Sukkot and Solomon
It is traditional
to read through the Book of Ecclesiastes during the eight days of Sukkot. One
can do this by reading two chapters a day. The book seems so dismal and
depressing that it almost did not make it into the cannon of Scripture. This is
suppose to be a festival of Joy, so what gives!? I mean reading the first few
chapters by itself may want to make you scream, “Where’s a knife so I can slit
my wrists!?” But it was the last few verses of the last chapter that puts the
whole book into perspective and the reason why it was included in the
Tanak.
Ecc. 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and
keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
People are born to
one day ask the inescapable questions of life, such as:
“Who am I?”
“Why am I here?”
“What is the
meaning of life?”
Well right here it
is, in black and white, no poetically mincing of words.
Q: “What is the
meaning of life?” Or “What is it that makes life worth living?”
A: “Fear (Revere
You see life
without meaning, without purpose, without direction, without a focus, without a
goal or guidelines, with out God is nothing but an existential angst that
leaves one feeling insignificant, redundant, confused and hopeless, like a rat
in a cage on a wheel; going nowhere fast! Indeed Kohelet is right,
“Meaningless! Vanity!” The Hebrew implies here as being useless and flimsy as a
puff of wind. Yet this is exactly the point Sukkot is trying to bring across!
Our sukkahs are
flimsy temporary dwellings, as is our bodies. A mighty wind can decimate our
sukkah. One bullet can decimate our bodies. This is not our real eternal
reality! It is flimsy and temporary. Here is not the whole meaning of life,
this is not all there is. We have an eternal sukkah, and new and glorified body
that awaits us in the world to come that is meant to last forever.
Each mitzvah we
perform, each service that is aimed toward and for God has a greater meaning
than that of just the physical, that of just the here and now. It sets things
in motion in the heavenlies that we cannot comprehend here.
This, as Rabbis
and Sages of blessed memory have said, is just a waiting room, a training ground
for the here after. In God everything we do, every move we make carries with it
great significance and eternal meaning and purpose, that is beyond our current
comprehension and finite understanding. Only through God and His Word do we
“mean” something and are “worth” something. Out side of this, as Sholomo Ha
Melek (King Solomon) said, “It is all Meaningless, Vanity!”
Where does our
focus lie? On all this “stuff” we see around us that is flimsy and temporal? Or
is it on that here that will translate into something significant and eternal
in the World to Come?
Listen to what
Yeshua the Messiah said in this regard:
Matt. 6:20-21 But
lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth
corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For
where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
As I sat in my
Sukkah in the early morning hours of the First Day, after I made the proper
Barachot and invited Avraham Avinu (Father Abraham) and Imma (Mother) Sarah
in and once I engaged myself with Mishnah Sukkot; more unexpected, but gladly
received guests came.
Tap, Tap, Tap,
come the knock on the roof of my Sukkah.
Cheep, Cheep,
Cheep, come the greeting of a family of Sparrows who curiously peeked in and
sang songs.
Their songs were
welcomed as carols proclaiming the birth of Messiah Yeshua, for He was born in
a Sukkah made for animals on Sukkah as the Scriptures say, “He tabernacled
among us.”
I interrupted my
studies to indulge in their holy song, christening my Sukkah with melody and
Shalom.
On Sukkot, even
the animals wish to fulfill Torah Mitzvot!
