Dear DAT Community,
I think that more than any other holiday, Sukkot holds the most interesting and meaningful memories for me.
I remember the year it snowed like crazy on Sukkot in Montreal, in early October (!), when I was a little kid, and the schach caved in (and yes, I’ve been informed by more than a dozen people since I arrived in Denver that this happens here as well… gevalt!). I remember sitting in my father’s sukkah, perched on the tiny, rickety, third-floor balcony of our Outremont triplex, packed with over a dozen people – half petrified that it would all come crashing down, but having too much fun to really care. I remember the taste of my mother’s halushkas (cabbage rolls) on cold, wet Sukkot nights, watching the steam escape into the night air in the sukkah. I remember all those years walking to shul with a lulav and etrog in hand, seeing my neighbors doing the same, and thinking how odd we must have looked to those driving by — and how beautiful it felt to us. And I remember Simchat Torah as a child, being on my father’s shoulders and dancing around, often holding the hands of other boys and girls who were on their dancing fathers’ shoulders, whirling around and jumping up and down. It was alternately thrilling and a bit scary, because as a little kid, you are perched somewhat precariously on what at the time felt like giant, dancing shoulders. But what a happy, amazing, special feeling.
And yet, there are the other memories –- the ones that we have been living with every day for the last two years. The ones we all share together. You, me, all of us, we remember where we each were on October 7, 2023, on Shmini Atzeret. Tomorrow is the second anniversary of the October 7 terror attack. Israel has been at war for an astounding 731 days.
Sukkot is referred to as Z’man Simchateinu. The Torah tells us to be b’simcha, to rejoice, all seven days of the holiday. Some years, that simcha is harder to come by, and 5786 is no exception. Sukkot teaches us that we don’t need a lot to be truly b’simcha, and in many respects that’s true.
And yet… there are some very real things we need to truly be b’simcha. May our hostages come home immediately, and may our brothers and sisters be safe and secure wherever they are in this world. My blessing for all of us this year is that every single Jew should be able to fulfill the mitzvah of being b’simcha to the fullest, in peace and security, surrounded by family, community, and the joy of being together, b’achdut.
Chag Sameach,
Mar Abba
Head of School
