By Rabbi Abraham Unger, Ph.D.
Executive Director
This Week’s Torah Portion
The Joy of the Same
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.
Weekly Parenting Message from the Parsha
Back to Nature
Even in sunny climes such as Florida, nature can seem distant. It is not that we don’t see trees and beautiful blue waters and skies. However, we often fail to sustain, or even possess, a sensitivity to nature’s cycles as she progresses through her annual stages. The Torah sees the world through an agricultural lens. Many of the offerings it demands come from the earth, reliant on the seasons of blossoming and harvest. The festival of Sukkot, starting this evening, reminds us of the natural world and our own ultimate dependence on it.
Each morning of Sukkot we wave a lulav, a palm branch, in the four directions, plus up and down. The Talmud teaches we do that to keep away “the bad winds” and accompanying stormy rains, alongside “bad dews.” Sukkot celebrates the autumn harvest and marks the start of the rainy season in the Land of Israel. We are asking for a strong ingathering of the crops now, and for a smooth transition to the next planting without harmful weather.
Imagine how in tune our ancestors were with the earth beneath their feet. See how the Torah captures with symbolic ritual our connection to the land. This mandate to remain attuned to the natural world is not just a practical necessity as we consider humanity’s future. It makes us more sensitive as people. Remembering nature brings us back to ourselves. It roots us in a worldview that reminds us that ultimately all gifts come from the Divine. Certainly, even in our industrialized society, we want to keep away the bad rains, especially in Florida! Waving the lulav recalls our own fragility in the face of the natural world.
Our lesson as parents is clear. Let’s teach our children deep awareness of their own connection to nature. It will enrich their own sense of stewardship over the earth we dwell on, and strengthen their spiritual sensitivity.