The Impermanance of Life

So just when you thought all the Jewish holidays were over, well, they're not.  We're celebrating Sukkot now -- a combination of a harvest festival as well as the remembrance of the Jews wandering in the desert for 40 years following emancipation from Egypt.  And after Sukkot, there's Simchas Torah -- the celebration honoring the giving of the Torah to the Jews from God.  Fall is definitely the busy season.


The deeper meaning of sukkot is the impermanence of life -- particularly the material things. Observant Jews construct a temporary hut attached to their house or apartment, and eat meals there for a week. This shows that even if we have a huge mansion, God alone decides, and it may well be that our only shelter is a primitive tent-like contraption.


My friend Rabbi Yossi builds two sukkahs, as the huts are called -- one at his shul, and the other at his house. He invited Wifey and me to have dinner there tonight, and we're going.  We haven't done this in years -- despite his annual invitations -- but the time has come.  And, the good news is there will be plenty of Lçhaims -- toasts with alcohol.  My kind of dinner...


We all need reminders of how good we have it. No one I know has an easier life than Wifey -- kids are grown, she doesn't have to work, she has a housekeeper, and me to take care of essentially everything practical -- but she does have to care for her mother -- a huge, foul smelling, wet blanket on her happiness.  But -- talking about impermanence -- the old woman is nearly 92.  She probably has no more than 20 years left...


Last night was a banner one for my suegra. She barked an order at me at a restaurant. When we returned to her condo, I typed out a stern rebuke. I told her the only entities that get to order me around are the Big Man, and any earth bound man who holds me at gunpoint. She is neither. She issued a classic Trumpian apology -- she was sorry I was so sensitive, but being a spoiled only son, it was really no surprise.  Oy.  If I had a rocket launcher...


But back to important matters...the good news is no rain forecast for tonight. I recall an evening in Rabbi Yossi's sukka, probably close to 20 years ago, when it poured. Chabad tradition holds that you stay through the rain. It was warm and I didn't mind, but I was a bit concerned with the jury-rigged lights he had set up. No Jews were electrocuted that night, thankfully. And tonight should be lovely.


So we drift along, planning for the future, and hoping the Big Man's decisions are merciful to us. But ultimately, we're just dust in the wind, and so much of current importance isn't. Tonight will be a clear reminder of that.