Thursday, October 05, 2006

My Sukkot Shiur

In a sense, Sukkot thrusts us back to the natural world that we have so forgotten in our globalised high-tech age. We sit in the Sukka, surrounded by the natural greenery of the “s’chach”. We feel the night air above, the heat, the cold and occasionally the rain. As we make a bracha over the Arba’ah minim - that rather exotic assortment of branches, leaves and fruits - we find ourselves in a web of connectedness with nature. Indeed, a rendezvous with God's wonderful natural kingdom might just be a healthy balance to our hectic urban lives within the impervious brick walls of our homes and our sterile modern environment.

So, is Sukkot the festival that takes us back to nature? Is this what Sukkot is about? If so, what is the place of "nature" in the Jewish system of thinking?

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