Rabbi Daniel Siegel

Beginnings not endings

During our Yom Kippur liturgy, we intoned the concluding words of the High Priest, that were spoken this day, in the Holy of Holies, prior to his re-emerging unto the people: “May it be Your will Lord our God…that their houses not become their graves”.

Originally intended as a beseeching of God to protect the residents of Israel’s Sharon region from landslides and earthquakes, these words, at the same time, indeed shake each of us to our core.

As soon as we return from synagogue at the conclusion of Yom Kippur, our Jewish tradition tells us, we are to drive in the first nail of our sukkah. The Rabbis say, in referring to the commandment of dwelling in the sukkah:

צא מדירת קבע ושב בדירת עראי -“Leave your fixed abode and reside in a transient one”.

Sukkot is an experience of leaving behind the established, the habitual and the “secure” and entering the temporary, the changing and the vulnerable.

On Yom Kippur and the preceding Days of Repentance, we reflect upon our need for change and growth and express our commitment to effect this new self in the New Year. In beginning to build our sukkah immediately upon the conclusion of Yom Kippur, we at once initiate this process of leaving behind the customary and safe and, entering the temporary and transitional, we open ourselves to new growth, change and possibility.

In repeating the words of the Kohen Gadol, “that their houses not become their graves”, we not only recall the plight of those who were subject to natural disaster, but also are reminding ourselves that we should not allow our established, solidified past forever remain our present so that we cannot build for a new future.

As we celebrate within our sukkah this year, may each of us open ourselves to the changes and new self to which we have committed for our New Year, so we might more fully realise the biblical command for this holiday – והיית אך שמח/You Shall Be Utterly Joyous.

In the words of the High Priest, spoken in the Holy of Holies on behalf of all of Israel:

May it be Your will, Lord, our God…that this year be a year in which you open Your treasury of goodness for us all – may it be a year of abundance, a year of blessing…a year of expansiveness…a year in which You grant us a good life…a year in which You will bless our going and coming..

חג סוכות שמח/Chag Sukkot Sameach