I am writing from the midst of I-78 (exit 71ish area) in Pennsylvania. Our USY chapter is returning from Hershey Park… It is a great place, but I do not like roller coasters so… not so perfect for me. The kids enjoyed the trip and had a great time. It is peculiar to observe Jewish rituals and law in different situations. This morning as we left at 7:00am I davened on the bus. But I could not go waving the לולב and אתרוג/Lulav and Etrog, on the bus, you could take an eye put… And so there I was after lunch under a stadium with people looking at me doing הלל/Hallel. But you should be questioning, how did we eat lunch in a סוכה? That is an excellent question. Each year in Lancaster county there is the enormous חול המועד/Chol HaMoed (the intermediary days) celebration for סוכות. And so we went ahead and began to plan this trip. We hit a snag when we discovered that the enormous סוכה at Hershey Park (where they have a Glatt Kosher food stand year round) would only be open on the Monday of סוכות, but we needed to go on Sunday. So we purchased a PopUp סוכה, and there we were right before lunch in a parking lot erecting a tent like structure and placing a bamboo mats on top of it. People looked and people asked what it was, but at the end we were just so pleased to bring our youth to an incredible place and have them celebrate being Jewish and fulfill the מצות/Mitzvot, commandments, of the holiday. We were aiming to demonstrate to them that the name of the holiday is זמן שמחתינו, our happy time. And so it got me thinking about the concept of being happy and the concept of סוכות. We are happy during סוכות because when we have concluded the High Holy Days we have exited with clean slates. We have done the difficult work of making a mends and we have accepted that it is time to move on. We have defeated the greatest enemy of all… our own evil inclination. After all, it is our own evil inclination that provides us with the false impression, that we are not sinners, that we have done no wrong. It is our own egos that stand in the way of us moving forward, and doing better. Our זמן שמחתינו/Zman Simachateinu, our happy time, is that we have successfully shown God that we are not hiding any longer, we are not hiding from Him and we are not hiding from ourselves. I recall when I was younger, like all young people I had a habit of lying. Then I realized at a certain point in time that when we lie we are either ashamed of something about ourselves or we have done something wrong. But when we stop telling lies, we prove that we are content and happy with who we are and we accept that we no longer can or should have to hide from ourselves… We grow and try to stop missing the mark.
So what did I learn today with our teenagers in Hershey Park, in a makeshift סוכה? I learned that זמן שמחתינו comes from Jewish people being open to be themselves and to not lying to the world about who they are. It comes from us being willing to be Jews even when it is tough, and when we need to work hard to be that person. I learned that our youth are phenomenal and we should be happy that our future looks great. We have so much to be joyful for… The question for us all is what it is that we are each happiest for and what are we as Jews happiest for…
מועדים לשמחה
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