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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. 

