One of the mitzvot, beside dwelling in the Sukkah for seven days and nights, commemorating the time the Israelites spent in the wilderness after they were freed from slavery in Egypt, and besides commemorating The Seven Ananey Kavod, the pillar of clouds, that were guiding the Israelites in the desert so they could travel by day or night, and even besides the mitzvah of the four species, the biggest mitzvah that any one can do during Sukkot, is to be joyous and happy. Sound simple. It is not.
Being Happy
Our default is being in a state of fear and worry, a lower vibration than happiness and joy. If we want to elevate ourselves from a state of fear to a state of joy, the key is paying attention to our thought, based on a human brain research, we have more than 6,000 of them each day!!!
What you think influence the way you feel. During Sukkot we’re obligated and commanded by the Torah to elevate ourselves into a state of Joy “Ve’Samachta Bechagecha, Vehayita Ach Sameach” “And you shall rejoice in your Festival, and you will be only happy” (Deuteronomy 16:14, 15)
My Grandpa and the High Holidays
But let me take a moment to share a little bit about the High Holidays and my grandparents, as it will relate to a funny, personal Sukkah story I’ll be sharing shortly. As a kid growing up in Israel, Rosh Hashanah meant the end of my summer vacation, dipping apples in honey and writing lots of Shannot Tovot (greeting cards) to family and friends. As I grew wiser, I’ve learned to embrace, appreciate and understand the depth and the symbolic, metaphoric and spiritual meaning of it all.
The High Holidays always remind me of my Grandpa who was the founding member of 3 different synagogues in Israel during the 50’s, working as a Hazzan (Cantor) at the synagogue I attended as a child. I can still hear his soulful voice singing “Adon HaSelichot” Lord of forgiveness, and even though I didn’t understand the meaning of the piyut at the time, the melody resinated with me ever since. It is my favorite piyut to sing every year.
My grandpa was an interesting man. Always promoting the importance of doing mitzvot. At the tender age of 9 I started fasting, it wasn’t my idea, my grandpa dared me to fast, and promised he would give me a special gift, only if I’ll be able to fast until Neilah. Every year, at the end of Yom Kippur we would gather at my grandpa’s house for tea and cookies, to break the fast, and it was my moment to share with him that I did fast during Yom Kippur, and it’s time for me to claim my special gift! My grandpa Yermiyahu Levy z”l proudly handed me 10 shekels ($2.5), and told me, “now that I know you can do it, you have to fast every year from now on! In retrospect, 10 shekels was not the best deal I’ve made in life.
My Personal Sukkah Story
The High Holidays continue with the festive holidays of Sukkot and Simchat Torah, which bring the annual fall holiday season to a most joyous conclusion. Thinking about my Sukkot experience as a child, I remember that my Grandparents had the most beautiful and the most decorated Sukkah in the entire neighborhood, maybe in the entire world, I thought to myself as a child. No one had such fancy decorations as we did. No one. Every year my grandma carefully took out her fancy decorations, which she kept in special boxes. Round sparkly balls, like red apples, pomegranates if you will, and every year we would come together and help hung them all up around the Sukkah, unfortunately, every year, at least a couple would fall down and break. Miraculously no one got hurt and we never run out of our fancy Sukkah decorations, apparently my grandma kept lots of these special boxes hidden.
Years had past and I didn’t think much of it. Moved to Los Angeles and during a routine shopping trip at Target, was when I realized why our family was the only one who had these beautiful decorations, and why No One had a Sukkah like ours …. it was shocking to say the least.
The time was right before Christmas, Target was filled with shoppers, filling their carts with holidays toys and stuff, and then I saw it for the very first time, ….. a huge Christmas tree standing in the middle of the store covered with …. my Grandma Sukkah decorations…?! You see, my grandparents, who traveled to America a few times over the years, and apparently liked shopping at Target, bought and brought many boxes of red Christmas ornaments to decorate our Israeli, Jewish Sukkah!
What a sense of humor they had, no wonder no one had a Sukkah like ours, understandably, Christmas trees always reminds me of Sukkot.
Chag Sameach, Happy Holidays to you all.
Listen to YedidYah Ki Eshmerah Shabbat “If I keep The Shabbat day, God will keep me safe”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-LNWcqg2y