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Yet, anyone, no matter their religious affiliation, can take advantage of the energy and intent of this holiday. Joy and gratitude represent the most powerful prayers and the most powerful ways to connect with God-and the most universal ones as well. They also provide us with the most powerful ways in which to manifest what we want and need in our lives, including a connection with God.
A rabbi once taught me that the festival of Sukkot provides the "antidote to Yom Kippur." At the time when Sukkot begins, Jews have just completed 10 days of serious introspection. They have spent many long hours on their own and in synagogue services contemplating their misdeeds from the past year and making attempt to rectify them, if possible. They have spent a whole day repenting, fasting, praying, and feeling sorry for the things they've done wrong. At the conclusion of this most holy day of the year, they arise hopefully inscribed for another year in the proverbial Book of Life.
And then comes Sukkot, when they can celebrate being cleansed of those sins and having a new lease on life and another chance to do better, be better. At this time, Jews celebrate life itself and the joy of being alive for another year.
Jews all over the world get up from their prayers and inward focus after Yom Kippur and move into the complete physicality of building and decorating the sukkah, a temporary structure or "booth." The sukkah symbolizes the fragility of all life, which can be taken down, removed, at any moment. Much like our bodies, it offers temporary shelter, and if we take the time to look through the cracks in the roof we can see through to essence of who we are and to our connection with Source. Jews decorate these sukkot (plural for sukkah) with things that represent that which sustains all of humanity-all the goodness and abundance of the world around us, such as the harvest items.
Then, inside these structures, they feast and pray by getting up and shaking ritual items in a physical celebration of life. They joyously celebrate another year of their own life as well as the life of the earth itself, the essence of physicality, and all that She gives to sustain us.
Historically, Sukkot commemorates the 40-year period during which the Israelites wandered in the desert and lived in temporary structures (sukkot). During the holiday of Sukkot, Jews are commanded to live in sukkot in memory of the period of wandering after the Exodus from Egypt. Sukkot also is the last of three pilgrimage festivals mentioned in the Bible or Torah and is described as the "Feast of Tabernacles." (Some Christian religions celebrate this holiday as well.) Additionally, Sukkot is a harvest festival, sometimes referred to as Chag Ha'Asif, the "Festival of the Ingathering," or harvesting.
More than all of that, Sukkot represents a time when we have acknowledge that at the moment we are alive-but we know that could change at any moment. Like the flimsy, fragile sukkah we erected, we acknowledge the impermanent nature of our lives. Yet, we celebrate another year of life. We celebrate our lives. We celebrate life in general. We celebrate a new year. We celebrate all that sustains life-the earth, the harvest, God, our connection to God.
These are things to be joyous about! And there's nothing more important than being joyous. Happiness provides us with the energy of manifesting what we want and need in our lives both spiritually and physically.
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, the great teacher whose wisdom is pertinent to all people everywhere even today, taught over and over again that at all costs we must find ways to be happy and joyous. He said this was the best way to connect with God - in fact the primary way. "Joy is not merely incidental to your spiritual quest," he taught. "It is vital."
Our feelings belie our thoughts, and our thoughts are creative. When we aren't happy, we are dwelling on some sort of negative thought-and creating it in our lives. "You are wherever your thoughts are. Make sure your thoughts are where you want to be," suggested Rebbe Nachman. We don't want to stay in thoughts of regret. We don't want to remain focused on the past. We don't to find our selves living there for the next year.
Sukkot moves us into the present moment. Sukkot, The Season of Our Joy and of Our Rejoicing, offers us seven days in which to practice being joyous-and grateful for all that we have right now. It allows us to move into the future by creating it with our new prayers and thoughts and intentions of gratitude and joy.
Sukkot offers Jews and non-Jews alike a superb reminder of the importance of practicing happiness and joy. The holiday reminds us to feel joy, to have a spiritual practice of joyousness, and to celebrate and feel grateful for life every moment of every day.
