Made In The Shade

When I was a little boy, an occasional treat was when my friends and I would sleep out on a summer night in a “pup tent” in the backyard. Sometimes I was allowed to sleep outside by myself. Everyone in those days had one of those surplus green Army tents that you could set up in three minutes or less. All you had to do was pitch it, put the stakes in the ground, and enjoy a night out on the lawn, free of all worries. I still had to get up on time, of course, but there was something adventurous in sleeping out there under the stars with nothing between you and the galaxies.

Of course, in those days we did not necessarily lock our doors at night, so I could always get in if necessary. For that matter, we also left our bicycles on the driveway, seldom locked our car doors, and almost never closed and locked our windows. Life was simpler.

Times change, and so do people. Even here on the West Coast, where life sometimes seems less frenetic than in other places, we lock our doors. We close our car windows. We have bars on our windows. We do not leave bicycles, strollers, and other moveable items outside at night. And I do not think that I ever asked my children, back then, if they wanted to camp out in the backyard—nor did they ask me. I remember buying my sons a tent-like contraption to put on their beds so they could feel like they were camping out. But they were not too interested in spending a night in the adventurous outdoors. And the house had padlocked doors, bars on the windows, and an alarm system.

Even the bicycles and other toys stored in the garage were often stolen. So were three of my cars while parked (locked and fully secured) on my driveway. People have changed. Our sense of safety has been compromised. People are more careful when they go out or on vacation. Society has changed. And we have changed as well. Aren’t we always on high alert, vigilant and justifiably wary?

And then comes the holiday of Sukkos. Those of us who have backyards and fences with locks, assemble our 8-day dwelling in which to celebrate the holy festival. We refer to it as residing in the protective “Shade of Faith” when we recite some of the Kabbalistic prayers. A few brave souls put the sukkah up in the front yard. Some put it on the upstairs balcony porch out of the reach of prowlers. Yet, whether your sukkah is made to house you while you sleep or is hastily assembled on your apartment fire escape, we spend time celebrating our sense of security in our sukkah.

Sukkos is the season of faith, when we work on setting aside the constant fear that pervades our lives and attempt to internalize greater faith so we can actually “live in faith,” so to speak, inside the walls of our sukkah. It’s a shift in perspective that allows us to expand the parameters of our faith to incorporate a greater level of trust in the Above, to acknowledge that He matters to us and we to Him. And camping out becomes something more than an adventure in the outdoors: It is an expression of our faith and trust in Him. Good yom tov. 

Rabbi Dr. Dovid Fox is a forensic and clinical psychologist, and director of Chai Lifeline Crisis Services. To contact Chai Lifeline’s 24-hour crisis helpline, call 855-3-CRISIS or email [email protected]. Learn more at www.chailifeline.org/crisis.