Wonderings 4 Sukkah Guests
One of the traditions of Sukkot is to invite guests ("Ushpizin" to the Sukkah. Each night you invite another prominent person from the Torah. This is the traditional prayer: “I invite to my meal the exalted guests, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, and David. May it please you, Abraham, my exalted guest, that all the other exalted guests dwell with me and with you – Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, and David.” On each day, a different one of the seven is singled out, in order.
In recent years the women of the Torah have also been included in the "invitations" each night.
On the first night, when we invited Abraham into our Sukkah, at first I felt like a boring/redundant news reporter. I wanted to ask: What were you thinking when you were about to sacrifice your son, Isaac? Was it Isaac, or was it Ishmael - like the Koran says? Then I realized I wanted to know what was his perspective about what happened at Sodom and Gomorrah? I realized that I wanted to ask other questions - really get to know him. What would you ask him?
Then we got to asking Isaac questions, and I wanted to know why he was playing favorites with his children. I asked the same thing of Jacob.
For this week's Wondering. Please let me know: What would you ask the traditional guests? Which guests who are not on the traditional list would you invite? What would you ask? Can you imagine some of the answers? Reply to this email to let me know.
Responses:
Moses; 'what did you do on your 100th birthday? No one you really grew up with, or relatives were alive...who attended?
Sandy Koufax; ' What were you thinking in the 9th inning for each of your no hitters. Did you realize how important it was to the Jewish community, that you would not pitch on Yom Kippur? " [J]The first person I would invite is the very first woman, Lilith. I will ask her how it was being the first woman and how she got booted from being the first woman and why and what she's doing now.Next I would invite the animals that spent all that time on Noah's ark. I would like to know how life was before and how it is after, and there stories since then. [T]