Joy and Sukkot

Human beings thirst for joy.  Judaism describes Sukkot as the holiday of all holidays in terms of the presence of joy.  What kind of joy is Sukkot meant to bring, and how is it meant to do so? What does Sukkot’s unique joy suggest about life’s deeper meaning? In this session, Elana Stein Hain will examine how ritual brings out joy on Jewish holidays and Sukkot in particular, and how this happiness is meant to shape our Jewish lives.  

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Ritual and Emotion: Exploring the High Holiday Season
Many Jews find it hard to connect to Jewish ritual, and yet, Jewish ritual has the potential to deepen our emotional lives. In her three-part series, Elana Stein Hain explores three rituals and how each one might strengthen our capacity to express and harness emotions, like anger, joy, or grief. Elana takes us through the High Holidays by examining three key moments of the season. The course opens with Kol Nidre, a central ritual of Yom Kippur, moves into Sukkot as a ritualized expression of joy, and concludes with the rituals of avelut or mourning, reflecting the consciousness of mortality that hovers over this period.

Other sessions in this series:

• Anger and Kol Nidre
• Sadness and the Rituals of Mourning

This program is part of Ideas for Today, curated courses by Hartman Institute scholars on the big Jewish ideas we need to think better and do better.