Sukkot and The Road Less Traveled

SUKKOT AND THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED

On Passover, Jews restage the great event of redemption.  Sukkot celebrates the journey from liberation toward the Promised Land.   

Like our ancestors, we too live precarious, vulnerable lives, dependent upon the sustenance and shelter G-d provides, yet always conscious of the threats around us and the frailty of our existence even here in America, certainly in the  Land, and throughout the world.  

Sukkot is a festival recalling the vulnerable realities of the journey to our final destination. 

Unlike the Passover event, in Sukkot we consider how the real achievement of freedom does not come in one day.

There is no quick cure for slavery, nor from the habits of a slave mentality.  The fact that an entire generation had to die in the wilderness is a lesson to all of us: we are by habit slaves of sin, and learning to walk in newness of life will not be easy nor natural.  In order to become truly free, we must stop thinking and responding as slaves.  Yeshua reminds us, “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin;  but if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”  And in order for us to be free, the habits of slavery and the slave mentality deeply ingrained in us must die,

The liberated person is the one who learns to accept the daily challenges of existence as the expression of self-fulfillment and responsibility. 

Right now I am toying with the idea that most forms of Christianity we know seem preoccupied with forgiveness, a most worthwhile preoccupation. 

But, without disallowing forgiveness, I wonder whether we might not rightly say that Judaism is more preoccupied with righteousness—with righteous living.

 In other words, how do we get from the Passover event (Redemption/forgiveness) through Sukkot (working things out in the hardscrabble of existence—thus, the struggle for righteousness) toward the consummation of all things.

True maturity means learning to appreciate the finite rewards of every day struggles along the way. 

Kohelet hammers home that idea,  of learning to appreciate the God-given simplicities of life instead of being seduced by the baubles offered by the world, the flesh, and the devil.

True maturity accepts that the life worth living will inevitably involve struggles, meeting challenges, and not simply of jumping from one easy satisfaction to the next.

And if we are to lead renewed  lives in the year ahead, if we are to live out the implications of the atonement we celebrated this Yom Kippur, then we must learn to shoulder the day to day responsibilities of living as the liberated people of G-d.  

The question confronting us in this New Year of the Jewish calendar, is this: How shall we cultivate and preserve faithfulness in the midst of our own wilderness journey?  

Where can we find help in our struggle to practice faithfulness amidst the stresses and detours of the year ahead? 

Fortunately, on Sukkot we read from Koheleth, --the Book of Ecclesiastes.  In this text we find helpful directions for our journey, not only for the year ahead, but for all the years ahead.

We would all do well to read this book extensively during the days of Sukkot. It is truly wisdom for life. From this rich and enigmatic book, for now, let's focus on four principles to guide us in paths of faithfulness in the coming year. 

FIRST PRINCIPLE - If we would be faithful in the year ahead, we must remember that life is a puzzle which only G-d can solve.

Numerous times, the writer underscores the inscrutability of life—how finding life’s purpose and inner logic  eludes even the most diligent efforts of the most diligent pursuer.  Especially, he points out how futile and vexing it is to try and figure out the inequities and injustices of life. We want answers, but we must learn to live with mystery. As Devarim//Deuteronomy insistes, “the secret things belong to the LORD our God.” This is also the lesson of the Book of Job. There are some mysteries only God knows, and there are some answers we are not given. Therefore, as Paul says, we need to learn to walk by faith in the midst of uncertainty.

Kohelet names some of these uncertainties”

The unfairness of the strong oppressing the weak- 4:12; The unfairness of one person laboring and the other benefiting from the fruits of his labor - 4:8; The burden of Loneliness - 4:9-12; The constant quest for the meaning of life - 8:16-17

If we try and figure out why certain things happened and others didn’t, why the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer, we will go crazy or become terminally cynical.

   We must come to the point where we can say without bitterness, “G-d is good, and G-d knows what He is doing, even though I cannot understand His ways, and even though life too often seems random and even cruel.”

In all of this and more, walk by faith.

SECOND PRINCIPLE - If we would be faithful in the year ahead, we must avoid being seduced by the believable but empty propositions and pleasures of a world estranged from G-d.

Over and again, the writer speaks of the futility of trying to find “the good life” apart from one’s relationship with G-d. 

He speaks of the emptiness of all things which, although not themselves evil, lose their value and satisfaction when purused outside of submission to the will of G-d. 

So, he speaks against the emptiness of the isolated enjoyment of:

labor--1:3;2:11, 22; 3:9: 5:15-16.

human experience - 1:8-10

human accomplishments, all efforts to “leave one’s mark,” - 1:10-11

aesthetic and sensual pleasures - 2:1-11

human philsophy and learning - 2:12-16

We must always remember that the writer is not speaking of the futility and emptiness of life itself, but only of the emptiness of life and of its pleasures whenever these things are pursued apart from a relationship with G-d.

THIRD PRINCIPLE - If we would be faithful in the year ahead, we must learn to enjoy the basic pleasures of life, always seeing them as blessings from our Creator.

Examples - work - 2:24; 3:22; food, drink 

Eccl. 3:22   So I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?

Eccl. 3:13   That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God.

friendship - 4:9-12

The covenant of marriage - 9:9

FOURTH PRINCIPLE - If we would be faithful in the year ahead, we must remember that satisfaction is only found by those who revere and obey G-d.

Eccl. 12:13-14   Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole [duty] of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.

With the help of God we must come to really believe that accepting the struggles of living as his people will in the long haul, both in this life and the next,  be far more rewarding than taking an end run around the road less traveled.

Ultimately, God calls us to follow thos road less traveled, to choose what Yeshua calls “the narrow way,” a way of life less sexy and more disciplined than that admired in our culture. 

We must learn that the only road we want to travel is that which leads toward better pleasing and glorifying God.

Yeshua traveled a road which ended with his accepting the arrangement,  “Not my will but thine be done.” 

It is a life against the grain of the culture around us and against the pull of our own human nature,

Only those who are being renewed by the Spirit will take the higher road. 

Only those who have been supernaturally turned into lovers of God will be able to walk that road.

Poet Robert Frost expressed this wisdom in a famous poem, "The Road Not Taken." Here is what he said in the final stanza:

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

May it be so for me, and may it be so for you. May it be so today, and all our tomorrows.