Notes from Cantor Avima

Rosh haShanah and Yom Kippur differ from Sukkot. On the Jewish New Year’s festival and Yom Kippur we are judged. We confess. We resolve. We feel defensive, vulnerable and fragile.

On Sukkot, the harvest festival, we rejoice. Anyone who has gardened knows this feeling many times more. Not only is there a thrill in seeing your garden’s yield—purple eggplant, orange carrots, green lettuce, red cabbage—but fruit of a home-grown garden excels anything we can eat from the produce aisle. Our own lettuce is more tender, our garden’s carrots sweeter, our self-grown tomatoes firmer and juicier.

“Taste and see how good is the Lord…” say the Psalms. If not this year, think about a Sukkot garden for next year.