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brated their strength. They built palac-
es and castles as expressions of invin-
cibility. The Jewish people were dif-
ferent. They carried with them a story
about the uncertainties and hazards of
history. They spoke of their ancestors’
journey through the wilderness with-
out homes, houses, protection against
the elements. It is a story of spiritual
strength, not military strength.

A MATTER OF SURVIVAL
Sukkot is a testament to the Jewish
people’s survival. Even if it loses its
land and is cast again into the wil-
derness, it will lose neither heart
nor hope. It will remember that it
spent its early years as a nation living
in a sukkah, a temporary dwelling
exposed to the elements. It will know
that in the wilderness, no encamp-
ment is permanent. It will keep trav-
eling until once again it reaches the
Promised Land: Israel, home.
It is no accident that the Jewish peo-
ple is the only one to have survived
2,000 years of exile and dispersion, its
identity intact and energy unabated.
It is the only people who can live in a
shack with leaves as a roof and yet feel
surrounded by Clouds of Glory. It is
the only people who can live in a tem-
porary dwelling and yet rejoice.
Economist John Kay and former
governor of the Bank of England
Mervyn King published in 2020 a
book, Radical Uncertainty. In it, they
make the distinction between risk,
which is calculable, and uncertainty,
which is not. They argue that people
have relied too much on calculations
of probability while neglecting the fact
that danger may appear from a com-
pletely unexpected source.
The sudden appearance of the
Coronavirus just as their book
appeared proved their point. People
knew there was a possibility of a
pandemic. But no one knew what it
would be like, where it would come
from, how rapidly it would spread and
what toll it would take.
More important than the calcu-
lation of probabilities, they say, is
understanding the situation, answering
the question, “What is going on?”

This, they say, is never answered by
statistics or predictions but rather by
narrative, by telling a story.
That is exactly what Sukkot is about.
It is a story about uncertainty. It tells
us that we can know everything else,
but we will never know what tomor-
row will bring. Time is a journey
across a wilderness.
On Rosh Hashanah and Yom
Kippur, we pray to be written into the
Book of Life. On Sukkot, we rejoice
because we believe we have received a
positive answer to our prayer. But as
we turn to face the coming year, we
acknowledge at the outset that life is
fragile, vulnerable in a dozen different
ways. We do not know what our health
will be, what our career or livelihood
will be, or what will happen to society
and to the world. We cannot escape
exposure to risk. That is what life is.
The sukkah symbolizes living with
unpredictability. Sukkot is the festival
of radical uncertainty. But it places it
within the framework of a narrative,
exactly as Kay and King suggest.
It tells us that though we journey
through a wilderness, we as a people
will reach our destination.
If we see life through the eyes of
faith, we will know we are surrounded
by Clouds of Glory. Amid uncertainty
we will find ourselves able to rejoice.
We need no castles for protection or
palaces for glory. A humble sukkah
will do, for when we sit within it, we
sit beneath what the Zohar calls “the
shade of faith.
”
I believe that the experience of
leaving the protection of a house and
entering the exposure of the Sukkah
is a way of taming our fear of the
unknown. It says: We have been here
before. We are all travelers on a jour-
ney. The Divine Presence is with us.
We need not be afraid.
That is a source of the resilience we
need in our interconnected, hazard-
ous, radically uncertain world.

The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks served

as the chief rabbi of the United Hebrew

Congregations of the Commonwealth, 1991-

2013. His teachings have been made available

to all at rabbisacks.org.

Warnings & Welcoming
O

ne of the questions that
always guides my study
is: What does the Jewish
wisdom tradition want us to pay
attention to right now? This ques-
tion grounds our learning both in
Judaism and in the wisdom
of the moment.
At this moment, we are
paying attention to Sukkot,
the ongoing conflict in the
Middle East, and change and
transformation during this
high holiday season, both
individually and as a com-
munity.
In the Sukkot reading,
there’s a warning from the
character of God, instruct-
ing Israelites to be cautious
when making agreements
with other nations (Exodus
34:15). This feels particularly
relevant with respect to the ongoing
war and the yearning for its end,
as making compromises with other
nations is necessary in the quest for
peace. Which posits the question,
how do we show up to inevitable
conflict in a way that honors both
our integrity and our desire for
justice?
God’s warning comes alongside a
reiteration of key commandments
for Passover, particularly “observ-
ing the Feast of Unleavened Bread”
such as when the Israelites fled
Egypt (Exodus 34:18) Here, the
story of the Israelites’ liberation
from Egypt serves as an annual
reminder that we must be careful
not to align ourselves with powers
that can harm us — like Egypt.
On the other hand, the context of

Israel’s liberation in the same story
is based on the coming together of
a “mixed multitude” (Exodus 12:38),
of people from other nations, who
were freed alongside the Israelites.
While caution is advised regard-
ing covenants with other
nations, the same Passover
story justifies the inclusion
of multiple groups coming
together for the sake of liber-
ation, and perhaps the great
Jewish poet Emma Lazarus’
idea of “until we are all free, we
are none of us free” (Epistle to
the Hebrews, 1883) rings true
more than ever.
This raises critical questions:
Should we behave unilater-
ally or engage with nations
around us in the pursuit of
peace? How can God be our
help? What can we do to set a
table for inviting the stranger we’ve
been warned against sitting with?
Should we?
As we gather for Sukkot — a fes-
tival that invites all to the table —
we are asked to wrestle with how
we show up for inevitable conflict.
Do we approach with a closed
heart or with openness to differ-
ence? Both approaches can exist
with aligned integrity and empathy,
but which should we choose at this
time? What vision do you want for
our community, not just for our-
selves, but for the world?
Shana tovah, and may we all be
inscribed in the Book of Life in
5785.

Rabbi Jeff Stombaugh is Executive Director/

Rabbi of The Well.

SPIRIT
TORAH PORTION

Rabbi Jeff
Stombaugh

Parshat

Sukkot (3):

Exodus

33:12-34:26;

Numbers

29:17-22;

Ezekiel 38:18-

39:16.