High Holidays & the 12 Steps | Class 3—Sukkos

We are live barm. Amazing. Great to be here for part three of our threepart series 12 steps in the high holidays or high holidays in the 12 steps. Um I want to thank those who have been coming along for the journey. I know many of you have been watching each part and not only watching it but applying it to your own personal journey through the high holiday season. I I know that because uh you gave me feedback and I appreciate that. Always helpful to hear that there are real people out there actually uh listening to this stuff and appreciating it. Okay. So this is the grand finale. This is the culmination. And really sukus and susta which is the topic of today's lesson. Sukus and susta are the grand finale the uh climax if you will of the high holiday season. I think it's unfortunate that culturally and I don't know really how this happened. many Jews who are aware of what what we call high holidays. By the way, that that expression high holidays, I don't even know where it comes from. Um it's I think it's an American expression, high holidays. It's like there's nothing like say sacred about that expression. Um there's an expression days of awe the the days of awe. That's a that's a a real expression. um or tish which is the name of the whole month. Um, but the the high holidays expression, I don't I'm not even sure where that comes from. But at any rate, it's it's unfortunate that many Jews who know about what we call the again I'll put it in, you know, scare quotes, high holidays, um, only know about Roshashan and Yim Kipper. And maybe they know about sukus. They've heard of it. They know what it is. Maybe maybe some some don't even know about it but uh and maybe even they observe it but they certainly wouldn't put it on par with Russashim Kipper. uh and that's unfortunate because the reality is and I hope this will come across in today's class that not only are sukus and simra on par with roshashana and yimkipper but in some ways you may even argue that if rashashana and yam kipper are the high holidays then sukus and andra are the highest holidays. because it's a continuum. It's a process, a culmination that builds and builds and builds until a crescendo. And the high point of it all really is on uh well the highest point is at the very end is simastora. But we'll we'll talk about that and because I'm I'm cognizant of the fact that for some people who are listening they may not be intimately familiar with the flow of the Jewish holidays. So I'm going to start with real real basics. I'm going to assume that I should make no assumptions. Okay. So, let let's go to real real simple stuff. Roshashana is what we call the new year, but it's actually not the new year. It's the head of the year. Like a head uh like a a brain or a nerve center of a body. It contains within it sort of all of the energy for the entire year. It's the entire year in microcosm which is why everything we do on that day is super super important. And the most important thing that we do on that day and we spoke about this in class one is kabalis mal shamayim which is a Hebrew expression which literally translated means acceptance of the yoke of the kingdom of heaven. It means submission, surrender, accepting God's authority. We spoke about that. Rashashana is when we lay the foundation and we say we are yours. We are devoting ourselves to you. Okay, that's that after that 10 days later and we have what's called the uh asset that which literally means 10 days of penitence or 10 days of return. Um so on on the 10th day of the month of tish the first day is is rash on the 10th day is yim kiper which literally means day of atonement that's and we spoke about that in class two uh yim kipper day of atonement we spoke about atonement is at onement it's where we return to our natural state of oneness with god where all of the things we've done to betray ourselves and betray our relationship with God fall away being that they are extraneous and foreign to our essence and that all those defects of character are just they they become irrelevant and uh we get get we get back to our true selves. So that that's Yim Kipper. Okay. Then five days after Yim Kipper which is the 15th of the month. So now we're 15 days from Roshashana to follow this. We're 15 days into the month. By the way, a Hebrew month is 29 and a fraction days. Um, which is it's a true lunar month. It follows the true lunar cycle. Okay? And that's going to be important. By the way, I'm not just randomly throwing in astronomy just for fun. Uh, that's going to be relevant. So please keep this in mind. So by the 15th of the month, meaning smack dab in the center of the month, we are now uh two weeks from Roshashana, we're um five days from Yim Kipper and it's the full moon. It's right in the middle of the month and it's sukus. Sukus begins. Now sukus is a whole week. It's a whole week and then of seven days, a week of seven days. And then on the eighth day is a holiday unto itself called Shminias which literally means an eighth day of it depends how you translate at you could translate it holding back. We'll talk about that a little bit uh later God willing. And then the second day of has a nickname we call it which literally means rejoicing with the Torah. And we have a custom to take the Torah scrolls out and to dance with them and also to complete the yearly cycle of the uh public reading of the Torah portions. Okay. So that's the basics. All right. So like I said a lot of people know about Rosha Yim Kipper. I mean even your non-Jewish co-workers when you tell them oh I have to take off a day. Oh yes Kipper, right? They they've heard of that. They heard at least they heard of Sandy Kofax. They know about Yim Kipper, right? But Silk is a little bit less known, a little bit more obscure. Okay. And like I said, it's unfortunate because in a lot of ways, Sukus and Simra are not just also holidays, but in some ways they're the ultimate holidays. And I'm going to explain that. Okay. So, let's get a little bit coalistic. will explain a verse in Shir Hashidum, Song of Songs as it is explained according to the mystical teachings. There's a verse in in sharam song of songs of Solomon which is a an extended metaphor a love poem describing the relationship the loving relationship between Hashem and his people and it uses the metaphor of a romantic relationship between a man and a woman. So there's a line there um His right hand, his right arm embraces me or hugs me. His left hand or arm is under my head. Okay. So you have to understand cababalistically what right and left represent especially right arm and left arm. The right side represents which is kindness or generosity, expansion, giving. The left arm represents gura which literally means might or strength but it means might and strength in the sense of self-containment. It means self-restraint. It means um severity and it means discipline primarily self-discipline but also it means discipline as far as acting in a in a well sometimes it's also then another name for uh gura is den which is judgment um not judgment like judgmental but judgment like discernment and making decisions and making the right judgment call. So when Hashem is in a mode of magnanimous generous giving, gratuitous kindness, that's the right side, that's the right arm, that's called. When Hashem is in a mode of um standing back, making space, sometimes standing back so far that we can't find him, can't see him. Um could even, God forbid, feel abandoned. Um that's that's gura. That's the left side. Also when God is in a mode of judgment um figuring out what to all lot to each individual and what portion they should get and what they're fit what's fitting for them and what they're deserving of based on their actions and that's also the left side that's so here here's the deal we say like this with his right arm he embraces me he hugs And his left hand is under my head. My head means Roshash which we said before is the head of the year. The head of the year is the left hand because I mean we spoke about this. Roshashana is about judgment. Roshashana is a day it's a little bit of an intense day. It's a somber day. It's a serious day. Um, you know, it's not not a joking around day. That's one of the reasons, by the way, why we don't say halal. Hal halal means praise and it's uh verses of psalms that we say on a holiday to express our gratitude to Hashem to give thanks. We don't say it on Roshashana because Roshashana is a somber day and you know halal is a little bit too festive for for Roshashana and that solemn somber serious I like that for alliteration that solemn somber serious tone continues fromashana and into yam kiper yim kipper the day of atonement is also a solemn somber somber solemn somber serious day and it's sacred as well somber Serious somber serious sacred solemn. Yeah. Um yeah, that's very serious days and serious stuff is happening because we know that everything that's going to happen for us in the in the coming year is allotted during those 10 days. Both our material uh prosperity as well as our spiritual prosperity. Everything we'll be able to accomplish spiritually during the year is sort of allotted. It's deposited in the bank account so to speak during those 10 days between Roshashon and Kipper and then the rest of the year is just going to the ATM with the you know ATM card and taking a withdrawal from what was already deposited during those 10 days but based on the judgment that's made the Hashem makes a judgment during those 10 days based on our conduct during those 10 days and that's it you know so it's a serious time a time of judgment it's a time of um you know we're being super focused I mean I think I spoke about this that and Roshashana people are very very careful about every word and and and about their conduct because you know it's a time of big decisions being made which is also connected to that idea of din of judgment. Judgment means decisions. Hashem is making decisions for our fate for the year. Okay. Now here's the thing. Sukus and Simra are known as festive, happy, joyous days. In fact, we refer to it in our prayers as um simu which literally means the time of our rejoicing. Zman means time. Simu means our rejoicing. But here's the thing you have to understand. It's not that they're two opposites. Like you start the month with the serious days and then you end the month with the happy days and I guess they balance each other out. No, that that would be incorrect. It's a continuum. One turns into the other. So again going back to that verse from Song of Songs, his right hand embraces me, hugs me. Right hand is kindness, love, warmth, closeness. It hugs me. How does it hug me? When does it hug me? How it hugs me? Literally, there's a mitzvah called the suka that you go into and it surrounds you. It envelops you and it hugs you. The suka is a hug. When does it hug you? On the holiday called sukus, which means that structure called the suka. So you see this that verse in Song of Songs as it's explained cabalistically is talking about the process that we go through from the beginning of the month to the middle of the month on the first day the new year. serious judgment, serious praying and turning over a new leaf and and and making our our intention to to devote ourselves to Hashem very very clear. Okay. Y kipper continuing in that serious vector of of atonement and letting all of our character defects fall away. And anything that interrupted our relationship with Hashem has to just become um recognized as extraneous as a self- betrayal and it just you know again falls away. Okay, serious stuff. But then what happens is there's a certain joy that was always there beneath the surface. It just couldn't come out yet because we had serious business to attend to. But it was always there. I mean, it's the joy of renewal. It's the joy of of oneness with God. It's the joy of being able to to come close. And so, it was always there, but but it was it was hidden. It was latent. It was concealed. But eventually, it comes out. It becomes revealed. And that's what happens on on sukus and simto. It's not that we started with serious and then we brought in the joy to sort of like, you know, I put too much uh pepper in this uh food. I got to put some sugar in it to counteract it. No, no, no. It's the the the seriousness becomes the joy or the seriousness gives way to the joy. And that's another um so another verse also from Tanakh also from the from the holy writings not from Shir Hashidum but from Tahillim from Psalms from King David is King Solomon Psalms is his father King David. So in chapter 81 it says sound the that's the ram's horna [Music] means on the concealment of our day of festivity. So again the cababalistic explanation what's what's expla what what does it explain kessa the concealed day is roshash but it's a concealment it's a concealment of the day of our festivity which is sukus in other words is sukus in its concealed form they're not even two separate things in fact if If you look at the calendar, the two days of rashashana always fall out exactly on the same days of the week of the the two days of sukus. The first, you know, the first two days of sukus. They they are one and the same. It's just a further evolution or progression of the concept. And remember I told you before about the moon, the phases of the moon. I told you I'm not just randomly citing astronomy. Okay. So, Anro Shashana, what does the moon look like? It's a new moon. What does a new moon look like? Okay, glad you asked. Um, a new moon is the the tiniest possible sliver of the moon. At the end of the month, the moon becomes completely concealed. And then when there's a tiny sliver that can be spotted, that's called the new moon. In fact, the word monthesh is rel related to the word which means new. The word month means renewal. Um so you have the moon in its sliver sliver sliver state which means it is mostly concealed. And then on the 15th of the month smack dab in the center of the month that's the full moon. Right? So it takes two weeks to wax and wax and wax until it becomes full on the 15th of every Hebrew month. If you know the Hebrew date, you'll always know the phase of the moon and then it waines and wes and wes until it gets to nothing and then becomes a new moon. A new a new month, a new moon, a new month. So think about it like this. On Roshashana, the moon is concealed. On sukus, the moon is full. The moon is really showing us. It's sort of like our um visual depiction of what the energy is doing. On rash, the energy is in a state of concealment. Therefore, there's that emphasis on the gura, on the self-containment. Hashem is hiding. Hashem is masked. There's a lot of discipline. There's a lot of severity. It's a serious day. And the joy has to be sort of kept under wraps. But by the time you get to sukus and the full moon now everything it's the same moon. The same moon that was hidden before now is revealed. It's not like you got got rid of the the tiny moon and you brought in a big moon. They're the same moon. It's not two moons. It's one moon. So everything that was in a concealed state on rashashana becomes revealed on sukus. The underlying joy that we couldn't really tap into during Roshashana Kipper because we were doing such serious work now comes to the four and it becomes a time of joy but again not joy that offsets the seriousness but joy that is the actual revelation of the underlying energy that was present all along. Okay. I hope all of that makes sense if I haven't lost you yet because I am understanding that people are coming here for the recovery tie-in and that was a lot of Jewish background but I felt I needed to do all of that to explain it properly. So let me suggest the following and of course this is just my own thought. I didn't get this from anywhere. It's just what makes sense to me. And if something else makes sense to you, we don't even have to argue about it. We can just both have different understandings. Okay? Think about the step work. Think about it as a process. I mean it really is a process because in step 12 it says having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps. So we know that step 12 is the culmination of the first 11 steps. It's telling us that there's a result that ensues from the previous 11 steps. So having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, right? It's not just like step 12 came chronologically after the first 11 steps. Step 12 is the culmination of everything we did until then. One turns into the other. Okay. Well, you know, the first 11 steps as opposed to the 12th step, you could call that the inner work and the 12 steps the outer work. What I mean by that is the first 11 steps is really about you about looking inside 12 steps about working with others. It's about sharing what what was given to you. So think about that in terms of a process that starts with very introspective, serious almost like um personal private work. But then if you do that long enough, it puts you back into life into the midst of other people. And now it's about relationships. It's about interacting with other people. That's very very similar to the flow that we do from rashana to yim kipper. Um, if you think about the think if you think about the like the first 11 steps, especially the first eight steps. I heard once uh uh someone who sponsored a lot of guys and he said you can literally do the first eight steps without leaving your house and that's probably a good thing. And what he meant was that when you're new in sobriety, you know, first of all, you may not be so up for dealing with the world, but also, you know, the world may not be ready to deal with you. So, it's probably a good thing that you can basically sit on your couch and do the first eight steps. Now, the ninth, that's where you actually go make amends. You're going to have to prep, well, you know, if you have a phone, you may you may not even have to get off your couch. You you may be able to call people, but you're still you're going to start to interact with people. But for the first eight steps, you don't have to interact with another human being except for one thing. In the fifth step, it does say that you're supposed to, you know, uh whatever your bottom line from your fourth step when you identify your character defects from your fourth step inventory, uh you're supposed to share that with another person. So, but your sponsor, you know, who or whoever you share, by the way, you don't have to share your fifth step with your sponsor. It could be your sponsor. It could be anyone, but they could come to your house, right? Ostensibly, if there's someone who who's worthy of taking your fifth step, there's somebody who would, you know, accommodate that and come to your house. At any rate, the first eight steps, you're not dealing with anyone except for whoever is listening to your fifth step. And then in the ninth step, you're only dealing with very select people, meaning the people you need to make amends to, the people who showed up in on your eighth step. Um 10th step and 11th step, you're back to, you know, basically prayer and inventory. So that's all introspective internal work again. But it's when you get to the 12th step where you put out into the world. So it's a very interesting parallel. We start the high holiday season in a very introspective state. We're looking inward. We're taking stock. We're taking inventory. It's really just between me and God. It's a very personal, intimate, spiritual thing. It's not about anyone else. But then by the time we get to the culmination of the high holidays, we get to sukus, the whole thing is about our relationship with other people. Because you see, the suka is not just I mentioned to you before, it's the hug. You mean it? The right hand that embraces me. It's not just that you go into it, but because you go into it. And what do I mean you go into it? You know, there are many mitzvah that they go into you. Uh I mean, what does that mean? A mitzvah that goes into you. Um let's say eating kosher food. So you consume it, it goes into you, right? um or even a mitzvah that it doesn't go into you but you know you pick it up like let's say giving s to daka giving charity so you pick up the money and give the money so you're holding it it's like you're wrapping around it the suka is the mitzvah that it wraps around you the opposite thing so here's the deal with the suka it's not just that you go into it and it encompasses you and it envelops But because it envelops, it's a group experience. The suka is the great equalizer. Just like I'm in the suka, you're in the suka. And and that's actually part of what makes it so joyous. Part of what makes, you know, I told you sukus is called the time of our joy. Part of what makes it so joyous is that it's the great equalizer. It's where we all go into the suka. And what do I mean with it's the great equalizer? What I mean is if 10 of us are standing in the suka, we're all equally inside of the suka. You know, if you're talking about what I can contain inside of me, then we all have different capacities. Let's talk about like Torah knowledge. So let's just acknowledge the reality. Some people are smarter, some people are less smart. So different people have different capacities as far as what they can contain. So that highlights our differences. But when you go into the suka, it's not what you're containing, it's you're being contained, you're being held. So if 10 of us are standing in the suka, you could have people of all different levels, all different backgrounds that came from all different places, but when they're in the suka, they're all equally inside of the suka. Everyone is you're either in the suka or you're not. And so once you're in, every one of us, and it doesn't matter where you're standing in the suka, every one of us is equally held within that sacred space. So that's what I mean when I say the suka is the great equalizer and that's why it's also the time of great joy because the whole concept of joy is the idea of bonding with others when we're into ourselves when we're self-oriented even when it's a necessary I'm not even talking about when we're self-oriented as as a function of the disease that just wants to make us isolate. I'm saying even in a health way where where it's part of our stock taking and we're working on ourselves, but that's serious stuff. Like I saying, the first 11 steps is private stuff. You you could do that all by yourself at home with with nobody but you and your sponsor and whoever you need to make amends to. And it's sort of like a very serious thing. But by the time you're in step 12 where you're carrying the message and I, you know, the 12 steps says carry the message to other alcoholics. The original version Bill Wrote was to actually to carry the message to others without any qualification, without any limitation. Just carry the message to everyone. Then they changed it. They said, "You're biting off more than you could chew. Just limit it to carry the message to other alcoholics." But um yeah, originally the idea was to carry the message to everyone. And so the idea is once you get through that serious phase of introspection, now you're in that place of interconnectedness and bonding and and maybe for some of us the first time we're really able to experience healthy bonding with other people. You know, for many of us, until we have that spiritual experience as the result of these steps, we're not even capable of having healthy relationships because either we're using people or we're being used. That's very common. You know, they say, uh, scratch an addict and you'll find a codependent, right? They go sort of go hand in hand. So, either we're being the user or we're being used. we're not really capable of genuine bonding. But then after you have the spiritual experience, now there's this incredible capacity to connect. And you know, when I when I was thinking about this, again, like I said, I I'm making all this up. You could disagree with me, but um I was thinking about how in chapter 2 of the big book, there is a solution, it talks about that feeling of connectedness that comes from having the common solution and and and it highlights the the idea that we are very different people and we wouldn't normally I mean I I'll read you the words. Um we come from many political, economic and social and religious backgrounds where people who normally would not mix. That's just the fact. Okay. But there exists among us a a fellowship, a friendliness and an understanding which is indescribably wonderful. He gives us metaphor. This is very powerful imagery here. We are like the passengers of a great liner. This is on page 17. Uh we are like the passengers on a great liner. That means a ship. the moment after rescue from shipwreck when camaraderie, joyousness and democracy pervade the vessel from steerage to captain's table. Steerage is like the um basic economy and captain's table is like the first class. So there's this concept of and then it says the tremendous fact for every one of us is that we have discovered a common solution. Okay, common solution. So there's this concept of connectedness, oneness, um, equality, but that comes after having found and implemented the solution. So I wish I wish I wish more Jews understood that if you make a point of going to synagogue services on Roshashana and Yim Kipper which is you know pretty intense and serious as it should be that's how it's supposed to be but please don't stop short finish the process and experience sukus and what I say come to synagogue services sukas, you know, that's nice, too. Yeah, you could do that, too. But the main thing is go into a suka. Go into a suka. Enter into a suka and do that mitzvah of being in a suka, which represents that idea of, you know, the great equalizer that that that just contains all of us. And you can look around a suka very often. You know, they say two Jews, three opinions, right? Like we are people who would not mix. And sometimes you're in a suka and you're like, I can't talk politics with that guy. I can't talk religion with that guy. You can't even talk religion with him. You're both sitting on those. Trust me, two Jews, three opinions. I can't even talk religion with this guy, right? This guy uh I can't talk sports with. And this guy can't. But you know what? We're all sitting in the suka. We all have this common bond. And there's something so joyous about it. There's something. First of all, one of the great hallmarks of joy is that you get out of yourself. You you you transcend that state of separation that that ego consciousness puts us into and you kind of enter this selfless flow state where you're just trying to be helpful to others. You're available to connection. So again the idea of sukus is the idea of joy and it's the idea of being connected to others. And those two ideas are one and the same. Those those two ideas are one and the same because when are we in a state of joy is when we're out of ourselves and available to connect to others. And and conversely when we're available to connect to others that's when we're we're in a state of joy. Okay. So that's that's one thing. that I wanted to bring out. Now there there's another aspect of this as well that I think is important to contemplate on and that is you know the 12th step. So like we said is having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps. We carried this message other alcoholics and practiced these principles in all in all of our affairs. Practice these principles in all of our affairs. Okay. So, I want to talk about what that means. You know, we practice these principles in all of our affairs. Like, what does that mean? Does that mean that um we go to a meeting once a week or even once a day and then that's our like recovery section of our day? Or does it mean you know uh we read the big book every day or we uh set it set aside some time for for service you know uh reach out to uh to those who are still suffering. Is that what it means? It's not I mean yeah it also means those things but that's not limited to that. That's not what it that's not only what it means. Practice these principles in all of our affairs we know means that it's 247 life is a different life. So it's not just how we behave in the fellowship. It's how we behave in day-to-day life. Like if you don't treat the people in your family the way you treat the people in meetings, you know, there's something something needs to you maybe need to think about that in your uh in your 10step uh inventory tonight. Practice these principles in all of our affairs means this becomes the new way of living. So it has to be in business, it has to be in our personal relationships, has to be in the way we mow the lawn. Everything has to be in this space of surrender which we began at the beginning of our process which you know we said Roshashana was that surrender to authority that we're giving ourselves over to God and you know yipper was that dropping away all of the layers of false self that are a betrayal to the true self. Okay, fine. And now we become our true selves. But now what do you do with that? What do you do with that is you go and you live that. You go out into the world or like Bill W said, we didn't get sober in order to go to meetings, right? So if it's just like this insulated little pod and that's where recovery exists, no, that's not recovery. recovery is we go out into the world and yeah maybe even go into inhospitable places maybe even go to places where uh you know if your recovery is strong enough you should be able to go to places where all of your triggers are and I know this is a controversial opinion but you know I'm basing it on the big book that says that a person can go to a place where there's alcohol if he has good business being there good business being there means that he's there he's there to be helpful and I know a lot of people are very into avoiding triggers and they talk about people, places, and things as to me. By the way, people, places, and things means the stuff that I can't control. But a lot of people talk about people, places, and things are triggers, reminders. Don't go around the people, place, and things that you used to be around when you were using. I say the guy who's got good recovery is the first guy should go to those people, places, and things. And and to to really do toua to really show that. I mean, that's what tshoua is, by the way, according to the Talmud. How do you know someone really repented is when he's in the same situation, the same circumstances, same opportunity, and he behaves differently. So, you know, it doesn't mean that you're going to successfully carry the message, but at least you can do your part. You know, like imagine if Abby would have said, "I can't hang around Bill Wilson. That guy is one of my biggest drinking buddies." You know, I'm saying after Ebie met Roland from the Oxford group and he got sober. Imagine if he would say, "I don't want to hang around Bill Wilson. that guy's a big booze hound. No, to the contrary, Abby said, "That's the guy I'm going to go to." And he found him on in his house on Clinton Street and he met with him in the kitchen and he carried the message to him and eventually it it took Right. So the idea is practice these principles in all of our affairs means not just in the rooms. Practice these principles in all our affairs means in your day-to-day life in areas that don't seem to have any connection to recovery and even this is what I'm trying to say aspects of life that seem to be antithetical to recovery that seem to be inhospitable to recovery. Um, I mean, obviously talk to your sponsor and see if you're strong enough for that, but ultimately sobriety is the ability to go anywhere that you have a purpose being a real legitimate purpose. I don't mean a selfish purpose, a selfish agenda, but I mean where you're there to serve, where you're there to actually fulfill some type of purpose that makes you helpful to to God or to to God's children. And um you know it's not about avoiding triggers. Not you know sobriety is not about avoiding triggers for the for the rest of your life of sobriety is about being in that place where the obsession is removed. You're happy joyous and free and now you can carry that message to places that you know that need the message and the places that need the message are usually not such nice places but practice these principles on all of our fairs means that we can go to those places. Okay. So here here's the point that I want to make. is that what's cool about sukus is that not only like I said before it's a time of joy because it's a time of connecting right like I said before the suka is the great equalizer we all go into the suka and anyone who's standing there great and small is all equally contained within the suka so that's one aspect but there's another aspect of the suka and that is that when you go into the suka Anything you do there is a mitzvah because the mitzvah actually as described in Torah is to dwell there in the suka in the temporary hut like your residence. What does that mean? That means anything you would normally do in your residence if you do it in the suka during the seven days of sukus is a mitzvah. So like literally if you would scroll on your phone and check your email, but you do that in the suka, it's a mitzvah. If you want to hang out with your friend and you know, you do it in the suka, now it's a mitzvah. And especially the the the most archetypical example of um dwelling in the suk is eating. we consider eating to you know because a person where you eat that's that's where you're you know where where you keep your food that that's where you're tied to and we're talking about your very not your higher self we're talking about your your basic functions it's a very physical thing it's a very like mundane thing but that's the whole point of it is the the mundane becomes sacred so you you you want to you you want to have a cup of coffee and instead of having a cup of coffee in the house you go have the cup of coffee in the suka now your cup coffee become a mitzvah. The drinking the cup of coffee is a mitzvah. That's what I mean. Practice these principles in all of our affairs that when you're in that space, everything you do is a spiritual experience. So, spiritual experience isn't just prayer and meditation. Spiritual experience isn't just inventory. Spiritual experience isn't just um even carrying the message. Spiritual experience is the way you drink your coffee in recovery. Spiritual experience is the way you check your email in recovery. The spiritual experience is when you sit and you chat with a friend and joke around in recovery, but it's in a different headsp space and a different heart space because the whole the whole life is different or this is you know what the big book calls the fourth dimension been rocketed into the fourth dimension. It's like a whole new way of living. Whole new way of living. Yeah. So that's that's the incredible thing about about sukus is that by the time we get to that climax of the high holidays or like I called it earlier the highest holidays, we're literally practicing these principles in all of our affairs because everything we do has now become sanctified. There's no compartmentalization. You can't say anymore there's like the spiritual part of my life and then there's the non-spiritual part of my life. It's there's no such thing. It's all encompassed. That's the symbolism of the suka, the encompassing. Yeah. It has the the encompassing has the symbolism of the the great equalizer uniting different people. We spoke about that. But also has the symbol symbolism of it encompasses all of your activities. So that everything you do is now included under this umbrella of service of God. And there's no part of your life where you're sort of like, "Oh, now I'm checking out. I'm a civilian. I'm I'm I'm, you know, I'm I'm on break now. Now I'm not serving God." Even when you're on break, you're on break like a servant of God. Even when you have to go relax, you relax like a servant of God. You understand what I'm saying? And that's the symbol the symbolism uh of the suka. [Applause] Now I didn't speak yet about the end the very end of sukus which is I mean I mentioned it briefly I said means the eighth day of holding back. Um, holding back means instead of abruptly ending the holiday, we continue a little continue a little longer. And um, in the diaspora outside of the land of Israel, holidays are kept for two days. And there's reasons for that. Historically, you have to do with the uh, the date the establishing the dates of of the month based on site the site of the new moon. But uh, I'm not going to get into those technicalities right now. The point is that the Jewish holidays are two days. So is two days and we have a special name for the second day of we call. So those are actually days eight and nine of sukus. But they're not really sukus. They're connected to sukus. I'll explain it like this. How about this? The three pilgrimage festivals which are called the regalum which is related to the word regal foot because you walk up to Jerusalem to the holy temple are connected to the three oves the three patriarchs. Yeah. So um and and what are the three pilgrimage festivals by the way? Sus Pesak and Chis. Okay. So sukus is connected well let's let's go in order of the of the patriarch chronologically. So pes is connected to passover is connected to a tobraham. This is actually an episode of where he's um baking matzas when the angels come to visit him. He's baking matzas. Okay. Uh shuis is connected to yok to Isaac because shu is the anniversary of the giving of the Torah at Sinai. And at the giving of the Torah at Sinai, there was the ram's horn which was sounded which is described in the book of Exodus u the sound of the the duration of the the ram's horn and that was the the ram's horn from the ram that was sacrificed instead of yeets instead of Isaac and then sukus corresponds to yank to Jacob and because uh actually mentions that after Jacob left his father-in-law uh loven's house he he he actually stops in a place called Sukus. Okay, so you have three pilgrimage festivals, three patriarchs. What's interesting is sort of its own yamt, but it's sort of not. It's sort of a continuation of sukus, but it's sort of its own yam. Which is why if you want to get really technical into the hala you make uh again is a a blessing you make thanking God for reaching a certain milestone. So you make when you reach a holiday for the first time. Um, you don't make every night of sukus because you already made it at the beginning of sukus. But restarts it and you make a new shrianu because it's a new holiday corresponds to to yadic Joseph. Joseph is an interesting figure. He's not one of the three patriarchs because the patriarchs are three. There's only three. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. But Joseph was a continuation of Yakov, of of Jacob, his father. Everything that happened to Jacob also happened to Joseph. He was hated by his brother. He had to leave home. He he succeeded in in in the world. All the things that happened with Jacob happened to Joseph, but even on a grander scale. So, Schmina corresponds to Joseph. But also like Joseph, Joseph really lived in the world. He he lived in a metropolitan um capital, the administrative capital of of of Egypt. He lived in the pharaoh's uh court and he was involved in government. So he was really involved in in day-to-day life. Jacob was as well. He was a shepherd. He was a businessman. He sold sheep and he made money. It says he became wealthy from that. But Joseph was really he was in the middle of the the thick of things. And so that's like how silkus it brings us into the regular world into day-to-day life. But then totally it's like okay now we're going to bring all of the spiritual energy that we've been receiving and we began receiving it and then but now it's like now we're bringing it down and making it real. We're gonna make it really really real because this is our that this is the end of the high holiday season and we gota often it's it's compared to packing bags that you're packing your bags. You're packing your bags for the rest of the year until you get back to the high holidays again next year. So you got to pack up pack up your bags. And how do you pack your bags? Through dancing. Through dancing. That is the avoid that is the spiritual task at hand on those days dancing. So not only is it sukus is a time of joy like we said the time of our joy is even greater joy to the extent that we're dancing. Now we're dancing. Okay. Now, what's interesting is that although it's called the the joy of the Torah and we finish reading the Torah, you know, we have a we have the annual cycle where we read a Torah portion every Shabas and then we finish uh the Torah reading the very last uh verses of Deuteronomy and then we come back and we start the first verses of of of Genesis because once we we finish we start again. So, we do this public reading where we finish the public reading of the Torah for the year, finish and regin, but then what we do is we put the Torah back in its um decorative um jacket and we dance with it. And the famous question is asked, if it's a rejoicing over the Torah, you know, why don't we just learn all day? We should just study Torah all day in a joyful way. Why do we, you know, after we finish reading it or even actually the truth is that most of the dancing is before we read it even um why do we have the Torah wrapped up in its in its decorative uh covering and we're not reading it. We can't even read it. We can't even see the letters where it's it's closed and we're holding it and we're dancing around with it. Like in other words, it it doesn't seem like a very studious uh pursuit. It's like just dancing. And the answer is yes. That's precisely the point. That's precisely the point. The point is this. Torah study is an intellectual pursuit. We're meant to understand Torah. Of course, we are. But at the end of the day, we have to understand that we don't understand. And we're connecting to God who is infinite. And you can't understand God. So God as we understood him, like Chuck C said, God as we understood him makes no claim to understanding God who cannot be understood. It just refers to the necessity of personal experience. New pair of glasses Chuck C speaks about that God as we understood. It means the necessity of personal experience that it has to be something that's real to you. But it doesn't mean that we actually understand God because God is beyond our understanding. When we study Torah, we could think that maybe if I'll study enough Torah, I'll understand God. Okay, maybe not in my lifetime, but in theory, if you would give me 10 lifetimes, I'll eventually understand God. Or even if you'll give me a million lifetimes, maybe eventually I understand God. We have to understand this. No, Torah study is an important thing because it gets our head on straight because we need to have our sanity restored. We need to get our thinking healthy. So Torah study gets our thinking healthy. But it doesn't mean that we can understand God. God is infinite. God is fundamentally incomprehensible and beyond our finite capacity. So therefore, when we celebrate the Torah, we don't celebrate it by studying it. We celebrate it by closing up the Torah scroll in its cover and we just hold it and we dance with it. And how do we dance? We dance with our feet. You study Torah with your head. You dance with your feet. So our ultimate connection to Torah is not through the head but through our feet. Action. The necessity of action. The humble admission that as much as we understand and of course we try to understand as much as we can. Of course, it's important to understand and God knows, you know, if we're not filling our head with healthy spiritual stuff, we're going to fill our head with all types of crazy stuff. So, it's important to fill our head with Torah study to make sure that our head is a is a safe place to be. But our ultimate connection to Hashem, even through Torah, is not with the head, it's with the feet. And that's what the dancing represents. So, we realize that we know very little. We realize that at the end of the day, it's not about understanding. It's not about intellectualizing ourselves to God. As much as there's a lot of understanding that needs to be done, a lot of study that needs to be done. You know, even in the book, in the big book, it talks about going to study religious texts. And in 12 and 12, Bill W talks about it. The world's libraries are full of uh religious wisdom. And of course, we want to study, but ultimately it's not with the head. It's with the feet. It's action. Action. So the dancing and the dancing in circles while we're holding the Torah in our arms represents that that humble, simple commitment to put one foot in front of the other, literally, and take action. Take action. Yeah. Okay. So I wish everybody a joyous joyous uh time of our rejoicing and no that's not redundant because as much as it's a time of our rejoicing it can be a time of rejoicing but it can be a really joyous time of rejoicing and everyone understands what what I mean by that you know there's degrees of getting into it and when I say degrees of getting into it I literally mean getting into it. Don't forget the main thing is you get into it. You go into that suka. You put your body, bring your body and the rest will follow. Go into that suka and have a cup of coffee. Have a have a Danish kapashmoo with your friend. And that will be practicing these principles in all of our affairs. Okay? So, make sure to go into a sukup. Um, you want extra homework? You want extra homework? I can give you I I don't I don't have to shy away from extra homework. I can give you extra homework. Uh the other thing you could do is shake the Lulov, the four species, the four kinds. So you have the the esug, which looks like a lemon, but it's way more expensive, and the lulov, which is the date palm branch, and the hadassim, which are the myrtles, and the roves, which are the willows. And again, the four different species represents that we are people who would normally would not mix, right? We're very diverse and different and we come together not by cancelelling out our differences but by appreciating each other's differences. So yeah, sukus uh is a time of of of bonding and joining with others and that's represented by all being in the suka. It's also represented by putting the four species together. Um and then of course dancing. Yeah. Find a place where they're doing hakus. Hacuffus means the circuits, circular dancing. And make sure to dance with the Torah on. Okay. Goody. You should have a joyous rest of the high holiday season and joyous rest of your year. Until next time. Thank you so much for joining me and um if you do implement any of this in your personal observance, please let me know. Always nice to hear.