Raise Up David’s Fallen Sukkah

Rabbi Gary S. Creditor
Sheloshim for September 11, 2001
October 9, 2001

 
Tomorrow, when we read the last parasha of Devarim, in the very last chapter of V'zot HaBeracha, Moses dies. According to tradition, it was God Himself who buried Moses on Har Nevo, from where he could see the entire Eretz Yisrael. Then it says: "The Children of Israel bewailed Moses in the plains of Moab (where they were encamped) for thirty days; then the days of tearful mourning for Moses ended." This became the precedent that determined the Jewish practice called Sheloshim – Thirty Days. Following the week of shiva, the most intense mourning period, there is a second time frame extending a little more than three additional weeks, where, while returning to work, the mourner continues to observe certain restrictions. These include not attending weddings, dances, and parties or participate in any other form of merriment. Some also exclude listening to radio, watching television or going to the movies, theatres or concerts. Previously people didn't shave during sheloshim or buy anything new, unless of utmost necessity, excluding food. For parents this extended for twelve months. For all the other obligatory relationships, this lasted for thirty days –sheloshim. The Jewish month is based on the thirty-day circuit of the moon around the earth. It has now returned to where it was, the eve of the disaster.

Tomorrow will be the thirtieth day since the great tragedy, which struck our nation on the 23rd of Elul, 5761. The sheloshim period was meant to create a marker in time. In the Torah, the Israelites were now ready to move on to enter Eretz Yisrael under Joshua's leadership, the haftorah for tomorrow, Simchat Torah. They had shed their tears and now could continue their journey. After all, Moses was not one of the sheva kerovim, seven immediate relatives, spouse, parents, siblings, children, male – female, for whom we are obligated to go through the longer mourning period. Only the parental bond required a twelve-month observance.

While this is the sheloshim date for the tragedies of New York, Washington, and the flight, which crashed in Pennsylvania, now hardly mentioned, for this country, we mourn more like for parents. It will take a very long time. We are just about adjusting to the numbness of the catastrophe when pictures of the Pentagon and the Towers' collapse renew the pain and the agony as when we watched it in the first days. Stories of those who died and who lived are being written daily. People made mute by the horror are now first finding the ability to articulate. Pictures with basic information are still posted on nearby walls, even as time and weather are removing them and they are not being replaced. Some families are finally having memorial services, but they are so foreign from what we are accustomed. Since there isn't any body, there is no casket and no cemetery burial. All of our usual rituals are also designed to bring closure to one chapter so that families can begin writing the next. These memorial services don't necessarily bring real closure for these families. They will need many more turns of the moon. Over night shrines were created a firehouses and police stations. Those flowers are being replaced in some type of mourning ritual. All of us have lost loved ones of varying relationships. Even as we understood the physical truth of their death, our minds wanted to deny that it had happened. Haven't we all said at one time or other "If only I could wake up and this will only have been a bad dream?" The sheloshimmark in time forces us to wake up and confront a reality that perhaps we would have rather ignored, denied, or pretended never happened. It has forced this nation. In preparing for recycling I looked at the newspaper of September 11 th and said to myself that the editors didn't have a clue that it would be the last one ever published that way, that as it hit the stands, a most terrible day was dawning, that the events publicized would never be held. The air attacks on the Taliban and military efforts to destroy the terrorists, in one way recognizes the end of sheloshim, though I am sure that they did not consult a Jewish calendar.

It does indicate, though, that this country has moved from a mourning posture to that of seeking justice and protection. Despite the insanity of his taped message, the perpetrators at every level are nothing other than sheer murderers. Every shred of our being, every fiber in our body cries out for justice and punishment. The sheloshim period of withdrawal is over. We have passed over to action which is necessary, and that the deaths of the thousands demand. Additionally, the end of sheloshim indicates the transition of our country to a greater level of inner defense and security. We make the transition from denial and accept the fact that our lives have changed and steps must be taken to protect us so that this evil or anything like it can never happen again. We must be prepared to enable the Homeland Defense and other agencies to do what is necessary so that we may live with a fuller modicum of safety. Sheloshim tells us that we make transitions, in our personal lives, in our community and in our nation.

I wish to link this understanding of sheloshim, using it in this wider context, to a special line, which we recited during the holiday of Sukkot. In the Birkat HaMazon, only for Sukkot we add the line: "HaRachaman Yakim lanu et sukkat David nanofalet" – "May the All Merciful One lift up the fallen sukkah of (King) David." This phrase is taken from the prophet Amos, certainly speaking about Jerusalem and the Davidic monarchy, wherein he says: "On that day I will raise up David's fallen shelter; I will rebuild the breaches in its walls and build it up as days of old." I don't know when this line was inserted into the text of the Birkat HaMazon, but it certainly speaks to us today.

For each of us remembering our loved ones who have died, metaphorically, our sukkah, representing all the relationships, has been breached

For each of us, thinking of Israel, for whom terrorist acts – murders – happen daily, their sukkah has been terribly harmed.

For each of us, recalling the images of destruction of thirty days ago and the trauma to our country, to the young who can't fathom and to the old totally shaken, the sukkah that enveloped this country has been so dreadfully damaged.

So we pray to God, that He, with His twin attributes of Justice and Mercy, yakim lanu et sukkat David nanofalet – He will raise up the fallen sukkah, in our hearts, in Israel and in our nation;

That we will regain a sense of security and protection throughout the land;

That our people who live in Zion will sit in their sukkot, ride the roads, eat in the pizza shops, without fear, but rather in safety;

That we will again enjoy the sweetness and beauty of life symbolized by the sukkah;

That we will feel the comfort and warmth of God's love, which will sustain us through trying days.

As Bruce Springsteen sang in his song, we recite in our prayers:

For the mourning families,

For the nation,

For New York City,

For Israel,

May the fallen sukkah rise up, again.

Amen.