大象传媒

From Julia Neuberger Senior Rabbi at the west London Synagogue:

It was pouring with rain most of last Sunday morning, when we Jews were building our sukkahs- a sort of temporary dwelling, decorated with fruit, vegetables and flowers, where we have our meals and some people even sleep in them for the whole week of the harvest festival Sukkot, which started on Sunday night. These are not only temporary dwellings, but also have to be partly open to the sky- hence the problem if it鈥檚 raining. You can get very wet!!!!

My grandmother, who ate all her meals in her sukkah, once fused the whole house by having an electric heater in her sukkah- it was a freezing evening- and getting rained on! A major house fire than ensued, but she wasn鈥檛 at all abashed, and did just the same the following year!

But why the temporary shelter? Originally to remind of us of the temporary nature of living space whilst journeying from Egypt to the Promised Land. Later, these were temporary shacks for people to guard their crops from raiders. But, more than anything, the whole festival- a harvest festival of joy and plenty- is there to illustrate the temporary nature of human existence- and how fragile we really are. And it makes it clear that, even if we鈥檙e living in temporary accommodation, even if life is fragile and hard, we need to welcome people in who are worse off than us, or hungry, or lonely, or whatever.

The tradition was to have what were called ushpizin, special guests, joining us, famous Biblical and rabbinic characters. This year we鈥檙e calling our synagogue sukkah Abraham and Sarah鈥檚 Tent, so our ushpizin will be famous and not so famous people called Abraham and Sarah. But the inviting in, the welcome, the openness, and the fragility theme- all these go well beyond Judaism. We can all be grateful for what we have. But we can all, only too easily, welcome in those who don鈥檛 have our good fortune- whether in material terms, or as a result of life鈥檚 blows, or simply lonely people or strangers. Chag sameach, we say, happy festival, and a big welcome into Abraham and Sarah鈥檚 tent.

听