As impressive as this all sounds, it still does not resonate with us in quite the same way as do the themes of the other special events in the Jewish calendar. Perhaps the reason for that is that we really do not appreciate what it is that Hashem did for us during those years. The Torah does not spell out the true extent of the miracle – that a nation numbering approximately three million, approximately the size of many large modern municipalities, did not have to go shopping for food or clothing or worry about shelter for two whole generations.
The fact that the people were able to focus their energies entirely on spiritual needs, becoming the dor de’ah (generation of superlative scholarship and spiritual greatness), is certainly also deserving of our deep gratitude.
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, in his masterpiece Horeb (pp.84-90), explains that each of the festivals represents a different aspect in the development of the Jews.
Pesach represents the physical birth of our nation; for the first time, after centuries of servitude, we were able to begin developing as an independent people following our long-awaited Exodus.
In contrast, Sukkos symbolizes the physical survival of the Jewish people. It was not sufficient for Hashem to guide us out of Egypt, even with all the miracles He performed. In order for our salvation to be complete, Hashem would need to continue to watch over us and provide for us, for the next forty years and beyond, so that we would have the wherewithal to achieve the lofty task He designated for us.
* * * * *
In many ways, Sukkos is a microcosm of the Jewish experience. Any true student of our history is well aware of its miraculous, providential character. We understand that the endless challenges that have confronted us in the four millennia since Avraham Avinu’s recognition of a singular divine entity – including slavery, harassment, attack, repeated exile and relocation, persecution and murder – should have spelled the end of our nation already at an early stage. But they have not.
Our nation, which has not been able to lay claim to such basic national “essentials” as a powerful military and a strong economy for more than a relatively small portion of our collective existence, was by no means a viable candidate for four thousand years of survival – let alone growth, success, and completely disproportional influence on the international landscape.
The fact that we have survived at all – never mind that we have done so while amassing so many accomplishments along the way – is a true indication that our history has been the beneficiary of a unique, divine oversight that has worked against all odds to ensure our total success and deliverance.
That is why I think of Sukkos as the “official holiday of Jewish history.”
Many non-Jews have expressed awareness and appreciation of the uniqueness of our survival. Literary icons such as Leo Tolstoy and Mark Twain penned poetic tributes to acknowledge it.
The Jew is the emblem of eternity. He who neither slaughter nor torture of thousands of years could destroy, he who neither fire, nor sword, nor Inquisition was able to wipe off the face of the earth. He was the first to produce the Visions of God. He has been for so long the Guardian of Prophecy and has transmitted it to the rest of the world. Such a nation cannot be destroyed. The Jew is as everlasting as Eternity itself. [Tolstoy, “What is a Jew?” Jewish World, London, 1908]If statistics are right, the Jews constitute 1% of the human race. It suggests a nebulous, dim puff of stardust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly, the Jew ought to be hardly heard of; but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk…. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded into dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality? [Twain, “Concerning the Jews,” Harper’s Magazine, 1899]
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