How a shattered door made me rethink everything
It was just before Sukkot. I was staying alone at home, while the rest of my family was away.
I was feeling pretty good on my own, and enjoying the quiet time.
I came downstairs, and I froze…
The door leading to the backyard was broken. While the pane of glass was intact, a complex web of cracks wove through the entire door.
I immediately felt scared, wondering if someone had tried to break in.
I called a friend over, and I called the supervisor of our townhouse complex. My friend, the supervisor and I carefully approached the door, looking around to see what might have happened.
It didn’t take long to solve the mystery.
Apparently, while the gardener was mowing the lawn, a small rock had gotten caught in the lawn mower. The rock sprung out into the glass door, causing it to crack outwards from the area of impact. (If you looked closely, you could see the point of contact, where the little rock had hit the glass.)
While I felt relieved that nothing sketchy had happened, I still felt unnerved for a while.
I stopped to think about why.
The house had felt secure – four walls, insulation, locked doors, alarm system, heating in the winter, cooling in the summer…until I felt that security was threatened. But was it really the house keeping me safe?
Every year, after crowning G-d king on Rosh Hashanah, and resolving to be better on Yom Kippur, we move out of our comfortable houses. We dwell in huts, made of basic materials. We see the sky above our heads and feel the earth beneath our feet.
And we call this “Zman Simchaseinu” – time of our joy.
Why?
When we move out of our regular homes and into a Sukkah, we strip away those frills that keep us comfortable…sometimes, too comfortable…so comfortable that we forget who our ultimate Protector is.
On Sukkot, we remind ourselves that it is not our strong houses keeping us safe – it’s Hashem. The same G-d that we crown king; the same G-d that can help us be better people is watching over us all the time.
And that is the ultimate comfort and joy. That is worth everything. Even the most deluxe palace cannot come close to competing with that reality.
While a house may be a vehicle through which G-d offers us protection, we need to remember that it is really Him who ultimately provides it.
I remember, after my husband and I got married, my in-laws decorated a room with our wedding photos, and a sweet little plaque that said “Home is wherever I’m with you”.
For the Jewish people, home is wherever we are with G-d.
The Sukkah reminds us of this. It is not our house that makes a home – it is letting G-d in.
This Sukkot, feel the joy of entering the Sukkah; of remembering that a house becomes a home because G-d is in it.
A house may get old. A house may get damaged.
A glass door may crack and break.
But the bond between G-d and the Jewish people is forever.
May we all experience Sukkot as a time of joy and connection – Chag Sameach!
Danielle Altonaga and the JET Team
