BackThe Joy of the Same
By: Rabbi Dr. Abraham Unger
We live in a world where we celebrate the new. Anything new seems shinier and more attractive. Social media is full of influencers constantly telling us about new products. The excitement surrounding AI revolves around the extraordinary reach of its new capabilities. But, there is another approach to life. I recall watching an interview with Jeff Bezos in which he said that when thinking about building an organization to survive and scale, he asks not what’s new, but what doesn’t change. What do people always need? What do people always seek? Those are the core quests of humanity and what drives us as people, regardless of a world of ever-changing technology. Judaism corroborates this conviction.
Passover and Sukkot, which starts this Friday night, both fall on the 15th of their respective Hebrew months. Passover commemorates the founding of the Jewish people after their liberation from slavery. Sukkot celebrates their communal continuity and burgeoning nationhood in the desert as well as the agricultural cycle of the Land of Israel where the Children of Israel established their sovereignty. Rabbi Marc Angel comments that the joy associated with the festival of Sukkot is because “when grandparents and grandchildren share idea and ideals, this is a sign of continuity, love, and genuine happiness.” After all, Sukkot is called “zman simchateinu,” the season of our happiness.
The values we transmit, the unchanging truths we convey to our children and grandchildren, forge the deepest celebration of all. Technologies evolve, empires rise and fall, but Torah is eternal. On Sukkot we remember the connection to Passover – the journey began then, and now continues as we make our way through history.