What’s Next? Joy!

Everyone just finished the hustle of Rosh Hashanah, the ten Days of Awe, the power of Yom Kippur…and now, the Jewish calendar kicks our tucheses into higher gear and says, “it ain’t over, we’ve only just begun!”

First, of course, we have Shabbat. The perfect chance to join with your Temple Emanu-El community and to bring along all those coats for Project Isaiah that you accidentally forgot to grab from your counter…again.

In addition to Shabbat, if you haven’t started, now is the time to begin building your sukkah and to map out who is coming on which nights.

Sukkot begins on Monday evening at sundown.

Sukkot is a holiday categorized as: Z’man Simchateich, literally: the time of our joy, but more commonly understood as: Our time to rejoice!

From Deuteronomy** we are taught to hold the festival of Sukkot for seven days in honor of God. God will choose where we celebrate. God will bless our crops and our undertakings. Then, we will have nothing but joy.

Today, our joy is found in the journey. There’s joy in surrounding yourself with friends in your sukkah. There’s joy in shaking the lulav and etrog — I mean, it can really feel quite silly, but that silliness makes us smile! It’s even the memories of your parents cursing the metal pipes they were trying to get into the right place so the sukkah wouldn’t collapse.

We hope you will join us this Shabbat, but especially next Shabbat, as we celebrate another crew of consecrates during these joyous days of Sukkot.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Rachael