The first time I officiated at a wedding it was at a beautiful hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. The wedding canopy was set up by a waterfall at the center of a lush garden full of trees and flowers. Just before the ceremony was scheduled to start, the sky suddenly darkened signaling a big storm. Wary of what was coming, all the guests including the wedding couple began schlepping everything inside, resetting up the Chuppah and chairs in the banquet hall. I conducted the wedding inside as rain gushed down from the sky. As a new officiant, this was a stark reminder of just how quickly plans can change, and the need to be flexible and resourceful to adapt to whatever curveballs life throws at you.
The wedding canopy itself is a reminder of just this principle. Light and easily transportable, it is meant to be taken down and reset up in a hurry. It is a reminder to the couple that no matter which direction life takes them, their love and trust are what will see them through.
On Sukkot, our Feast of Booths, we set up Chuppah like structures outside all our homes. As any Buffalonian surely knows, a Sukkah cannot possibly withstand our Western New York wind, and certainly not our snow. But that is part of the point. As winter approaches we need to feel we can withstand even the worst of storms. If we can sit in our unheated, open ancestral structures as the cold first begins to seep into the ground, we can make it through the frigid weather of late December and early January. Instead of being afraid of what’s approaching, let us head into the unknown with joy and love.
Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach,
Rabbi Alex