At Succot, many Reform communities turn to the wisdom of Kohelet, Ecclesiastes, for their haftarah reading. After so much disaster wreaked by high winds in the Caribbean, the power of the weather to change lives cannot be questioned this Succot.

I was only a child in 1987, when the great storm (apparently an extra-tropical cyclone) struck at the end of Succot, tearing down trees and powerlines, as well as, of course, plenty of hopefully empty succot. Yet I think of it every time we begin building our succah at home. 

I love our succah, and I have a big box, stored next to the Pesach gear, of laminated posters, agricultural hangings and Christmas baubles bought on sale (who knew people decorated their Christmas trees with mini gourds). Each year we sort through, discarding things that shouldn’t have been saved last year and adding in the kids’ newest creations. 

We spend a lot of time decorating the succah and enjoying the move back to the physical after Yom Kippur. I love this annual reminder that we cannot remain in the realm of the purely spiritual; repentant and introspective, we must go back out into the world. 

But no matter how much effort we put in, we have no control over that wind and the way she will turn. We also, sadly, have no control over when the rain will fall, and as we should be joyful on this chag, we won’t sit out there in the pouring rain. 

And so we have no say as to whether we can enjoy our succah, despite the hard work. Succot reminds us that the world is fragile, and that we can’t control everything in life. Sometimes we just need to let go of our need to dominate and do our best to help bring joy and healing.