Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Thoughts approaching Sukkos; very Jewish, very philosophical, sorry

Sukkos starts tomorrow night (can I panic NOW).  So allow me a moment to get philosophical.

The sukkah is inevitably and by definition built out of very impermanent, permeable walls; wood, twine, thin plastic, even Persian rugs I've heard in some places.  The roof is even more inherently unprotecting.  Living in the sukkah, eating, sleeping, playing, learning, is itself a demonstration of our dependence on the natural order of things and outside protection.  By just being there we place ourselves in G-ds hands physically.

So at this time, maybe we can each remember even more consciously that this is really the case every moment in every activity.  Our health, our children, our success; everything is really out of our control on that level.  We can have the illusion that our actions directly influence outcomes, but it's just that, illusion.  Still, it's our duty (and the only way we can keep our sanity) to take responsibility for acting in those ways to bring a desired outcome; we just have to fundamentally accept that ultimately, it's not in our hands how things turn out.  Accept congratulations, accept reward, accept responsibility, accept judgement, accept blame, but know that it's our job to move forward in life and at the same time to be aware that what we do is no more permanent or effective than building wooden walls meant to last a week.  There's a certain freedom in that.

Now back to the regularly scheduled cooking panic.

1 comment:

Poops said...

Thanks for this. I always appreciate your very Jewish, very philosophical perspective on things.