Happy Sukkot!

Dear friends! We sincerely congratulate you on the holiday of Sukkot. All holidays are a source of fun for us. But Sukkot in this sense stands on a special position. In the Torah, it is called “the time of joy” three times. The Torah seems to tell us that the days of Sukkot should be especially joyful for us. Moreover, Sukkot ends, and with it all our autumn holidays, with the day of "Simchat Torah" - the Joy of the Torah. Why does Sukkot acquire such a special status? The first reason lies on the surface: we celebrate this holiday after Rosh Hashan and Yom Kippur, when a person already knows that Gd has heard his prayers, gave him a good and sweet year. The second reason is related to history: it is the memory that Gd gave huts to our ancestors who had just left Egypt, and they were naturally happy and grateful to Him for their salvation. Finally, there is an economic reason: Sukkot is also called the "harvest festival", and this is the time when a person rejoices at the results of his labor for many months. But in order to realize the main reason for our special joy in the days of Sukkot, we must remember the main commandment of the holiday: a person must sit in a hut. The sages of the Talmud emphasize that it is necessary to "change the place of residence" - to leave the house, eat and drink in the hut, spend as much time there as possible. We understand that a hut is not just a temporary dwelling, but an extremely unstable dwelling. Even if the walls are firmly knocked down, the roof is still made of leaves. And this means that a person in a hut is subject to all the whims of the weather, is not at all so sure of his safety as if he was sitting at home. But therein lies the lesson. Even when a person has received positive results from his work, from his deeds, from his prayers, he should not forget that there is nothing in life that would be given to us forever. Not only every year, but every day we must ask Gd to help us, to ensure our safety; to give health, well-being in the family, even a roof over your head! And most importantly, every day we must thank Gd for what he has already given us. When a person is at home, warm, behind stone walls, it is difficult for him to truly appreciate all the gifts that we receive from Gd. Hence the constant pursuit of all the new benefits: it is rightly said that “exactly what we don’t need, we never have enough.” We must leave the comfort zone, move under the fragile arches of the hut in order to fully experience how much we have what wonderful gifts we have from Gd! And this feeling is the greatest joy that can be. So grant God to each of us so that even in the most difficult times we never give up, so that we can appreciate what we have - and that we never forget that all this is possible only with a blessing from above, from our heavenly Father. ... We are waiting for you at our online events dedicated to Jewish traditions. The dates of the events can be found by writing to the project coordinator at kuzmenko@kievhesed.org.ua

Happy Sukkot!

See also

Archive

Hot links

Social Cultural Projects

Need assistance

Contact