Sukkot Torah
Can we welcome all the ushpizin?
Reflection by Rabbah Mira Niculescu, Or HaLev Teacher:
"On the festival of Sukkot, we are invited to get out of our houses and dwell in temporary booths, in sukkot.
On a spiritual level, one of the main purposes of this strange embodied ritual is to help us feel more deeply connected to God. When we dwell between earth and sky, separated from the comfort of our homes and unmediated by our familiar surroundings, an organic connection with nature, and the glorious mystery of Life Source behind all of it, can make itself manifest again.
This is our invitation after the great rebirth of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur; can we take the time to feel surrounded by divine presence, from day to night, from sunlight to stars?
It works in the other direction, too.
We too, surround the divine presence. Our bodies are the sukkah of God.
Our bodies, this temporary shelter for the soul in this life, is also the dwelling place of the holiest of all the ushpizim (guests): the breath of life (nishmat chayim), who renews each of us in every moment.
Sukkot is called zman simchatinu, the time of our joy.
In any other context, this might feel appropriate. Sukkot is basically a week of camping, of feeling the wind and sunshine on our skin, eating good foods and playing music, welcoming friends who come and go and enjoying together the bounty of life,
This year again, for the second year in a row, in the context of the heartbreaking ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, and its global consequences upon diaspora jews, joy may feel out of our league.
So this year, I want to share these words of wisdom from my sister and teacher, Etty Hillesum. She wrote these while already in camp in Holland, before her deportation to Auschwitz, where she died.
This is how she spoke to God:
`You [God] cannot help us,
but we must help You; to help us.
And this is all we can manage these days and also all that really matters:
that we safeguard that little piece of You, God, in ourselves.
And perhaps in others as well.`
This is my blessing for us this Sukkot. May we welcome joy, alongside other ushpizin of sadness and anguish, despair and hope.
Our task is to be the Sukkah: both vulnerable and strong, open and protective, mindful of all the guests who will come and visit one after the other, and, most of all, caring for the divine presence within us, and within others."