Take a Breather – De-stress not Distress!
It’s Sukkot! It’s not too difficult to find oneself constantly exposed to the Jewish holidays when one lives in Israel! Wherever one looks, one can see beautiful booths everywhere! It’s an amazing experience of course! So often, when one lives overseas, the only times one gets to see the beautiful “huts” is either in one’s own home or at a friend’s. Here, however, one can see Sukkot just about everywhere – on the streets, on the balconies practically everywhere one looks, in parking bays. ומי כעמך כישראל? “And who is like Your nation Israel?” We are immersed in the beauty of a Chag (festival) going back 3300 years when the Jewish people were taken out of Egypt as they were to be lead into the Land – a journey that would end up taking forty years! As they traveled through the desert they were surrounded by the clouds of glory. To commemorate these mystical clouds that protected us throughout our journey, we surround ourselves with the Sukkot we sit in for a period of seven days! At least – this is according to Rabbi Eliezer. Rabbi Akiva says that the Jewish people actually dwelt in proper booths, and we commemorate our remembrance of those days by sitting in similar such booths (Sukkah 11b).
