Sukkot 2020

The Talmud writes: “Rabbi Eliezer says:  “Just as you can not fulfill your mitzvah of lulav on the first day of Sukkot with someone else’s lulav, so too you may not fulfill your obligation of Sukkah in someone else’s sukkah.”  The Rabbis say: Although a person does not fulfill his obligation on the first day of the Festival with the lulav of another, he can fulfill his obligation in the sukkah of another, as it is written: “All the homeborn in Israel shall reside in sukkot” (Leviticus 23:42). This teaches that all of the Jewish people are fit to reside in one sukka (Sukkah 27b).”

What is the conceptual difference between a lulov which must be yours, and a sukkah, which according to the Rabbis and the halacha, does not have to be?   Perhaps the language used here is a hint, the Rabbis do not say it is permitted to use someone else's sukkah but rather, “All Israel is fit to dwell in one sukkah.”    This seems like more than permission to use someone else's sukkah, but a grand vision for the Jewish people.   The nature of being the Jewish people is that we can all sit in one sukkah together.   

So why not adapt this beautiful vision of unity to the lulav?  Why not allow all Jews to share one lulav?   (Besides the obvious fact that it would be highly inconvenient).   I think the difference is between a thing and a space.  My object is mine, it belongs to me.   But a space is different, I am within it.  Home is a kind of identity, a sense of belonging, I belong to it.  What defines the Jewish people as one family is not a shared object but a shared home. 

The virus which crouches at the door seems especially cruel during the holiday of Sukkot, and its culmination, Simchat Torah.   Simchat Torah at Kesher -the holy mosh pit that it is-palpably feels like the celebration of our togetherness in Torah.  But alas, this Sukkot and Simchat Torah we are at a social distance.  How can we find ways to be together, to enhance the community, even at this time of separateness?  

One way is to sign up to come to shul.  It is not the same as it used to be, but its essence is there, and we are responsible to keep its embers stoked through this era of adversity.  The shul is open and we are davening together twice a day.  Unless you are medically unable, sign up to come to shul no matter whether you are a man or a woman.  Being together, even in reduced numbers is good for us and good for the community.  Keeping Shul- the home at the center of the community- going, helps retain this notion of being fit to dwell under one roof together, and it sustains our communal identity, which is so deeply bound up with the idea of  our shul, our communal home.