THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK Succot

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“You shall live in booths seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in booths, in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I am the Lord your God” Leviticus 23: 42-43

WHY does God insist the Israelites live in booths when they emerge from slavery in Egypt? Because freedom and human thriving is fundamentally vulnerable.

Torah links the commandment of living in the succah to the Israelites’ journey through the desert because freedom and human thriving is intrinsically bound up with the health of our relationship to the Divine, one another and the land.

Freedom is a fragile gift that needs protection. The freedom to learn and debate are the fundamental rights of all human beings. Access to clean water, health care and sanitary living conditions are the human rights of all peoples. The freedom to vote without fear, to love without persecution and to go about the tasks of daily living without attack are freedoms we take for granted and yet know they remain denied to so many the world over.

We may consider our freedom and good fortune to be earned solely from the work of our own hands; that it is we who determine our fate. And yet despite Torah repeatedly warning against such hubris, this trap of selfdeception remains tempting.

But our thriving and security cannot be built on the exploitation of others and the natural world and the command to dwell in succot is a timely reminder of this fact. Thrust outside away from the protection of a more permanent structure, open to the elements, we are viscerally reminded of our own vulnerability.

We desire protection but this is not something we can achieve alone. We are dependent on forces outside ourselves for our thriving. We need the support and protection of others, just as they are dependent on us for theirs.

Torah teaches that we are to live a life of mutuality and interdependence with one another, the land and God because human freedom and flourishing is only protected when we fully recognise this interdependence. I cannot be free if you too are not free.