Episode 128: Sukkot—When the Season of Our Joy isn’t Joyful

We knew how to celebrate and love Christmas, but a lot of people really struggle when coming into the Biblical festivals and especially Sukkot. We’re going to take a look at some really common challenges based on a great conversation on my social media wall and come up with some solutions and we’re also going to talk about that elusive spiritual fruit of joy—which doesn’t mean being happy all the time!

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I get more private messages about this, concerning festivals, than just about anything else. It’s the unspoken truth of “coming to Torah” in that it is very hard to find joy in holy days that are foreign to us and our way of thinking, and especially when we are not culturally attuned and the festival cannot be celebrated as it was meant to be celebrated, and compounded when we do not have a local congregation—and added to all that, there is this stress put onto people that is very judgy. A whole lot of folks know more about why Christmas and Easter are supposedly pagan than they do about the festivals and there are so many urban legends out there, the majority of it fictitious nonsense gleaned from and added onto 19th-century anti-Catholic propaganda grown out of sectarian hatred and not so much out of responsible scholarship—well, it would seem that most folks have a really bad taste in their mouths for Sukkot, whether they admit it publicly or not.

And so, Sukkot is a very depressing time of year for a great many even if they pretend otherwise. It is not the season of their joy and it is hard to make it so. It marked the transition between the fall harvest and the new barley planting season. There were fresh foods available that were in short supply or absent entirely during the rest of the year. They had worked hard and now they were going to play hard. In an agrarian society, where a good harvest meant survival and a bad harvest meant starvation, and any kind of harvest at all was back-breaking and stressful work, taking a week to feast and drink and dance and listen to music and storytellers and to see distant relations—think of how much fun a family reunion can be if you have a happy family! Now, picture having it at Disneyland! If there was alcohol being served and people dancing and celebrating. So, not much like Disneyland but people looked forward to it and enjoyed it at that level. Please do not send me anti-Disney propaganda please—it was just an illustration that practically anyone can understand. Anyway, this week we are going to talk about Sukkot, about the Spiritual fruit of Joy and also about lamentations because I don’t think we can be joyful without also being able to be sorrowful. And we’re going to get super honest about people’s struggles and our very real limitations and hopefully we’re going to come through this feeling better about the whole thing and less defeated.

Hi, I am Tyler Dawn Rosenquist and welcome to Character in Context, where I teach the historical and ancient sociological context of Scripture with an eye to developing the character of the Messiah. If you prefer written material, I have six years’ worth of blog at theancientbridge.com as well as my six books available on amazon—including a four-volume curriculum series dedicated to teaching Scriptural context in a way that even kids can understand it, called Context for Kids—and I have two video channels on YouTube with free Bible teachings for both adults and kids. You can find the link for those on my website. Past broadcasts of this program can be found at characterincontext.podbean.com and transcripts can be had for most broadcasts at theancientbridge.com. If you have kids, I also have a weekly broadcast where I teach them Bible context in a way that shows them why they can trust God and how He wants to have a relationship with them through the Messiah.

All Scripture this week comes courtesy of the ESV, the English Standard Version but you can follow along with whatever Bible you want. So, first of all, the obligatory Scriptural references!

Lev 23: ³³ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ³⁴ “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month and for seven days is the Feast of Booths to the Lord. ³⁵ On the first day shall be a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work. ³⁶ For seven days you shall present food offerings to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall hold a holy convocation and present a food offering to the Lord. It is a solemn assembly; you shall not do any ordinary work. ³⁷ “These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim as times of holy convocation, for presenting to the Lord food offerings, burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its proper day, ³⁸ besides the Lord‘s Sabbaths and besides your gifts and besides all your vow offerings and besides all your freewill offerings, which you give to the Lord. ³⁹ “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord seven days. On the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. ⁴⁰ And you shall take on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. ⁴¹ You shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It is a statute forever throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. ⁴² You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booths, ⁴³ that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”

Deut 16: ¹³ “You shall keep the Feast of Booths seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your winepress. ¹⁴ You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns. ¹⁵ For seven days you shall keep the feast to the Lord your God at the place that the Lord will choose, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.

Obviously, there are some significant issues with doing this for realsies, right? The place that Yahweh eventually chose is Jerusalem and the place where you present the aforementioned “food offerings” and etc. was at the Temple. The culture was pre-programmed for you to be able to do this, there was no hassle with getting time off of work but, and this is important, it wasn’t really very doable for women for at least half the month because, ladies, you know you wouldn’t want to be on a walking road trip anywhere near the beginning of your period, or if you had an infant which you would have quite often, I imagine. As often as not, I imagine that women were left home with the young kids and the men went and it wasn’t as though the work of caring for little kids miraculously ends on High Sabbaths. So, right off the bat, all you moms of kids who feel defeated during the Festivals—you were not unrepresented during Biblical times. So often, we get this rosy picture based largely on what we think men were able to enjoy and we imagine that women were able to freely join in and celebrate but it wasn’t as though men were sharing childcare and cooking duties—that was within the sphere of a woman’s world and that work went on always—with the exception of cooking on regular Sabbaths but women were still expected to prepare the feasts on the High Sabbaths, the first and last days of Festivals. I am not saying that when they went that it wasn’t a big deal for the ladies, I am just saying that if you ladies listening are thinking they had a vacation like the men were getting and that you feel like a failure because you are neck-deep in work during that time and despairing over not finding that joyful, don’t think it is just you or that you are unique. Festivals have traditionally been a ton of work for women BUT they were gathered together in an exciting place with extended family to do it, which made it more of a celebration. For women, they joined the household of their husbands and a festival might provide a rare opportunity to see their mothers and brothers, with whom women were generally close. Expectations kill joy, and for a lot of you, I am not telling you anything you don’t already know.

And being in Jerusalem near the Temple, I have to explain to you the mindset of the ancient world as concerning Temples as the overlap between Heaven and Earth and therefore the focal point of the presence of God. It wasn’t just a cathedral or a church building where we call it “God’s House” as an idiom. This was God’s literal house. It was thrilling to be in Jerusalem—not only because of the festive atmosphere but because you were literally in the shadow of one of the wonders of the ancient world. The Bible attests to the belief that Yahweh’s presence was there in Solomon’s Temple but that even in the Second Temple, His eyes were always there even if the cloud of His presence never inhabited it. Rituals and beliefs unite people—which is why even for secular folks, Christmastime is known as the happiest season of the year. When people know how to celebrate together, it is a uniting and thrilling experience. Every country and every religion has rituals and holidays that unite people which is why, here in America, flag burning and taking a knee during the National Anthem can be disproportionally offensive given that it actually is a peaceful form of protest. People react because those are ritually traditional rallying times and when that is threatened, people feel as though their identity is under attack. Sure, we have mantras and talking points about why we feel it is wrong, but deep down it is a psychological reaction to a threat to our corporate identity. And when Yeshua/Jesus and various first-century Jewish prophets spoke of the coming destruction of the Temple, the Jewish faithful would have felt all that revulsion and worse. All that is to say that being in Jerusalem and near the Temple was a joy in and of itself.

So, let’s talk about Sukkot expectations. American Messianics/Hebrew Roots folks have developed a tradition of outdoor camping for the whole week and if that appeals to you it can be fun but it is hardly a requirement and you are not sinning if you don’t do it. I mean, let’s be super honest here—we cannot keep Sukkot. We can observe it and practice it but even if we could all afford to go to Jerusalem three times a year, there isn’t a way for even a fraction of believers to travel there even if you diverted all the planes to do so. I know there are people who say it is a sin not to go but during the first century most Jews lived outside the Land and it was a goal to make the pilgrimage once in a lifetime—that was the goal if you were wealthy enough. Most never went. Even first-century Jews living in the Land mostly didn’t attend Sukkot yearly. Passover drew the biggest crowds, but if you were barely scraping by under Roman occupation, it wasn’t always feasible. Life had changed drastically after the Babylonian conquest. A great many Jews were poor and enslaved throughout the Roman Empire, and Babylon was a three-week journey away and fraught with dangers. So, camping in the great outdoors is a tradition, pure and simple. And it is one that isn’t so much fun in Canada, or where I live and we routinely get wind gusts of up to 60mph during that week (which started right on schedule the day before this is going to post). All of this was to be done in Jerusalem and to remember a good harvest and to live in booths in order to remember the wilderness years after the Exodus.

There is absolutely nothing preventing people from setting up a fort in their living room and sleeping in sleeping bags if they really want to do it. When the boys were young and we had a basement, that’s what we did and they loved it. I slept in a bed and so did my husband! I still do. I can’t set up a sukkah outside without it blowing into my neighbor’s yard—one year their trampoline ended up in my backyard during Sukkot—imagine if we had been camping there! But if you don’t have high winds, go for it if you want to do that.

Some folks feel like they have an obligation to attend a conference or to put one on, which is fine if that floats your boat but not everyone finds that particularly joyful. Especially for people like me with significant social anxiety issues. I spoke at a Sukkot gathering two years ago on the Utah/Nevada border and I literally knew no one personally before I went (I did know the hosts via social media which is why they asked me to come to be their speaker) and I spent almost the whole time scared to death and decompressing in my room. And yet, I could go to Disneyland or on  Cruise ship with no problem or I could be in Jerusalem near the Temple and be just fine because no one would know me or have any expectations of me and I could just enjoy myself and exist—as long as I was surrounded by loved ones who know how scared I am. But, not required. I don’t think massive amounts of teaching were going on at festivals, they were enjoying themselves and participating in recognized social activities. Again, expectations of what people should be doing when we can’t actually do the commandment can be a real joy killer.

Now that my kids are adults they are realizing the hard facts about being adults with weekend jobs and almost no time off. And especially young people and those with low seniority or “on-call” jobs aren’t always able to take off the holy days or the Sabbaths and if that applies to you, just allow me to encourage you—ancient Israel was culturally set up to shut down on these days and our society is not. No one is going to be damned if they have to work these days to feed their families, okay? In ancient Israel, you had to really want to stomp on God’s honor in order to really work on those days and so when it talks about being “cut off” from Israel it was with that reality in mind. We have limitations and restrictions and we also have to put forward a good witness and yelling at your boss to demand holy days off isn’t really a positive witness to unbelievers. And if you are blessed enough to work with others who keep the feasts, no way can most jobs let everyone off. It’s simple logistics. Do your best with what situation you find yourself in and work toward the future when maybe you have more freedom.

Special needs families also have very real issues—for all festivals. I have spoken and written in the past about not making life hell for our families while trying to keep commandments. If you have a severely disabled child who won’t eat anything but white bread or breaded chicken nuggets during Passover, feed it to them. No Rabbi will tell you differently. If you can’t fast on Yom Kippur due to medical issues, then don’t. If you can’t camp because of mobility issues, then don’t. Sometimes we get really hung up on technicalities because we believe that commandments are supposedly some kind of punishment on the people who really have good reasons not to keep them. Would you respond to any amount of pressure to take a noise-sensitive autistic child to the front row of a fireworks show? Of course not! What if your neighbors called you unpatriotic? You wouldn’t care and might use some choice words in response but you would think their point was stupid. There is no joy in a festival where a child with special needs is starving and howling and cannot understand why you won’t feed them, okay? God didn’t give us commandments so that we could act like heartless legalistic jerks. God doesn’t want the feeding tube on a coma patient removed for Yom Kippur, okay? If you can’t literally imagine Yeshua doing it to someone, then don’t you do it either. Some folks will give you advice that they don’t have to live with—I freely give you permission to be sane and compassionate. The reason for the season is “joy” over another year’s faithful provision—if it feels like an obligation then re-evaluate what you are doing or maybe who you are listening to because Gentiles who come into all of this tend to be incredibly legalistic because they see the commandments as a list of do’s and don’ts instead of wisdom and guidelines. If keeping a commandment in a certain way goes against wisdom, then you’re doing it wrong. If the way you keep Sukkot brings you no joy or if it is legitimately causing suffering to others then, well, same diff. Find a different way.

What can you do? In the transcript for this, I am going to include a lot of suggestions from my readers (here is the link to that information) and although they will probably come too late for you this year, start planning for next year. I am going to tell you one thing right now—a lot of people get themselves into trouble by not allowing themselves to do the things that are fun about secular holidays or even those things they really enjoyed from Christmas and Easter that they feel are somehow guilty by association with not being “biblical” but most folks really enjoy doing special food. Baking cookies together, sharing that joy by taking baked goods to people who are shut-ins or elderly or disabled or lonely. Visiting with friends you haven’t seen in a long time. Decorating and sending out cards—maybe get on social media and get with others who like to do it. Fireworks, just not in my neighborhood because that went on for two weeks straight and they will do it again for New Year. Video conferencing with other families and telling stories and sharing love. What I am saying is that your culture has ways that naturally are interpreted by your brain as a celebration—use those things to rejoice before the Lord! There is a reason why, at the end of Revelation, people from every tribe and tongue and nation are celebrating and worshiping and not just one—because how we celebrate is culturally defined and I think when we try to be something we are not—more Jewish—we just get miserable. Sukkot at my house is about brisket and chocolate cheesecake and homemade applesauce and sweet tea and donuts and sitting around and talking. And we might watch the old live-action Disney movies like Follow Me Boys and Third Man on the Mountain and Swiss Family Robinson. If we give Matt the choice, we will watch The Great Escape. Last year, we didn’t have Sukkot because of Andrew’s first of two neurosurgeries. Believe me, almost anything is better than that! Do what works for you. You didn’t work hard bringing in the harvest. You aren’t getting ready for the barley planting and a long winter. You didn’t spend all summer stressing out about the rainfall. You don’t get to go to the Temple—so you aren’t going to have that sort of happiness at all. But you can have the joy of your own unique cultural creation.

Joy is a tricky Fruit of the Spirit. Remember the old Sesame Street song? “One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just isn’t the same, now can you guess which thing is not like the others, guess before my song is done, and now my song is done.” Well, joy is very elusive and especially when we didn’t develop it as children. Joy is seriously hampered by traumatic experiences and memories, and the defense mechanisms we develop in order to keep ourselves from crumbling in the face of abuse. And when the abuse is gone, the defense mechanisms and trauma are still in place, dictating how we perceive and experience and react to everything around us. Those walls were built to keep out certain types of input but they also keep out joy. Joy isn’t very physically fit and can’t make it over those high walls or dig through them—the walls have to come down. Fortunately, as we saw in Jericho, our God is in the business of taking down walls.

Now, if you have suffered trauma or abuse in your family or still are, I am going to recommend the book Changes that Heal by Henry S Cloud. He is a clinical psychiatrist and a Christian with the gift of helping people sort through their issues with storytelling. When I was 41, I really came to the point where I could no longer cope with some things from my past and I was having a problem accurately seeing how damaging certain relationships in my life were and his book was just an excellent starting point for being able to develop joy. So, that was about ten years ago that I read it and things started to change for the better in how I saw the world and what was really going on in some very dysfunctional relationships. It didn’t change them but it changed how I interacted with them and how much of their nonsense I allowed to define how I saw things.

But, it was about four years ago that I had a serious breakthrough when God taught me how to “remember joy” and I did a short video on it. I was laying in bed one night and all of a sudden I knew how to fill up my joy tank. Which is important. I used to dwell on traumatic things at night, and it was torture—and what really broke the camel’s back was when someone I was connected with in ministry allowed me to be accused of some terrible things that were not true, in order to make life easier for himself. To this day, he still hasn’t stepped up and done the right thing and I imagine he never will but the nature of the accusations was so destructive that I didn’t hardly sleep for about nine months, just being filled with dread that the accusations would spread beyond his local congregation. It was at that point that Yahweh taught me to dwell on joy. Or rather, He equipped me so that it was possible because I had tried to do it in the past and it didn’t work. We have to be broken before we can be built up and I was demolished with fear and grief and humiliation.

So, He showed me two specific memories—both concerning my sons. My favorite two memories that were just pure moment of joy. One was a scene where Andrew was in second grade and I would bring him and his twin lunch at school every day and visit with them because we lived right down the road. Andrew, before I left, would always put his head back and close his eyes, wanting to be kissed on the eyelids. Right in front of everyone. And I remember the smell of his skin and the smile on his face and what it felt like to kiss those soft eyelids and the love that would swell up inside me. Pure bliss. The other was a scene in the backyard of our house in Roswell, NM where the boys, who were about four, were stripped down naked and I would chase them around inside our tall stucco yard walls with the hose. The sound of their laughter and the silliness and the fun is as clear a memory as I possess. Even now I am smiling even though I remember both of these things often. They are beautiful works of art in my life, more precious than any Picasso or Rembrandt. I am certain you have similar memories. Yahweh showed them to me in the depths of my despair and told me to dwell on them and lo and behold, I found myself smiling and just joyful. And I found that doing that would fill up an empty reservoir inside me—what I call my joy tank, and I could actually live off of it for quite a while before the tormenting thoughts from past trauma could overpower me again.

But before I even got to that point, I also had to deal with the seventeen years of undiagnosed post-partum depression that I lived with after suffering through three miscarriages within a year. Unlike PPD related to childbirth, miscarriage-induced PPD has no happy ending to wake up to one day. It endures and a great many women suffer in complete ignorance as to what is going on. I only knew because of a dream I had where I was handed a magazine in a journal about PPD after miscarriage and it was telling the story of a woman and I realized it was my story. I actually journaled through that in my blog, it was a very ugly healing process but even though I am still very sad about the losses of my babies, I am no longer suffering from depression. Just occasional sadness. Until that got dealt with—there was just no way I could have filled my joy tank for more than a few minutes. I could have been happy for a bit, but joy is not mere happiness. Anyone can experience happiness, but joy is a fruit of the Spirit. It has to be planted, nurtured, and grown. That isn’t something you can just decide to do. You can do things that contribute to the process, but the truth is that it is just like patience, self-control, peace, gentleness, trust, and love—we can try but we need to be equipped by God and especially when there are abuse issues in our past. Maybe you are at that point where you can do the joy tank, I sure hope so. Maybe you are at the point where you are needing to work through forgiveness, or acceptance that the past cannot be changed, or to see relationships as they really are and not as you want them to be, or to question the expectations you and others put on yourself, or to question where your personal boundaries should be set (Cloud also has a great book on boundaries), or to get off Facebook because that place is a joy-killer for sure lol.

So, even with my joy tank full, I still had problems with cynicism—and, I mean, it was BAD. Yahweh challenged me on it because cynicism involves falsely accusing people of things they haven’t done yet. I know a lot of you will be able to relate sitting in bed at night, obsessing about what people might do to you and like, one night God was like, “Why are you lying about these people? They haven’t done any of this to you!” And sometimes, I was even making up fictional people and situations and getting outraged. It’s hilarious now. But I had to learn to say, “Oh my gosh, Tyler, this isn’t even true. Just cut it out. Lying about imaginary people is not that much better than lying about real people!” But I did it because it made me feel safer and more powerful if I could imagine these fictitious scenarios and come up with solutions and comebacks and watch them suffer for hurting me. I am betting a lot of you who were similarly bullied can totally identify with this. But this sort of stress is hard on the mind and body. We are living vicariously through traumatic events, unnecessarily because they never did happen. Or, we relive what actually did happen but we make it worse. This feeds our anger, resentment, and bitterness and makes the other person into a monster instead of just another human being who decided to do evil to us. Dehumanizing them is so very tempting, right? It fuels the fire of our martyrdom—and those are very unhealthy fires to stoke up. Psychologically, we do it for a reason but it only hurts us. They’ve probably moved on. It kills joy.

After just denying myself cynicism for a while, Yahweh disappeared it one day. It was gone. I no longer assumed everyone was out to get me. Some people are, but dreading it was just sapping the life out of me. And they are going to do to me whatever they want regardless of whether or not I spend the time thinking about it beforehand. I will tell you one thing—a lot of times we get “got” by people who are just like that. Should I feel betrayed when a dude who built up his ministry making videos mocking people who he disagrees with made one about me? Not at all—that’s who he is and it had nothing to do with me or what I teach. It was him needing an outlet for being him. My feelings, life, or basic humanity never entered into the equation. If it wasn’t me, it would be someone else because his audience enjoys it and so he looks at his ten thousand views and it feeds whatever fuels him. I am just another log on the fire. Cynicism takes what he did and foists that motivation on everyone but most people I deal with aren’t like him. But, it also involves lying, which we aren’t permitted to do. A lot of the activities that destroy our joy just boil down to needing to have our thinking processes identified and rearranged but only God knows the proper order and how to do it. Therapists can really help and especially those who specialize in trauma—I believe that many are gifted by God with insight as to how to work someone through that maze so it doesn’t take decades. Don’t ever be ashamed for getting help if you need help. An outside, objective eye can be just what a person needs to begin healing. Dr. Cloud really did that for me with his book.

The fruit of the Spirit takes work, and time and divine help. But it doesn’t mean we are powerless. I have worked hard to get where I am and I truly am joyful more often than not now. But let’s talk about what joy doesn’t mean—joy doesn’t mean that I am no longer an introvert. I don’t think that will ever change. Joy doesn’t mean that I am not a very shy person, because I am. Joy doesn’t mean that I still don’t have severe social anxiety, because I do. For me, speaking at a conference and even a small one, is very hard. Even if I am the keynote speaker, I am very aloof and often by myself unless someone approaches me and strikes up a conversation and if they do, I can be very congenial but I am also very much stressed out, and to compensate I will often say things that sound good in my head but I would never write down because they are awkward and sometimes even callous. My people skills are seriously bad. They are better than they used to be because I do a lot less “fear-speaking” now. I can be quiet in a conversation because I am less scared than I used to be and don’t need to control it as much as I used to.

But honestly, I am more joyful because I am home doing what I love. At home, there is no social pressure on me to perform and to answer questions on the fly. I don’t have to watch every move and every word to make sure I am not giving people the wrong impression. I am not scared to death of being unwelcome or rejected for my awkwardness—yes, even when I am invited to speak I still suffer from feelings that I will be rejected. Crazy, huh? So, for me, Sukkot joy has to take those things into consideration. I could walk around Disneyland and be perfectly content because no one knows me and I am not expected to interact with anyone because I am invisible. But a conference or a camping trip with a large group? That would exhaust me. I also have elderly critters who need taken care of. I was also a special needs mom and that comes with its own unique challenges that make what is fun for a lot of people a whole lot less fun. Sukkot needs to be joyful and what that looks like for your family will be different than what it looks like for someone else’s family. So, hey, seriously—capitalize on what you enjoy. Want to have a huge birthday party for Yeshua with a bounce house in the back and a barbeque every day to sort of reenact the food offerings? Go for it. That’s very American! Every culture has its own ways of celebrating—you don’t have to try to take on Jewish traditions that are filled with meaning for them not because they are Jewish, per se, but because of fond childhood memories. When we ditch our own culture in order to coopt another, we lose the joy associated with those precious memories. I think that is why so many people get so angry when they give up Christmas and Easter and try to do the Biblical Feasts instead—because they have been manipulated and bullied, oftentimes, into also giving up their memories.

Hey, memories of that sort are more about family closeness and love than with the holiday itself. Giving that up is a mistake. So, make your sugar cookies and frost them and put those little silver balls on them and sprinkles—if you did it with your parents and grandparents and you associate that with joy. There isn’t anything wrong with that. Nothing wrong with lights and decorations either and the associated cultural good feelings. Don’t neglect the ways you have been conditioned to experience joy. Cultural expressions are not inherently bad or pagan. They are just cultural. A lot of times, and especially in the first few years of discovering that handful of commandments that mainstream Christianity doesn’t keep, we get super legalistic and we throw out too much and we succumb to the propaganda that’s out there about—well, just about everything. And, on the other hand, there are voices out there saying that everything traditionally Jewish is bad too and it leaves people with the idea that they can only do what is written and, guess what? Like almost nothing is written down and what is written mostly cannot be done! Recipe for disaster and failure and—no joy.

Don’t try to be something or someone or some culture you are not. I am telling you that it will be meaningless and empty for you most of the time. Instead, do what you know and if you want to, add in some other cultural elements a bit at a time. Ditch or alter the ones that don’t really do it for you, and keep the ones that do. Build traditions without destroying the old ones. Celebrate your own traditions without demanding that everyone else do it your way, and celebrate your way unapologetically—ignoring the people who demand you do it their way. And be a voice of love and compassion to others. I tell you that there is a great joy to be found in rescuing others from confusion and despair. Just because you suffered at the hands of those people who push the holidays but never teach anyone how—or flippantly tell you “Just read your Bible” without anything more (and I am going to tell you right now that the people who do that probably don’t really know anything or they would be happy to share—people like to teach what they actually understand).

We are here to help one another and if someone doesn’t know how to celebrate Sukkot, remind them that they do know how to celebrate other things. Tell them to start with what brings them joy and expresses gratitude for the year’s provision—which was the whole point of Sukkot. How did God provide and come through over the course of the last year? Passover was a memorial of the Exodus event, and to this, we add the memorial of the inauguration of the New Covenant through Yeshua. Sukkot was a memorial of the provision in the wilderness of manna and quail and water as well as a celebration of the immediate bounty of the previous year. With your family, it probably won’t be particularly agricultural unless you were inundated with zucchini and tomatoes but God did come through in other ways for each member of the family. Remember those because it is in remembering that Yahweh first taught me to remember joy and to fill up my joy tank. Teaching our kids to remember and experience joy in that way provides a buffer against future trauma. I have personally found that when my joy tank is full, I can deal with a whole lot of nonsense and when it is empty, the nonsense breaks be down pretty easily.

Sukkot can be anything from travelling to Jerusalem to staying home and caring for a father who would otherwise have to be placed in a nursing home for the week if you left. The point is honoring God through experiencing joy. It really does bring Him glory. Next week, we will be starting in on Mark 14 and some really heavy material. Might even do a week on Zechariah 9-14, we’ll see.