Outlook

All the festivals are occasions of simchah. But only Succos is known as zman simchaseinu — the time of our rejoicing. Sounds good. Yet attaining that state of simchah may be even harder than the intensive self-scrutiny required during the Days of Repentance.

In the non-Jewish world there is an extensive literature on the “blues” that strike precisely around the holidays that are supposed to be happiest times of their year. Some are brought low by the suspicion that everybody but them is having a wonderful time. Others are reminded of their solitude during so-called family holidays.

I suspect that something of the same phenomenon also exists among some religious Jews during Succos: They feel none of the simchah that they repeatedly proclaim in their davening to be intrinsic to the Chag and the failure to do so only makes them feel worse.

That simchah was not always so elusive. When the Clouds of Glory returned after the Cheit Ha’Eigel on 15 Tishrei Bnei Yisrael experienced the joy of knowing that Hashem had forgiven them and was reestablishing His relationship with them. Later when all Jews dwelled in the Land and earned their livelihood directly from the earth the harvest season was intrinsically a time of rejoicing of taking satisfaction in the fruits of the long months of intensive physical labor preceding the harvest. But few of us still till the land or have ever experienced the joy that comes from hard physical labor.