Stars Below the Mountaintop: Parashat Ha’azinu/Sukkot

Parashat Hazinu 2016
Parashat Ha’azinu/Sukkot
Deuteronomy 32:1-52

This year we read this Torah portion right before Sukkot. After putting his affairs – and the affairs of the people – in order, Moses chants one more song. That song takes up most of this portion. But, when he is finished, God tells him to ascend the mountain so that he may gaze upon the land that he will never enter, the land which the Israelites will soon attain thanks to his tireless efforts. His gaze is described in the next portion, the final portion of the Torah, read on Simhat Torah. He will look all around, and then he will die.

We see the image of a solitary figure, standing on a mountain top and gazing into the distance below, to the land stretching across the river. This is a man who has been to heaven and back, but he will not be able to step on the ground of that land.

Our Sukkot experience is very different. Our use of the sukkah produces a mirror image of Moses on the mountain. The Sukkah is a fragile, earthly thing, tied to the land – and to “the Land.” (Originally it was linked specifically to enjoying the produce of the land of Israel. Then, for generations, when we no longer lived in Israel, the sukkah space was taken to be a virtual land of Israel for our temporary dwelling.) Its covering (- which is the essential element of the sukkah) must be made of stuff that grows from the ground, such as branches and stalks. We do not stand on an open mountaintop. We sit in an enclosed space, hopefully with family and guests. But, like Moses, we are meant to gaze. We are meant to sit within the sukkah’s confines and look upward, through the open slits of the branches of the roof, and look at the stars of heaven.

Moses, the solitary man of heaven, surrounded by open sky, looks down at the land he will not enter, preparing to die; we, in our clustered groups, toast the holiday with thanks for our renewed lives, and look upward to the unreachable heavens.

Could we possibly forget Moses in the time of our good fortune? No! Although God did not permit Moses to descend into the land, we will not take “no” for an answer. Every evening our custom is to invite special guests into the sukkah. They are called by the Aramaic term, “ushpizin.” Among our guests is Moses, himself. When we invite Moses to enter our sukkah, we overrule God’s decree, and we bring him into the Promised Land, if only for a day.

Shabbat Shalom – Hag Same`ah
Rabbi David Greenstein

 


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image:  “Paisajes de Abril (April Landscapes) © Emilio Küffer adapted and used with permission via Creative Commons License.

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