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Rabbi Sally Olins

Rabbi Sally's Most Recent Column from our Newsletter, Chai Lights

Of all the mitzvot of Judaism, there is one mitzvah which is in a class all by itself, and it is the mitzvah of the Sukkah, in which we are obligated to live.

Most mitzvot involve one or another part of the human being. For example, the mitzvah of t'fillin, which a Jew is obligated to put on in the morning, is a very important mitzvah. But it only involves a person's arm, head and fingers. The mitzvah of Kashrut, which is also very important, only involves a person's mouth and perhaps his stomach, as well. Even the other mitzvot we perform on Sukkot, like the Lulav and Etrog, only use parts of ourselves. We shake the Lulav, so that our arm and hands are involved and we smell the Etrog, so that our nose is involved.

But that's not all. Even a mitzvah like loving your neighbor is primarily a matter of one's heart. If you think about all the mitzvot, you will realize that each and every one of them uses a part of, or perhaps, several parts of, the Jewish person. There is only one mitzvah of which this is not true, and that is the mitzvah of the Sukkah. As Jews, we build a Sukkah and we live in it. This means that our whole self is involved in observing the commandment. Every part of our being, our hands, our arms, our head, our feet, our heart, all of us is inside the Sukkah. And Sukkot teaches us a lesson of great importance. If we are going to be the kind of Jews we ought to be, and if our children are going to grow up to be the kind of Jews they ought to be, it will be because every part of them will be involved in being Jewish. All their parts will be in the Sukkah. All their limbs, from top to bottom, from the inside to the outside. For when we stand inside a flimsy hut, we recognize what life really is.

It is looking up through a leafy bower, observing the celestial dimension of life, perceiving the higher sphere. A perceiving, if you will, from our fragile base upon this earth. We become aware of our relationship to God and God's universe. And then, we enhance that relationship by eating, talking, thinking, and acting like a Jew.

We perform all of those mitzvot designed to make us even more fully and more completely Jewish. And so I hope that, guided by the mitzvah of the Sukkah, we will put our 'whole selves in' as fully committed, one hundred percent Jews.

Shana tova,