By Elana Bloomfeild

What did the lulav say to the etrog? What’s shakin’??!! Get it? I know, right. You can hold the applause until the end.

It’s that time of year again, where we get so wrapped up in the transition from machaneh to the rest of our lives that we can barely remember what day it is, let alone take the time to think about the meaning of the Jewish holidays that come at us in rapid fire.

First, I hope everyone had a meaningful Yom Kippur, in whatever capacity you chose to recognize the day in. But here we are, less than a week later, diving head first into sukkot. Sukkot is a holiday that is significant for multiple reasons. It is a harvest holiday (sometimes known as chag ha-asif, the festival of ingathering) and it also has historical significance. The sukkah represents the temporary homes Jews lived in while wandering in the desert.

I have been thinking about the transition from Rosh Hashana to Yom Kippur to Sukkot, and transitions in general. Rosh Hashana is about looking forward at what is to come. It is about preparing for the unexpected and seeing ourselves as active agents of change wherever we choose to place our energy. Yom Kippur is about reflecting, with the intention of using the past to shape our future actions, relationships, and selves. Sukkot, to me, seems like the 3, 2, 1, GO! part.

I can’t help but feel like in my own life I’m not quite ready for this upcoming marathon, and it makes me question if we, as a movement, are ready. Have we asked the right questions? Have we reflected in genuine ways on how we have done wrong by each other, whether that be through alienating, silencing, or shaming fellow chaverim? How will we stay true to the values that uphold our tangible goals? Do we still see the future of the movement reflected in each of our chanichim? As difficult as it is, I think that we need to have seriously asked these questions before approaching the start line of this new year.

After putting out some serious questions for us all to think about, I thought I would end on a less daunting note. As I was doing my research about sukkot, I was drawn to one interpretation of the four minim: lulav as the spine, hadas as the eye, arava as the mouth, and etrog as the heart. We bring the four minim together at sukkot, which is representative of how we should be putting our whole selves into everything we do this year. We each connect to these four parts of ourselves in different ways and I think we should see this as a blessing. When we are struggling to understand the world through the words of our mouths, maybe our hearts will guide us to action. When what we see makes us feel despair, our spines help us stay strong and true to our values. In bringing all of these parts of ourselves into this coming year, we will be better able to empathize, understand, and connect to the world in a way that will empower us to truly take responsibility for and support each other, our movement, and everything beyond.