A Sukkah Built from Love

September 25, 2026/15 Tishrei 5787/Erev Sukkot

Hevre/Friends,

Moments after we break our fast with the first sips of water and bites of honey cake or bagels and lox, whatever our family tradition, we're meant to hammer the first nail or raise the first pole of our sukkah. Not a moment is wasted. If Yom Kippur teaches us how fragile life is, the sukkah teaches us to search for joy, and to find it, even amid vulnerability and uncertainty.

This year my first step in building our sukkah was to board an Air Canada flight to Toronto where my mother had been hospitalized for a few days for a serious, but not life-threatening, crisis. The blessings of being a big family meant my siblings were able to care for her while I was leading Yom Kippur services. Then it was my turn, and I'd been itching to get there since the moment she fell ill.

Sukkahs are emerging across Jewish communities now, but the one our family has lived in these past few days feels more real than any I’ve ever built. Alongside the rhythm of blood tests and MRIs, vitals and physical therapy, the livestream of our Yom Kippur services filled my mother's room with Lisa's harmonies and my sermons. Even from a hospital bed, the work of teshuvah went on. In the days that followed, we sat together and talked, ate, and laughed. And ate.

In an unexpected twist, my mother's overnight caregiver had lived and worked in Israel for many years. We wove our cultures together speaking Hebrew, trading memories of favourite Israeli places and foods, sharing the longing to go back as soon as we can. Even in a time of inner struggle, the work of building fellowship never stops.

Thankfully, my mum is home now and recovered. And I’m back in the Laurentians for our last few days before we move to NYC for the fall. By now the leaves are well into their turning and the seasons are shifting. The cycle of life flows all around me. Green gives way to red and yellow and brown and nature prepares for the winter. Life is pulsating, beauty is manifesting, and gratitude is flowing.

As the harvest festival of Sukkot arrives tonight, even - and perhaps especially - during these perilous days for the Jewish people, my family is reaping the harvest of love and loyalty, dignity and integrity. My mother taught us to plant those seeds and nurture them all our lives.

Whether you sit inside or outside a sukkah tonight, may you see the abundance around you and within you. May you find light amid darkness, hope amid fear, unity amid division, and love amid hate.

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach,

Dini