The Duke of Manheim once asked Rabbi Tzvi of Berlin, "What is the reason that children ask the 'Four Questions' on Passover and not Succot? After all, on Succot you have more customs than on Passover, since you leave your homes and live in temporary booths."
Rabbi Tzvi replied, "On Passover, a child sees the family seated around a table with many tempting dishes, and they are freely relaxed in a way we Jews are not always permitted to enjoy. Therefore, the child is surprised and asks the questions. But what does the little one see on Succot? The people of Israel leave their homes and sit in the outdoors without a roof over them. This is no surprise, for even a child knows this is the way of Jews in the exile."
The Israelite wandering in the Sinai wilderness commemorated by the Succah is a microcosm of the wanderings of Jews throughout the Diaspora over the past two thousand years. The Torah states, "These are the journeys of the Israelites who had left Egypt in organized groups." (Numbers 33:1) The Israelites traveled to forty-two different locations en route to their final destination, the Land of Israel. Each one specifically mentioned, and each place with its own specific challenges for them. That experience was instrumental in establishing their identity as a nation.
Throughout the centuries of persecutions and expulsions, many Jewish communities - as their ancestors in the Sinai wilderness - have been in frequent transit. Sometimes, an expulsion was local. Czar Alexander I of Russia (1801-1825) had expelled Jews from towns to be relocated in cities. In just one expulsion, from Spain in 1492, hundreds of thousands of Jews sought refuge in dozens of countries, many to be expelled repeatedly from different lands over the following centuries.
Then, there were times that Jewish communities fled to avoid persecution. In the twentieth century alone, multitudes of Jews fled pogroms in Russia, the rise of Nazism in Europe and persecution in Arab countries.
Yet, the Israelites were in transit for only two of their forty years in the wilderness. They had encamped in one place, Kadesh Barnea, for thirty-eight years. Likewise, there are times when a home for the Jews may be comfortable and seem permanent. Such was once the case in ancient Babylon, in Spain during the 'Golden Era' or in Poland during the Middle Ages. And as with the Israelites in Kadesh Barnea, who were destined to eventually move onwards, their descendants, too, would ultimately have to continue the journey, with the emergence of forces of hatred and intolerance around them.
In today's times, Jewish communities are again imperiled and many Jews are relocating. Anti-Semitism, once deemed under control in post World War II Europe, now threatens Jewish communities as the Islamization of Europe looms larger every day. Distorted media attacks on Israel are unrelenting. Many Islamic clerics engage in anti-Jewish hate mongering. Synagogues are more frequently defaced. Violent attacks against Jews in the streets of France, England, Belgium and elsewhere have risen to alarming levels. In Norway, and France, some Jewish community leaders feel so threatened that they have warned Jews not to wear kippot in public.
Lands once considered secure are no longer so, to the point that Israel's former Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau declared two years ago that there is no future for European Jewry. He stated, "I see the end of the exile for European Jewry."
But today, the State of Israel awaits every Jew's arrival - whether in flight, by force or by one's own volition.
The current changes occurring in Europe and the dangers faced by its Jews are yet another phase in the ever-transient world of the Galut (Jewish exile).
The succah (festival hut) is the embodiment of this history. With its flimsy walls and open roof, it also serves as a reminder to Jews in the Diaspora that their homes, as the succah itself, are merely temporary, subject to the winds of time.
Rabbi Tzvi replied, "On Passover, a child sees the family seated around a table with many tempting dishes, and they are freely relaxed in a way we Jews are not always permitted to enjoy. Therefore, the child is surprised and asks the questions. But what does the little one see on Succot? The people of Israel leave their homes and sit in the outdoors without a roof over them. This is no surprise, for even a child knows this is the way of Jews in the exile."
The Israelite wandering in the Sinai wilderness commemorated by the Succah is a microcosm of the wanderings of Jews throughout the Diaspora over the past two thousand years. The Torah states, "These are the journeys of the Israelites who had left Egypt in organized groups." (Numbers 33:1) The Israelites traveled to forty-two different locations en route to their final destination, the Land of Israel. Each one specifically mentioned, and each place with its own specific challenges for them. That experience was instrumental in establishing their identity as a nation.
Throughout the centuries of persecutions and expulsions, many Jewish communities - as their ancestors in the Sinai wilderness - have been in frequent transit. Sometimes, an expulsion was local. Czar Alexander I of Russia (1801-1825) had expelled Jews from towns to be relocated in cities. In just one expulsion, from Spain in 1492, hundreds of thousands of Jews sought refuge in dozens of countries, many to be expelled repeatedly from different lands over the following centuries.
Then, there were times that Jewish communities fled to avoid persecution. In the twentieth century alone, multitudes of Jews fled pogroms in Russia, the rise of Nazism in Europe and persecution in Arab countries.
Yet, the Israelites were in transit for only two of their forty years in the wilderness. They had encamped in one place, Kadesh Barnea, for thirty-eight years. Likewise, there are times when a home for the Jews may be comfortable and seem permanent. Such was once the case in ancient Babylon, in Spain during the 'Golden Era' or in Poland during the Middle Ages. And as with the Israelites in Kadesh Barnea, who were destined to eventually move onwards, their descendants, too, would ultimately have to continue the journey, with the emergence of forces of hatred and intolerance around them.
In today's times, Jewish communities are again imperiled and many Jews are relocating. Anti-Semitism, once deemed under control in post World War II Europe, now threatens Jewish communities as the Islamization of Europe looms larger every day. Distorted media attacks on Israel are unrelenting. Many Islamic clerics engage in anti-Jewish hate mongering. Synagogues are more frequently defaced. Violent attacks against Jews in the streets of France, England, Belgium and elsewhere have risen to alarming levels. In Norway, and France, some Jewish community leaders feel so threatened that they have warned Jews not to wear kippot in public.
Lands once considered secure are no longer so, to the point that Israel's former Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau declared two years ago that there is no future for European Jewry. He stated, "I see the end of the exile for European Jewry."
But today, the State of Israel awaits every Jew's arrival - whether in flight, by force or by one's own volition.
The current changes occurring in Europe and the dangers faced by its Jews are yet another phase in the ever-transient world of the Galut (Jewish exile).
The succah (festival hut) is the embodiment of this history. With its flimsy walls and open roof, it also serves as a reminder to Jews in the Diaspora that their homes, as the succah itself, are merely temporary, subject to the winds of time.