It is interesting, and perhaps, at first glance, odd, that of all Israel's holidays, it is Sukkot, the holiday which commemorates our temporary dwellings during the nation's forty years of wandering in the wilderness, which is called z’man simḥateinu, the time of our joy.



We noted in a previous Dvar Torah that two of the giants of the Mishna, Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Akiva, differ in their understanding of what the sukka commemorates. Rabbi Eliezer states that the sukka is the reminder that during the forty years of wandering in the wilderness, the Children of Israel were protected by “clouds of glory.” Rabbi Akiva’s opinion is that the sukka memorializes the huts the Israelites built in the wilderness. According to the opinion of Rabbi Akiva, we may question why the Torah instructed us to sit in sukkot for seven days. After all, what is being commemorated is what the Israelites themselves did, not Divine intervention.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks notes that:



Rabbi Akiva’s view ... celebrates the human miracle of which Jeremiah spoke when he said: “Thus said the Lord, ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved Me and followed Me in the wilderness, through a land not sown.’” [Jeremiah 2:2]
If we follow Rabbi Akiva, we can infer a deep truth about faith itself. Faith is not certainty. Faith is the courage to live with uncertainty. (emphasis mine)



According to Rabbi Akiva's understanding, the sukkot which our ancestors made for themselves in the wilderness represent the fact that the Israelites learned the courage to live with uncertainty.

In Rabbi Sacks' words:
Sukkot is a testament to the Jewish people’s survival. Even if it loses its Land and is cast again into the wilderness, it will lose neither heart nor hope. It will remember that it spent its early years as a nation living in a sukka, a temporary dwelling exposed to the elements. It will know that in the wilderness, no encampment is permanent. It will keep travelling until once again it reaches the Promised Land: Israel, home.

It is no accident that the Jewish people is the only one to have survived 2,000 years of exile and dispersion, its identity intact and energy unabated. It is the only people who can live in a shack with leaves as a roof and yet feel surrounded by clouds of glory. It is the only people who can live in a temporary dwelling and yet rejoice.

Clearly, it is the faith of the Nation of Israel in God's special providence over His Chosen People which allows us to celebrate Sukkot as the time of our joy. (David Magence)

Shabbat Shalom and chag sameach!
The Va’ad