults and failing and even though we are confident that Heaven’s goodness has forgiven us, we are still well aware of the problems that remain within us and limit, if not even, prevent, any feelings of overwhelming joy to take hold. And yet the Torah insists that we be joyful and of good cheer on this holiday of Sukkoth.
The Sages have given a markedly different perspective to the emotion of joy and it is this perspective that I feel the Torah is speaking of when commanding us regarding the holiday of Sukkoth. The rabbis in the Talmud stated that there is no joy comparable to the joy one feels when doubts have been resolved and clarity and reality reign.
Much of the sadness that exist in life is based on its uncertainty, in the plethora of options and choices, the consequences of which are never clear to us and in the difficulty we face in placing our lives and their events into proper perspective. A flash of clarity, an insight of perspective, a moment of confident decision can truly bring about a feeling of joy.
Sukkoth can provide us with that clarity and perspective. It teaches us that our physical home and house is not quite as important as we may think it is. It instructs us that everything in this physical world is temporal not permanent and it also alight us in the beauty of nature, the necessity for Heaven’s blessing of rain, productivity and in the realization that even though our lives and existence are indeed fragile, we should treasure every breathing moment and see it in the perspective of our immortality and eternity.