My sister Esty, Esther Aidel (Rubin) Cohen, a wife and a mother, passed away six years ago in Manchester England at age 33. Her yartzeit (Hebrew anniversary of her passing) is on the 25th of Tishrei, which is two days after Simchat Torah. So, as it happens, almost every year, we’re taking down the Sukkah on the day of or eve of her yartzeit.
This year, the connection between her life & passing and our annual Sukkah take-down struck me.
Esty was very much like a Sukkah. She was modest and humble, very unassuming. She took care of the basics but wasn’t into adorning herself or going fancy. She was welcoming and friendly, she was satisfied with what she had and “happy her with lot” in life. She didn’t need much. Her priorities were much more about the internals than the externals. She may have been a little fragile and uncertain, like a Sukkah, but yet like a Sukkah, she was filled with faith, brimming with it. So her life was very much analogous to the Sukkah.
And her Sukkah came down. She passed away, way way before her time. But there’s a way to put a Sukkah away in such a way that you don’t just leave it behind, instead you remember it and preserve it and cherish it, so that its memories and lessons continue to nourish you and sustain you and provide vision and perspective long after Sukkot ends. And if you put it away right, it can even be there for you to put it back up for another season, in another year.
So as we mourn her loss, and miss her very much, we also cherish her legacy and her ways, her family and what she stood for. The Sukkah may be down, but there’s so much of it we still remember and treasure and still hold dear.
May her memory continue to be a blessing. We love you!