82-year-old David Jakins may have cheated to win the World Conker Championship, after being found to have a metal replica in his pocket. He has been competing since 1977, and it was his first victory. I only understood the importance of the fact after noticing that it was reported by both BBC and Sky morning news. I have to confess that I had to search about the whole subject. As many of you already know, I come from a tropical country, and we don’t have enough cold weather to have conkers. If you ask me what I miss from my country, you will all guess: the weather! But no, it’s the fruits, only possible due to the weather, more specifically, to the seasons.
In Brazil, rains begin in October and go until April, when winter approaches and dry season begins. We don’t really have marked seasons as we have here. Seasons that I learned to love: the grey, cold and rainy winter; all the different flowers that bloom gradually during the spring, and people know their names! The five days of summer, and then all the colourful leaves that paint the autumn. Here I learned to understand Eclesiastes – known in Hebrew as Kohelet:
לַכֹּל זְמָן וְעֵת לְכׇל־חֵפֶץ תַּחַת הַשָּׁמָיִם׃
עֵת לָלֶדֶת וְעֵת לָמוּת
עֵת לָטַ֔עַת וְעֵת לַעֲקוֹר נָטוּעַ
Everything has a season, and a time for every matter under the heavens:
A time to be born and a time to die,
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.[i]
In the UK, I learned that autumn brings conkers and rain. But in fact, October is the month where there is rain and wind all over the globe, as we can follow on the same news where I learned about the stolen Championship. There are scarry hurricanes and tornados in the US. My home city had a heavy rain, and some houses and business don’t have power since Yom Kippur. The wind destroyed some of the already built sukkot this last Sunday night in South Africa. Maybe rain and wind are the reasons why sukkot is exactly during this time. So that we can really feel nature and relate to it.
In a general sense, the big existential questions that sukkot brings with it can also be found in Kohelet, the megillah read during Sukkot. Although it may seem hopeless and dispiriting, it talks about the fragility of life and how material things can be unimportant, belongings and buildings are pointless.
What gain is there for man in all his toil that he toils under the sun?[ii]
I have seen all the deeds that are done under the sun, and look, all is mere breath and herding the wind.[iii]
הַכֹּל הֶבֶל וּרְעוּת רוּחַ.
This is exactly the feeling that dwelling in a Sukkah should bring. “Yom Kippur already hammered home our temporality: you could die this year, and God is deciding that in real time. Sukkot keeps up the pressure: your home and belongings are fragile, not just you.”[iv]
And if modern urban life sometimes takes from us the sense of how nature is stronger than us, this time of the year, when storms and hurricanes destroy properties and lives around the world, we are reminded of our fragility. We are reminded of how badly we have taken care of creation. However, no matter how much wind, rain and destruction we may be facing, Sukkot is the time to stop mourning, to stop rehearsing death, and connect ourselves to the living world, to plant our feet back on the floor and celebrate together.
This is Sukkot’s call: we have connected to our souls, now it is time to land and to live. It is zman simchatenu – the time of our happiness - as we are commanded in Deuteronomy[v]:
וְשָׂמַחְתָּ֖ בְּחַגֶּ֑ךָ אַתָּ֨ה וּבִנְךָ֤ וּבִתֶּ֙ךָ֙ וְעַבְדְּךָ֣ וַאֲמָתֶ֔ךָ וְהַלֵּוִ֗י וְהַגֵּ֛ר וְהַיָּת֥וֹם וְהָאַלְמָנָ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר בִּשְׁעָרֶֽיךָ׃
You shall rejoice in your festival, with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow in your communities.
Being happy with all peoples can be tough sometimes. Especially during very difficult times as this one we are living through. However, it is a very important exercise. An exercise only possible with the help of the sukkah, this fragile structure, made of three walls, and a natural cover, the Schach (סכך), made from something that grew from the earth, like bamboo or palm leaves (an earth connection); that provides more shade than sun (because it is a shelter); which doesn’t block out the stars (connecting us with the sky, the universe, the weather) and detached from its source of growth (to be temporary). The sukkah calls us to open ourselves to the dangers and beauty of the world. And when surrounded by sadness, to find happiness, perhaps inspired by the words of Israeli singer David Broza:
Yesh lanu zman mitachat hashamayim beinataim- anu od kan. At va’ani Velamrot hapa’ar velamrot hake’ev velamrot hatza’ar ani ohev ve’ohev… | We have time under the sky In the meantime – we’re still here. You and me Despite the gap despite the pain despite the regret I love and love and love |
Maybe love is the answer. We have time under the sky to build a place where we can be with others, love and live good times, despite the storms. And we have to remember to keep building, living, loving, hoping and waiting for good rain in the right time. We are here, today, commanded to build a feeble place where we understand the fragility of what we have, and to be happy while living there.
In fact, although seasons can be organised, the chaotic Brazilian weather is more compatible with the seasons of our life, as described by Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai when he defies the sacred text of Kohelet by saying:
A man doesn't have time in his life
to have time for everything.
He doesn't have seasons enough to have
a season for every purpose. Ecclesiastes
Was wrong about that.[vi]
Under the Schach of the sukkah, we finally understand that this is the time to breathe deeply and decide to be happy, no matter if there is a beautiful clear sky or wind and rain. There is no safe time. All is mere breath and herding the wind. Let’s plant our feet to the ground, rejoice, love and hope for better seasons. Now.
[i] Ecclesiastes 3:1-2
[ii] Ecclesiastes 1:3
[iii] Eclesiastes 1:14
[iv] Pogrebin, Abigail. My Jewish Year (p. 93). Mandel Vilar Press. Kindle Edition.
[v] Devarim 16:14
[vi] A Man Doesn't Have Time In His Life, Yehuda Amichai
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