Eating is an integral part of how we celebrate our holidays, but since we like to kvetch (complain) there is a well known Jewish quip: Pesach there is nothing to eat (chametz-free diet can be tough), Shavuot there is no time to eat (it’s very short) and Sukkot there is no place to eat (gotta eat in the Sukkah). The Talmud states that eating in the Sukkah for seven days is an easy mitzvah. While there are certainly mitzvot that are easier and harder to observe, identifying one as objectively easy seems puzzling. Plenty of people have a very hard time eating in the Sukkah for various reasons. Rather the sages are intimating that the Sukkah provides us the key to make every mitzvah easy to do. Following the solemn high holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, G-d gives us the joyous festival of Sukkot. Not to balance the solemnity of the high holidays with something light and fun, but to put us in the proper mindset to follow through with our new year resolutions. Sukkot has two unique mitzvot. Sitting in the Sukkah and reciting a blessing on and waving the Four Species (colloquially known as Lulav and Esrog). Why does the holiday name emphasize one mitzvah over the other? While Lulav and Esrog is an important mitzvah, Sukkah has several superior qualities. The mitzvah of Sukkah is constant. The obligation to sit in the Sukkah starts as soon as the holiday begins in the evening and continues to be relevant for a full seven days, 24 hours a day, even on Shabbat. Shaking the Lulav only becomes relevant the next morning, can be done only once a day, specifically during daylight hours and is never done on Shabbat. When you sit in the Sukkah your entire body is involved in the mitzvah, but shaking the Lulav involves just your hands. The combination of the Four Kinds is an exotic religious thing. The stuff you do in the Sukkah is the same old regular stuff you do all the time in your home. Not only does the Sukkah encompass everything about us during the week, it becomes our identity as well. The Torah defines the Sukkah as a Jew’s home during Sukkot and our relationship with home is not predicated on us being there. We identify with it even when we are halfway across the globe. “Hi, my name is ____ and I live in ____.” It follows that our connection to the Sukkah is not only when we enter it, but wherever we are we can say “Hi. I’m a Jew and I’m a Sukkah dweller.” The Sukkah teaches us that mitzvot are not exotic extras we need to pack into an already overloaded life schedule; they are home. And just like our connection to home is easy, convenient and pleasurable even if the road back is challenging, our connection to Judaism should be the same. As we begin sitting in the Sukkah this Sunday evening, reflect on its homey message and see how easy it will be to follow through with all the mitzvah commitments you made these high holidays.
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