1.
"In Sukkot you shall dwell for seven days... so that your generations may know that I made the Israelites dwell in sukkot when I brought them out of the land of Egypt."
A people left Egypt. On their way to the land of their ancestors, they lingered, forty years, or perhaps two thousand, in the desert of nations, and there they dwelled in sukkot. At times, those sukkot became palaces of stone; yet they always remained temporary, their walls fragile. For a moment or two in our exiles, we thought we had found rest, and then the walls of existence trembled again, bearing the inscription: "You are a Jew; you do not belong here." And once more we set out into the desert.
2.
The sukkah is a mitzvah rooted in the Land of Israel, tied to the agricultural season: "The Festival of Ingathering, at the end of the year, when you gather in your work from the field." During the holiday, we pray for rain to wash over us. Just before winter, when the weather is still pleasant, we leave our homes for a structure that offers no real protection. The state now protects those who sit in their sukkot. Not so in exile.
There, the sukkah is unnatural, neither climatically nor in terms of safety does it belong. It was dangerous to sit in a sukkah for fear of the oppressor or the local nobleman. The sukkah was, then, a miniature Land of Israel, a symbolic womb within which Jews could taste a little of the freedom of national life in their own land. Indeed, the Vilna Gaon linked the sukkah to the Land of Israel, noting that these are the two commandments into which a person enters with his whole self.
3.
Jewish existence in the world is trembling once again. The sukkot of our brothers and sisters in Brussels, Paris, Milan or Manchester have been breached. Jews are no longer safe in places where they have lived for hundreds of years. The Bible emphasizes that the sukkah is not a permanent state but a temporary one, on the road from Egypt to Jerusalem. Dear Jews, dwell in your sukkot for seven days, and then go forth and return home to Zion. Next year, sit in your sukkah in its natural place, in the Land of Israel.
4.
Thus Nehemiah reports of the returnees from Babylon who came back to the Land of Israel in the fifth century BCE: "The whole assembly that had returned from captivity made sukkot and lived in the sukkot, since the days of Joshua son of Nun the Israelites had not done so, and there was very great rejoicing." They had built sukkot before, but this time was unique, they fulfilled the commandment after destruction and exile, having merited returning home.
Yet even then, they remained subjects of the Persian Empire, surrounded by hostile neighbors who tried to halt the return to Zion, while the Jews themselves had little means of self-defense. Sitting in the sukkot was not safe then. Today, we live in an independent Jewish state, able to fight those who rise against us and protect our sukkah. Here is our chance to recreate that moment of 2,500 years ago—to come home, to build the sukkah within our one and only national home.
5.
And we, who dwell in the land, will we know how to appreciate our life here? For a moment of pain we felt the sukkah of David collapse upon us, and we stood firm. The past two years, in which we have fought for our very survival, have awakened in us an ancient spirit we thought had vanished—mothers and fathers at the graves of their sons and daughters, soldiers, commanders, freed hostages—all bearing words of comfort and courage, of heroism and devotion to the people. This great spirit that has been stirred within us will not fade; it will give us strength and courage for many years to come.
On Sukkot, we pray for peace and prosperity for the world. The spirit that moves within us will also open the world's eyes to its blindness. As we read in the holiday's Haftarah from the words of the prophet Zechariah, a man of the Second Temple:
"And it shall be one day, known to the Lord, not day and not night; and at evening time there shall be light." Even if it seems that the sun is setting and darkness covers the earth, we are promised that light will shine upon us. We have a message for the world, and it will go forth from Jerusalem, as the prophet continues: "On that day, living waters shall flow from Jerusalem."
We need patience, and faith in the eternity of Israel.
Chag Sameach.
