Sukkot is a very special holiday. Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald, Director of NJOP, shares a story from the Talmud about Shammai, the great first century rabbi and student of Hillel. He built a sukkah for his newborn grandson. In Judaism, children before their Bar or Bat Mitzvah are free from the obligation of having a sukkah and performing other mitzvot. So why did Shammai build the sukkah? The rabbis explain that there is a very famous celebration on Sukkot that takes place once every seven years where all of Israel comes together in order to listen to the King teach Torah to all of Israel. This is called Hakel. The rabbis asked, why did children need to attend this event if they don't know what is going on? It was in order to give the parents the credit for bringing them. It was an opportunity to train them, to give them that experience. That is what Shammai was doing. Enabling his grandchild to be in the sukkah and by doing it he was bringing his whole family in.
October 2012
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