Oct 07/06 — Sukkot

Commentary by Chazzan Aníbal Mass

The Baal Shem Tov used to say that for each question there is an answer and for each answer there is another question.

While we are moving from the solemnity of the High Holidays to the happiness of Sukkot, we should remember that each time we are reaching a higher stage and we should realize that there is a higher one still to be reached. It is like a staircase which we ascend.

When the Tzemaj Tzedek—the third Rebbe of Chabad—was a little boy, he was playing on the stairs with other children. All ascended up to the middle, but he was the only one making an attempt to reach the last step.

After that, his grandfather—the Rebbe Shniur Zalman of Liadi—who was observing the event through the window, called him and asked: “Why were you the only one who was not afraid of reaching the top of the stairs while all your friends gave up as soon they reached the middle?”

The boy answered: “Simply because I never looked down. I just kept looking up. When I saw how low I was, it motivated me to continue ascending higher!”

It is a matter of establishing our perspective. The difference between a human being and an animal is that the animals generally walk on their four extremities and they never raise their eyes toward the skies. Human beings walk upright and this means that their heads are elevated and they can easily look at the sky. Just as the prophet Isaiah affirms: “Lift up your eyes on high and see Who has created these stars.” (Isaiah 40:26)

The fact that we can look up should motivate us to keep growing and ascending more and more to be able to be better persons every year.

In this period of festivities we get all the tools we require for the whole year. But it depends only on us how we will use them (or to decide if we will use them…). Our relationship with God is not of an unreachable distance. Our relationship with God is more like a partnership, a two-way street. And this is a special time to celebrate.

May God bless us with the capacity to rejoice in a wonderful and significant way during this happy festival of Sukkot. Let us take advantage of the opportunity to reaffirm: “I am prepared and ready to ascend and to grow more, and for that reason I am prepared and ready to celebrate!”

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach.