5782 Mitzvah Sukkot
My wish is that each of you had a moment to enter into a Sukkah over the past week. Some of us were even lucky enough to have a meal in the Sukkah. The Sukkah is a temporary dwelling. It is fragile.
The holiday of Sukkot, coming on the heel of the High Holidays, always seems a little disconcerting. During the High Holidays, we are encouraged to go through a process of deep introspection and ascend the heights, in some way mimicking the actions of the High Priest as he approached the Divine in the Holy of Holies.
Only a few days later, we find ourselves in the process of constructing a temporary shelter. Building a Sukkah and shaking a lulav and etrog are very physical acts. They ground us. We are blessed that even in this year of Covid, we were able to build a Sukkah and welcome people into it.
A new year has begun. Every day, new challenges appear that have the capacity to overwhelm us. In keeping with the activities of building the Sukkah, sitting in the Sukkah, and waving the lulav and etrog, I invite you to find things that you wish to do in the coming year that have a physical aspect.