The sun is setting behind the Judean Hills as we sit down to the third meal of Shabbat Simchat Torah. It’s been a long day of SERIOUS dancing, sweating, and squeezing tight the Torah that is so dear to us. In the last minutes of what has been a three week long, intense emotional rollercoaster of the Jewish High Holiday season, Rav Natan pulls a gem out from under his streimel (large, circular furry hat). In America right now, he told us, there is an extra day of Sukkot. Each night in the Sukkah, we invite in a guest to help us celebrate: Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Moshe, Aaron, Yosef, King David. But whom do we invite on that eighth day? King Solomon, Shlomo HaMelech. So what is it about Shlomo that we invite him only on the eighth night? There is no eighth night in Israel, so why relegate him to only a portion of Jewish sukkas; why not invite him in Israel too?
When I think of Shlomo HaMelech, I think of his incredible chochma (wisdom): the incredible story of the baby that was to be cut in two and shared between two women who both claimed to be the mother. When the sword was raised, the real mother gave up her claim and saved the child’s life, thereby proving herself to be the mother of the baby. But that’s not why we need Shlomo to visit in our sukkahs. In the Talmud, it talks of Shlomo as being remembered, rather, for two specific things: for establishing Netilat Yedayim (ritually washing hands before eating bread), and Eruvin (the enclosures around a community that allow us to travel and carry outside our homes on Shabbat). Crazy, right?! Shlomo built the first TEMPLE! How in the world could Netilat Yedayim and Eruvin beat that?!
Refreshed and renewed after the cycle of judgment, atonement, and building anew, here we are, back at the beginning of the Torah. Bereshit - at the beginning. Nine lines into the parsha, something caught my eye. “Let the waters be gathered beneath the heavens into one area” said God. “…and to the gathering of waters he called: ‘seas’. ” Seas…plural. But they’re all one. Something about that gathering isn’t complete, for there is still room, says Rashi, for the “fish in Akko to have a different taste than the fish in Spain.” When G-d gathered, G-d left room. Like a good roomate, in the same space without overwhelming. It’s the paradigm for all relationships, for all journeys in pursuit of a goal. Once you get to where you’re going, you still have to be YOU; you can’t just be the place you’ve arrived at. You can’t lose yourself to be absorbed into it’s ebb and flow. We have to be part of that flow and make waves.
That’s why Shlomo was remembered for Netilat Yedayim and Eruvin. They are “on the way” mitzvot that help us get where we’re going. Washing your hands on your way to eating bread, on your way to eating and saying the blessings after the meal that long for Jerusalem to be rebuilt in all its glory. Eruvin, that which allows us to gather together on Shabbat, to praise G-d with beautiful meals, beautiful picnics in parks, go for walks with the family, visit friends…eruvs allow us to go places. We need constant reminders that it’s okay to get up and go, that it’s crucial to journey.
I got an e-mail from a close friend recently, who has been planning to come to Israel for the year to work and to learn more about what it means to her that she’s Jewish. She wrote to me that because of the current political situation, and the fact the she had no job or place to live yet, she might not come. But then today, I got an e-mail inviting me to visit her on Rivlin Street in Jerusalem, where she’d gotten a job! Oh yeah, did I mention what it was that triggered her desire to visit the Holy Land? She discovered her roots. Literally. Until June of her 25th year, she had no idea that she was Jewish. GEVALT! And now, G-d willing, she’s on her way here. I think Shlomo was watching out for her, as he does for each of us, when we let him in to our “sukkah.”
So, my dear friend, I bless you, and all of us, that your path back be a safe one, guarded by King Solomon, led by your ancestors, and followed by all of our children. N’Seeya Tovah.