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Today is:
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rosh hashana, yom kippur, sukkot, simchat torah, shmini atzeret,chanukah,hanukkah,purim,pesach,passover,shavuot, lag ba'omer,tisha b'av |
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Sukkot Reading: Kohelet
By: Rivka C. Berman, Contributor
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Given
all the hoopla on Sukkot about joy it is interesting that this holiday
features a reading of Kohelet – Ecclesiastes. The book begins: “The
words of Kohelet, David’s son, King in Jerusalem: ‘Utter futility!’ says
Kohelet. ‘Utter futulity! Everything is futility!’”
Not the up note one would expect, but there is a lesson here. The
skeptical tone of the book reminds the corybantic Sukkot celebrants not
to lose themselves in the rich foods and good fun that fill the holiday.
Verse after verse of Kohelet focuses on life’s fleeting gifts, a pattern
of time and seasons that arrive and pass just as quickly, and acts as a
reminder to seize the moment with righteousness for all is as temporary
as the Sukkah.
Rashi, the preeminent medieval Torah commentator, notes that Kohelet is
read on Sukkot because it was at this time that King Solomon gathered
(in Hebrew “kihale” which has the same root word as Kohelet) the People
of Israel and read the Torah at the septennial Hakhel celebration.
Mazor Guide for Sukkot brings you much more about the
holiday, its meaning and its traditions... See the links below.
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