Said to Myself

In the waning moments of Sukkot I am left pondering the meaning of the Festival of Booths. It is commonly referred to in our liturgy and literature as Zman Simchateinu, the time of our happiness. If I accept that this is true, what does it mean to legislate rejoicing? What is happiness? Not that might take a lifetime to define. So I started thinking about the opposite. What is the opposite of happiness? Sadness? No, I actually think it is fear.

When we think about it, living in the world is a scary thing. Maybe by coming out of our homes and going into Sukkot we reconnect with the fragility of our lives. If we live in fear we will get nothing accomplished. This made me think about the oft quoted Kol HaOlam Kulo by Rav Nachman of Breslov. His saying goes:

The whole world is a very narrow bridge.

And the main thing to recall – is not to be afraid at all.

Fear has a way of taking up all of the space in the room. It is hard to live in fear. We only will have room for the other emotions in life when we figure out how to  live with fear.

I was thinking about this when listening to Tight Rope by Alex Clare. Please enjoy the song:

It is a great song and I did not give it much thought, but when I realized that he was a Ba’al Teshuva I started paying attention to the lyrics. And the song goes:

Life’s a tightrope, and you’re standing on one toe.
Don’t let the fear take hold of you, you’re bound to fall to the ground below.
Pick yourself up again, over the edge again, hold on to your hopes and dreams.                                                      When all seems to be lost, don’t start to count the costs,just go and begin again.
Tight rope walker.
The only thing I’m sure of is, to have no fear at all, just go, keep on going on.
And the only thing that’s certain is sometimes you’re bound to fall, just go, keep on going on.
When all you work for, comes tumbling to the ground.
Don’t let the sadness fill your heart, tomorrow may be a better day.
Lift your head up again, you know you’ll start again, no matter what may come of it.
You know there’s more to life, I’m sure that you’ll survive, you know what you have to do.
Who knows, what may come tomorrow, who knows, what tomorrow may bring.

It seems clear to me that Alex Clare is in conversation with Rav Nachman, but only the artist can tell us what inspired him. To the person walking across, if the bridge is narrow enough, it looks like a tight rope. To the point of defining happiness we can say that it starts with the confidence to traverse life’s challenges. Coming at the end of this long concourse of holidays, during Sukkot we aspire to feel that “tomorrow may be a better day”. We are not alone. We need to help pick each other up, not fear the bridge/tightrope in front of us, and bring happiness to everyday in the upcoming year.