Groundhog Day
Although I love all of the Jewish holidays and each one carries its own unique flavor and character, I have always felt a certain affinity for the Sukkot holiday. In fact, when we bought our house, one of the selling points for me (bear in mind we bought our house in April) was the fact that the deck would make a perfect location for our Sukkah!
Throughout the years I have tried spending as much time as possible in the Sukkah for the duration of the holiday (not always an easy feat in the climate of Northeast Ohio!). Besides for the meals, I try eating my snacks in the sukkah, spend time relaxing in the sukkah and even sleeping in the sukkah.
I frequently recall a sukkah experience I had several years ago. At the time, I was the rabbi of a shul in Canton, OH and we had our sukkah in the parking lot of the shul.
Whereas at home my sukkah is on my deck and attached to the back of my house, here it was located in the front, at the corner of a busy street and was a bit of a distance from the house. Although I had no problem eating my meals in the sukkah with the company of family and friends, I was a bit apprehensive about spending the night out there by myself.
Further compounding my fears, earlier in the evening I saw a groundhog walking around the perimeter of the sukkah. The thought of spending the night alone in a parking lot in Canton, in plain view and exposed to all curious passersby and with the potential of a nocturnal visit from my neighborly groundhog, was less than appealing - to say the least.
I waffled for a little bit at bedtime, tempted by the thought to just stay in the house with the rest of the family and away from strangers and groundhogs versus spending my night out in the sukkah like I was accustomed to doing. Finally, I followed my conscience (it helps that Sukkot comes just days after Yom Kippur) and moved my mattress, blanket and pillow to the sukkah.
I lay down that night and looked up through the schach (the makeshift roof of every sukkah) and contemplated the meaning of Sukkot. To be fully candid, I actually began contemplating whether the people I heard nearby in the street were going to poke their heads into this funny looking tent and every rustle I heard outside made my imagination run rampant with visions of a groundhog coming into my sukkah and snuggling up next to me.
I then moved on to contemplate the meaning of Sukkot – how G-d took us out from Egypt and sustained us for 40 years in the wilderness through miraculous means. Moving out of our homes for a week and dwelling in the sukkah affords us the opportunity to reflect and remember the kindness that G-d continues to shower us with till this present moment. It is a chance to remember that G-d is our ultimate Provider and that we constantly live under His supervision and care. I basked in the knowledge that out in a parking lot in Canton, Ohio, far away from the heavily populated Jewish community of my home in Cleveland, it was just G-d and me, sharing the moment in His tent and under His watch. The more I thought about it the more comfortable I began to feel and after a little while I relaxed and fell into a blissful sleep.
In the morning I awoke, relieved that nothing happened to me during the night (I think the groundhog was more scared of this weirdo sleeping outside in a tent in 50 degree weather in October than I was of him. He wasn’t about to get close to me!). I came back to the house with the satisfaction of having fulfilled the mitzvah like I was used to and even more, because for the first time in a long time - and perhaps ever - I had a chance to really reflect on the meaning of the holiday. The realization that we are constantly in the shelter of G-d and under His watch and protection, is exactly what the Torah hopes we attain during the week of Sukkot when we move into this makeshift hut.
Something about that night – the solitude, the quiet, the circumstances, the anxieties – made me focus on those thoughts more than ever before and filled me with such warmth and comfort.
It has been about a decade since that Sukkot night but each year when I go out to my sukkah to sleep, including just last week and I was in my sukkah on my deck in the back of my house in Cleveland, I am reminded of that night and the lessons of Sukkot reverberate throughout my brain.
At the conclusion of Sukkot I am usually filled with a bit of melancholy. Let’s face it, we have just experienced a month of spiritual growth beginning with Rosh Hashana and have spent so much time in the company of family and friends and enjoying a wonderful holiday season. Further adding to the depression is the realization that we are now moving into a long stretch of winter months (even more depressing for us Cleveland folks) and a time of the year which sees few Jewish holidays until Passover.
Making things a drop easier is carrying the lesson of Sukkot with us into the next 6 months. Times may seem dark and dreary, much like the weather we will soon experience. But we are comforted by the knowledge that we are never alone and things are never truly dark because we have a loving Father in heaven that is constantly looking out for us and protecting us.
So as winter makes its approach and summer recedes further into the past, we have no need to start feeling down. After all, no matter the situation it is always us and G-d (and the occasional groundhog!)
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yosef Koval
