Sukkot, The Festival of Booths

"The etrog is the original fruit in the garden of Eden."  Why Hebrew Goes Right to Left --by Ronald Isaacs

In his interesting and useful book about all things Jewish, author Ronald Issaacs notes that it was the etrog, a citrus fruit, not an apple that was the fruit eaten in the garden of Eden. At one time in history it was customary during the Sukkot festival for women to bite off the top of this fruit and spit it out, thereby symbolizing their resistance of the Evil one. This year the festival commences at sundown on September 30.

While many are familiar with the Jewish YomKippur and the occasion of Rosh Ha-Shonah, beyond Jewish circles, it is the joyful and less known Festival of Booths, Sukkot, that occupies this article today. The Sukkot is an ancient harvest festival celebrated annually at a time determined by the full moon in the Hebrew month of Tishri. A sukkah booth or tabernacle is built in a characteristic three sided form and traditionally occupied in a celebratory fashion by adherents. The structure is often made with local materials, easily available. Here in the United States, corn stalks are a favored material. In other areas tree branches or palms are equally favored. The festival dictates that one spend considerable amount of time in their booth, eating, socializing, napping, singing or other activities. However at the most basic, constructing and eating meals within the sukkah satisfies the ancient tradition.

Its spiritual significance is related to the Biblical story of the 40 years of wandering in exile in the desert; the structure like their faith sheltered the people through many years of uncertainty. Each home may construct a Sukkot; often communities will construct a larger shelter for a festival celebration. It is traditional to refrain from any labor on certain days of the eight day festival and to enjoy sweets such as fruits. When eating a traditional meal in the sukkah, a prayer is recited which perhaps speaks to the heart of the observance:
Blessed are you, G-d our Creator of time and space, who enriches our lives in holiness, who commands us to dwell in the sukkah.

Explore one tradition of rejoicing in the harvest season with a sukkah. For those in the southern hemisphere, the festival occurs at the earliest of spring time. Still it remains an agricultural festival to be appreciated.

Tales of the Hasidim and Emotional Ties

"Awe is what moves us forward."  --Joseph Campbell

The soul, wrote Martin Buber in Tales of the Hasidim, is like the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, where in the Temple, the High Priest recites the Avodah, עבודה‎, the prayer of remembrance, "and thus he spoke." For he had not forgotten the time his soul was in the body of a High Priest of Jerusalem, and he had no need to learn from the outside how they had served in the temple.
Once he himself related, " I have been ten times in this world: I was a priest, a prince, a king, an exilarch, rosh galut ראש גלות. I was ten different kinds of dignitary. But I never learned to love mankind perfectly. And so I was sent forth again and again in order to perfect my love. If I succeed this time, I shall never return again."
Tales of the Hasidim, by Martin Buber

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Awe is an intuition for the dignity of all things, a realization that things not only are what they are, but also stand, however remotely, for something supreme. Awe is a sense for the transcendence, for the reference everywhere to the mystery beyond all things. It enables us to perceive in the world intimations of the divine... to sense the ultimate in the common and the simple; to feel in the rush of the passing, the stillness of the eternal. What we cannot comprehend by analysis, we become aware of in awe.

Who Is Man? by Abraham Joshua Heschel

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


 In Visions: Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Carl Jung writes, "When face to face with such wholeness, a moment of near eternity, one is speechless, for it scarcely can be comprehended. The objectivity that I experienced in the dream, the bliss, and the visions form part of a completed individuation. It signifies detachment from valuations and what we call emotional ties".
"In general emotional ties are very important to human beings... Emotional relationships are relationships of desire... something is wanted, expected of the other person and this binds us... Something else came about as a result of my long illness: an affirmation of things as they are, an unconditional 'yes,' an acceptance of the conditions of existence as I see them and understand them, an acceptance of my own nature..."

'When one lives ones own life, one must take mistakes into the bargain. Life would not be complete without them. There is no guarantee, not for a single moment, that we will not fall into error or stumble into mortal peril. We may think there is a sure road, but that would be the road of death. Then nothing happens anymore--at any rate, not the right things. Anyone who takes the sure road is as good as dead...'

'I understand how important it is to affirm one's own destiny. We must forge a self which can withstand the trials of the world, a self that withstands the winds and seasons of the world, one that endures the truth, that does not break down; a self that is capable of coping with fate. Then, to experience defeat is also to experience victory...'

'I realize that one must also accept the thoughts that go on within oneself of their own accord as part of ones reality. The categories of true and false are, of course, always present... the thoughts are more important than our subjective judgements of them, for they exist as part of our wholeness."

-- Visions: Memories, Dreams, Reflections by Carl Jung