Enabling Community Through Sukkot

We are now in the midst of the pilgrimage festival of Sukkot. During the holiday of Sukkot, Jews dwell in booths which act as temporary living spaces. The "walls" are usually made of canvas and the "roof" of palm fronds or something similar. The ritual of living in these booths is meant to recall the booths our ancestors lived in during their journey through the wilderness from the bondage of Egypt to the Land of Israel. Another tradition understands the booths to represent the clouds of glory that accompanied the Children of Israel through the desert and guided them along the treacherous, sun scorched path to a land of their own.

While celebrating the holiday this year I have observed how the act of dwelling in a sukkah leads to the strengthening of community. As a campus rabbi I see all too often students get overwhelmed with their course load and in an effort to stay afloat spend the entirety of their non-class time locked in their dorm rooms or behind a cubicle in a library.

However, for those students who choose to observe at least some of the holiday of Sukkot, the tradition itself demands that they leave their rooms or library cubicles and emerge into a shared communal space. They are to enjoy their breakfast, lunch and dinner in the company of others celebrating the holiday and can not sit in solitude and confinement.

For one week a year we are commanded to move out of our comfort zones and enter the unstable and quickly constructed booths that we are to call home and dwell therein. For those who are students that means, for a week, calling a public space home. Thus, for one week a year, we are compelled to surround ourselves with friends and the sounds of community. It is my sincere hope that the moves towards furthering community that have transpired within that booth this week continue throughout the rest of the year.