We live in an age that really believes that it lives in a
diras keva. It is confident of its wealth and its
might, and it believes that its knowledge and understanding
give it mastery over the physical world.
Buildings can be designed to withstand the most extreme
stresses. Is your area prone to earthquakes? Just adjust your
building code so that damage will be minimal and life will
not be disrupted. Is your area prone to flooding? Just build
on stilts. Do you live in the hurricane belt? Modern
materials and techniques can make your permanent dwelling
safe and secure.
Buildings are designed to withstand the most extreme stresses
of nature that they will likely face: hurricane winds, snow
loads, rain and cold. Corrosion is not a problem for aluminum
and modern steels. Termites are not a threat, and even fire
does not worry the modern tenant who has installed a state-of-
the-art insulation and sprinkler systems.
Is the world running out of oil? No problem. The power of the
marketplace will adjust demand with supply and surely
stimulate ingenuity to come up with unthought-of
alternatives.
Does someone want to go to the Moon? To Mars? Beyond? If the
will and the money are there, no one doubts that it can be
done sooner or later. Maybe it is not worth the effort, but
the decision is "ours" for the making.
Many Western people today believe that what governs the world
is nothing more than the blind physical forces of nature.
These, however, can be understood, manipulated and ultimately
mastered by the human intellect. In short, we are smarter
than nature, and therefore we can eventually do whatever we
want.
Although the justifications for modern hubris are based on
recent technology, the basic mistake is ancient. "And we will
no longer makes gods of the work of our hands"
(Hoshei'a 14:4) is a famous posuk in the
haftorah of Shabbos Shuvoh that is directed against
the same human feeling more than 2,500 years ago.
Succos comes, among other things, to teach us that we have no
diras keva. Our sojourn in this world is ara'i.
We are bound for a different world, a world of Truth, from
the perspective of which it becomes clear how transient and
insignificant all the might of the physical world is.
The Torah does not try to prove anything with its commandment
to make a Succah. It merely comes to teach those who want to
learn: Your shelter is Faith, not a concrete slab.
We spend a week in the succah, to try to learn and saturate
ourselves, both inside and outside, with the awareness that
it is Faith that underlies the origin of the world and that
sustains it — and nothing else. It is our continuing
relationship with our Creator that gives Him reason, so to
speak, to keep us alive and flourishing. We have Him to thank
for our modern conveniences for having set up nature in such
a way and for having provided us with the keys to exploit
it.
It is not accidental that there is special simchah on
Succos: "All knowledge, all sciences, all discoveries, all
inventions and all arts, join forces to provide man with
pleasurable hours on earth. And how many pleasurable hours
has the generation been able to achieve?
"Joy, the joy of earthly life, does not flee from G-d's
countenance; instead hasimchah bime'ono, it is a joy
which resides with Him. . . . The source, the basis the
eternal guarantee of joy does not reside in the harvest but
in G-d" (Collected Writings of Rabbi Samson Raphael
Hirsch, vol. 1, p. 144-5).
When people live in the shadow of faith, then — and
only then — can they achieve true simchah.
That is what we do for the days of Succos: if we work to
achieve simchah we can do it.
Chag somei'ach.
