The Unbreakable Sukkah

A long time ago in a village in Poland there lived a rabbi who was very conscientious about the building of the suka-hut in honor of the holiday of sukot. The suka that the rabbi had built for himself every year was a sight to see. The walls were of the thickest and best wood. Even the greenery that he used to cover the top of the suka was thick and fresh.

Now it so happened that one year everyone in the village decided that they too could afford to build beautiful sukas like their rabbi. The only hindrance was that they most of them were not very good carpenters. Many of them were not even very handy.

What did they do? About 20 of the villagers, the ones who knew how to work with their hands, joined together to be the "suka-builders" for the community and they set to work going from house to house building new sukas for everyone.

Needless to say, they had to work day and night non-stop and made a lot of money that year building sukas. A few hours before the holiday, as they finished the last suka, they realized that they had been so busy working for everyone else that they had forgotten about themselves! They had no sukas in their own courtyards.

What could they do? There wasn't enough time for each one to go home and build his own suka, so they decided that they had no other choice than to take all the scraps and leftover wood and build one big suka near the outskirts of the town for everyone.

They finished building their large rickety hut with just enough time left for everyone to run home and prepare for the holiday before sunset.

One and a half hours later, all the workers were sitting in the shul looking radiant, holy and very happy like everyone else, engrossed in loud enthusiastic prayer.

The prayers finished, they sang and danced together, shook hands and wished one another "Good Yom Tov (holiday)." Someone opened the huge doors for everyone to leave and suddenly... it began to rain.

For the first few minutes it looked like it wouldn't last long, but then it got stronger and stronger. The strong wind and rain even made it difficult to close the shul doors again, and the sound the torrential rain and things smashing in the street, made it seem like it would never stop. But after half an hour the rain ceased. The shul doors opened again and the congregants began to joyously leave the synagogue into the muddy streets; finally they would be able to go home to their sukas and eat the holiday meal! But they were in for a surprise.

All the sukas had been destroyed in the storm!

In a few minutes everyone was standing again in the street in front of their homes not knowing what to do.

Then someone got an idea. "Let's go to the rabbi. He is a great man. Surely his suka is still standing!"

Together everyone set out for the rabbi's home. But as they approached they heard wailing coming from the rabbi's courtyard: "Oy, my suka!"

The Rabbi's suka was even more destroyed than everyone else's; the walls had been completely shattered and one had even been lifted into a tree.

Then from far away they heard singing! It was coming from the direction of the worker's suka. Immediately the children ran in the direction of the music and in minutes they returned breathless with the good news, "The Worker's Suka is .... standing!!"

"Nu, " said the rabbi to the gathered crowd. "Go home and get your food. We are going to eat in a suka after all!"

The entire night the congregation took turns crowding into the worker's suka, two or three families at a time ten minutes for each shift, eating their holiday meals.

So they did for the next three meals, one the next morning and two the day until they were able to rebuild their Sukas. (Note the Holiday of Sukot is seven days but the first two days are the Holiest and work is forbidden).

The next day there were about one hundred Chasidim in the Rebbe's house with the same question "Why was everyone else's Suka destroyed except for the Suka of the workers?"

At first the Rebbe tried to answer that maybe the winds were weaker on the outskirts of town. But that didn't work because trees were actually uprooted there.

Then he said that maybe it was because theirs was stronger one than everyone else's. But that also wasn't so because their Suka was built so hastily that the whole thing shook when anyone just pushed it.

So the Rebbe thought for a minute and then a smile broke on his face. "I know!" He declared, "I know why their Suka remained standing! Because our Sukas were built each person for his own self and his own family. But when they built their Suka it was with unity, each built for everyone else...

And when there is unity between Jews, all the storms and the hurricanes in the world can't break it!"

By Rabbi Tuvia Bolton, reprinted from www.ohrtmimim.org