Process
Thoughts on Sukkot 2018
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The Torah bares no explicit mention of an etrog
on Sukkot. Instead, it merely hints to it with the command to take a
“peri ess hadar” – “fruit of a beautiful tree.” The Hakhamim
suggested that the “beauty” of the etrog tree is its unique quality that
“the taste of its trunk and fruit are alike.”[1]
By focusing on this particular attribute of the etrog I believe that the
rabbis were teaching a lesson that extends beyond the trunk of a tree or its fruit.
In his commentary to Parashat Bereshit,
Rashi recorded a well-known Midrash regarding the creation of the first fruit
trees. He wrote that although God wanted the taste of all tree trunks to match
that of their fruit, the ground rebelled by yielding inedible trunks.[2]
Rav Kook z”l explained that whereas the fruits of the trees in this
story represent a goal, the trunks represent the necessary process.[3]
While we are easily drawn toward the sweet endpoints in life – building
families, amassing wealth, growing proficient in Torah, or spiritually
connecting to God, the bland path toward their achievement is often
discouraging. God’s command to the ground, as it were, was that the means be as
enjoyable as the ends.
How often do we live up to that ideal? The
answer, of course, is unfortunately not too often. We stumble through our day
to day activities, become overwhelmed by their unappealing nature and ultimately
lose sight of our true ambitions.
Returning to the Hakhamim’s emphasis
of the etrog’s same taste of trunk and fruit within this context, we may
now appreciate their lesson. The unusually sweet trunk of the etrog represents
a process imbued with the same richness and sweetness as its outcome.
Panning out to the broader context of the etrog,
the foundational message of Sukkot reflects this very lesson. The Torah
teaches that we sit in sukkot on this holiday to recall the sukkot
which we dwelled in after leaving Egypt.[4]
Our journey in the wilderness represented the necessary process toward the goal
of inhabiting the Land of Israel. On Sukkot, then, we celebrate that process
– rejoicing in our commemoration of the means which led to the end.
The Hakhamim captured the spirit of
these days best in their understanding that we “reside in the sukkah as
we dwell in home.”[5]
They taught that we may yet discover a sweetness in the means by mirroring them
to the ends.