Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1992-10-08

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THE
'. The Ohio Jewish Chronicle .;
Serving Columbus and the Central Ohio;''
Jewish Community since 1922       .  -,
VOLUME 70
NUMBER 42
OCTOBER 8, ,1992
11 TISHREI 5753
DEVOTED TO AMERICAN AND JEWISH IDEALS
SPECIAL REPORT
What price peace?
page 3
Senate race provides
tough choices Page4
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buKKoi ana empty synagogues
By Rabbi Avraham Weiss
NEW YORK (JTA) — Synagogues are packed during
Rosh Hashanah- and Yom
Kippur. In stark contrast,
however, just five days after
Yom Kippur, when Sukkot,
the Holiday of Booths arrives,
synagogues will be empty.
But the truth is, Sukkot is
more reflective of the genuine
Jewish spirit than is Yom Kippur.
In his "Ish Ha-Halacha"
(Halachic Man), Rabbi Yosef
Dov Soloveitchik distinguishes
between the universal religious person and the Jewish
religious person.
The universal religious person perceives the body and
soul to be in conflict. For this
individual, the pathway to
spiritual bliss is the rejection
of the body, the limiting of the
physical, the escaping from
this-wordly pleasures. This is
the philosophy of fundamental Christianity and of the
Eastern religions. Theirs is a
world of asceticism, of self-
denial.
For the Ish Ha-Halachah,
however,'the body is neither
to be glorified nor denigrated,
deified nor rejected; rather it
is to be sanctified. The pathway to spirituality is not.the
rejection of the physical, but
rather the discovery of meaning and spirituality within it.
For the Ish Ha-Halachah,
there is no activity devoid of
religious significance. The way
one loves, the way one conducts himself/herself in business, the way one eats, are all
no less holy than praying and
fasting.
Viewed in a vacuum, Yom
Kippur is the universal religious experience — an escape
from this-world pleasures.
Those activities which are associated with life energy-
such as eating and cohabitation — are prohibited.
On Yom Kippur, we look
more like angels than people,
as we wear white and wear no
shoes. Yom Kippur is a simulation of death, intended to
help us better appreciate life.
It is a dramatic educational
tool, used to remind people of
the value of life.
Sukkot arrives on the heels
of Yom Kippur so that no one
would mistakenly think that
Yom Kippur is the normative
Jewish experience. Sukkot is a
corrective, a counterweight to
Yom Kippur.
KVETCfi!
TM
In absolute contrast with
Yom Kippur, Sukkot is the
holiday that celebrates the
physical. We eat in the Sukkah
— a booth whose roof must be
constructed from that which
grows from the ground. We
take the fruit of the land—the
four species — and joyously
recite blessings over them,
using them as instruments
through which we sing songs
and praises to God.
With all of this, we sanctify
the mundane, we elevate the
physical; We compress the infinite spirit of God into the
finite world. We elevate earth
to heiayen, and draw heaven
down to earth. Far from a fanciful, flight from the world,
Sukkot is a sanctification of
the world.
A story: A hasid living in
Minsk decided to. seek the
heavenly world which he had
been told was in Pinsk. Overnight, he slept in an open field,
having carefully left his shoes
pointed in the direction of
Pinsk. As he slept, a scoundrel
came by and turned his shoes
around.
The next morning, the hasid
continued on in the direction
that he found his shoes to-be
pointing. When he reached his
destination, he noticed landscape, streets, homes and people that-all seetned familiar.
He was puzzled but delighted
to have found heavenly bliss.
Heaven on earth.
This is the mission of the Ish
Ha-Halachah and such is the
message of Sukkot: to find
spirituality in earthliness.
Sadly, for most Jewish
Americans, however, there is
only Yom Kippur, and not
Sukkot. Taken by itself, Yom
Kippur cannot communicate
the goal of Judaism. Only in
context, when experienced together with Sukkot can we understand Yom Kippur's message properly.
If only synagogues were as .
full on Sukkot as they are on
Yom Kippur. Sukkot, the holiday that most reflects the Jewish spirit, deserves better.
Avraham (Avi) Weissisrabbi of the Hebrew Institute of
Riverdale, N. Y„ assistant professor of Jewish studies at
Stem College and national
president ofAMCHA, the Coalition for Jewish Concerns.
"Next time you kids build a succah, try
not to decorate it with poison oak/