culture

The Month of Opportunities

By Alberto Moshe Somekh*

If we consider the holidays of the month of Tishrei on the whole, we notice that they are comprised between two beginnings. The first holiday, Rosh Hashanah (New Year), marks the beginning of a new year on the calendar, with all the hopes and expectations that every new start brings with it. But also the last holiday, Simchat Torah (Rejoicing of the Law), marks a beginning: it’s about restarting the public reading of the Sefer Torah, with all the Study that goes with it. It is definitely striking that the two beginnings, of the Calendar and of the Reading, do not coincide. Against all apparent logic: it would have been appropriate for the chapter of the 
Creation of the world (Bereshit) to be read on the day of Rosh Hashanah, anniversary of the Creation itself. However, the Masters wanted otherwise. Some people consider the postponement as a necessary act of respect for the Sefer Torah: it wouldn’t have been respectful to start a reading and then suspend it right after because of the Mo’adim. But some people give a different interpretation. The study of the Torah needs to be undertaken with joy, because the Torah itself is joy. For this reason, it is necessary to wait until the holiday of Sukkot, have already experienced the joyous atmosphere of the Sukkah, the great celebration of the Lulav, and then start a new cycle of Parashot. The Shofar of Rosh Hashanah, the Days of Repentance and the fasting of Kippur, with their stern nature, remind us of a rigorous behaviour. Rigour of the Action and Joy of the Study are the two fundamental principles of Judaism: it is no coincidence that they are reaffirmed at the beginning of every year. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur come before Sukkot and Simchat Torah: if there’s no Joy, there can be no Study, but if there’s no Rigour, there can be no Joy. Traditionally, the month of Tishrei is called Yerach ha’Etanim, “the Month of the Mighty” (I Kings 8) because, as explained in the Talmud, “it is the month in which the mighty ones of the world were born” (Rosh Hashanah 11a), the Patriarchs who sustain the world with their merits. The Masters say that Tishrei is an “opportunity” not to be missed to get closer to G-d. Even though during the year we always have Providence, during this month He is closer to the Man: “seek the L-rd while he may be found” (Isaiah 55). The double beginning we talked about is meant to strengthen our faith and our Jewish commitment. We shall make a habit of looking at everything with the optimism that characterises every new thing: as if every day of the year were a beginning!

*Alberto Moshe Somekh is a rabbi. Translation made by Sara Volpe and Federica Alabiso, students at the Advanced School for Interpreters and Translators of Trieste University, interns at the newspaper office of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities.

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culture

The Partial Happiness of Sukkot

By Yaakov Mascetti*

There is a general understanding that "happiness" is an emotion experienced by the individual upon attaining complete satisfaction – the state of perpetual search, of yearning, and of disjointedness is, on the contrary, seen as one of tribulation, and of lack of happiness. According to this logic, utter individuality is synonymous with solitude and dissatisfaction, while the cohesive unity of the collective, in which the individual is rid of her yoke of subjectivity, brings happiness and support. Contemporary social realities seem to have tested various models, variations between these two poles, between the totalizing collective and the utter celebration of the individual. Sukkot and the imparted happiness that comes with it, may be considered as the alternative model to my rather polarized and schematic definition here above. Happiness as neither the outcome of absolute fullness or of an exasperated lack, but rather as the true offspring of a balanced partiality wherein the individual and the collective coexist in a state of fragile and tense equilibrium.

The feast of Sukkot is mentioned in Leviticus 23: 39-43:

39 Mark, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the yield of your land, you shall observe the festival of the LORD [to last] seven days: a complete rest on the first day, and a complete rest on the eighth day.

40 On the first day you shall take the product of hadar trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.

41 You shall observe it as a festival of the LORD for seven days in the year; you shall observe it in the seventh month as a law for all time, throughout the ages.

42 You shall live in booths seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in booths,

43 in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I the LORD your God.

The gathering of the four species for the lulav and the ensuing requirement to rejoice "before the Lord" (verse 40), and the commandment to live in huts for seven days (42), and the exodus (43), are all connected into one thread of thought in these verses quoted here above. Rav Samson Refael Hirsch (1808-1888) emphasizes the clear connection postulated by the text between the lulav and the apparently consequential rejoicing of the individual before God – "the commandment imparting to 'take for yourselves' was addressed to each and every one on the Israelites within the borders of the land, immediately on the first day of the holiday, and is the opening act for the rejoicing 'before the Lord your God for seven days.'" Rav Hirsch then proceeds with a staggering close-reading of the above-mentioned verses, focusing on the connection made there between the happiness of the individual and his obligation to take the four species and put them together in an act of joy.

*Yaakov Mascetti holds a Ph.D. and teaches at the Department of Comparative Literature, Bar Ilan University.

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