Each of the three pilgrimage festivals – Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot – has an agricultural dimension and a historical dimension. The historical dimension refers to the development of the Israelites as a nation: the exodus to freedom on Passover, revelation on Shavuot and wandering in the desert on Sukkot. But that wasn’t the end of the process. What happened to entering the Land of Israel and settling there? Isn’t something important missing? Maybe.
Or maybe not.
The agricultural dimensions of Passover and Shavuot relate to field crops, the time between planting and harvesting is measured in months. Sukkot celebrates the harvest of fruit that grows on trees, which require prolonged residence in one place, years pass between planting and harvest. Nomads do not plant trees. Sukkot celebrates life in the Land of Israel. This I learned from Sarah Shoub.
The entire period in the desert was not one of wandering. Most of the stations were in the first two years and the last year, but the schedule was not known in advance. On any given day the cloud of glory could rise and the command given to move on. In a situation of uncertainty, planting trees is pointless. Those who experience the uncertainty of the desert years are be able to appreciate and celebrate settlement in the Land of Israel. Indeed, they may be the only ones…
The Book of Nehemiah (chapter 8) tells about events after the return from Babylonia:
And on the second day [of the seventh month] the heads of fathers’ houses of all the people, the priests, and the Levites gather before Ezra the scribe, to give attention to the words of the Law. And they found written in the Law, how that the LORD had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month … And all the congregation of them that were come back out of the captivity made booths, and dwelt in the booths; for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun until that day the children of Israel had not done so. And there was very great gladness. It seems that dwelling in sukkah (as I understand it, not the whole holiday) was forgotten after one generation of settlement. The second generation celebrated the harvest but not the desert years. It is difficult to comprehend wandering and settlement at the same time, yet the ability to hold on to opposites and keep moving forward is the power of the Torah.
Moreover, I – and not only I – think that this explains some of the difficulties on the list of holidays in Leviticus 23. After a full list of holy days comes a final declaration: “Those are the set times of the LORD that you shall celebrate as sacred occasions.” Only then come the commandments regarding the four species and dwelling in a sukkah: “You shall live in booths seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in sukkot, in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in sukkot when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.”
Not only does this paragraph read like an appendix, it’s the only place where dwelling in sukkot is mentioned. Throughout the Torah, the Israelites in the desert lived in tents. The theory is that this passage was added after the return to Zion to reinforce the holiday, and attachment to the Land.
Time passed, the people of Israel were again exiled. The experiences of wandering and transience took center stage.
We have returned to the Land. We still remember exile but are beginning to forget. The facts are known but the feeling is blurred. The pain of memory does not drives us to love the stranger because we were strangers in the land of Egypt, to love the refugee because we were refugees in the lands of the north.
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| All Jews were once refugees. |
I won’t pretend to have a solution for the international refugee crisis that has been brewing for years. It seems that we are facing an historical process of massive proportions. I’m not sure that there is an overall solution. But it is clear that we may not hide behind a wall, real or virtual, built of concrete or illusions of immunity. We are forbidden to close our eyes or turn our backs on such massive suffering. Deuteronomy makes it very clear. We must love the stranger and if we behave like the other nations, we could be exiled again.
Sitting safely in a fancy Sukkah and feeling happiness and pride in our harvest and how beautifully we keep the commandment is not enough. When celebrating settlement and wandering together, we must step out of our comfortable place and reach to those who are yet to reach their own place in the world. If dwelling in our land closes to our hearts to the other, we may well find ourselves back at a disadvantage.
May we merit to truly keep the commandment: “You shall rejoice before the LORD your God with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, the Levite in your communities, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow in your midst.”
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