Passover and Sukkot: lessons for Israel's unfinished journey to freedom post-October 7 – opinion

The Exodus – the liberation of the Hebrew slaves from bondage in Egypt and their journey to their homeland to live in freedom – is the core event of Jewish religious history. The Exodus is the foundation for – and proof of – Judaism’s vision that the entire world will be repaired. Every human being will someday live in peace and dignity in a land where they live by right as equal citizens.

There are two holidays that embody the Exodus in the Jewish religion: Passover and Sukkot. Understanding their different messages supplies important guidance for how to understand our situation and how to act in post-October 7 Israel.

Passover is the celebration and reenactment of the actual Exodus, the day of liberation from Egyptian slavery. The Torah tells us to observe Passover (including eating matzah, the bread of slavery, and bitter herbs to taste the pain of degradation) and retell the story of the liberation, so “you will remember the day of your exodus from Egypt – ending the regime of servitude, degradation, and genocide. This was a major turning point that signaled the future life of freedom; we must mark and celebrate it.

But Passover is not enough. One day was not enough to complete the process of liberation. Consequently, the need arose for a second holiday, Sukkot.

Sukkot is the celebration and reenactment of the second stage of the Exodus, the journey to the promised homeland. The Torah commands: “Sit in sukkot (booths) seven days… so future generations will know that I made the Israelites sit in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 23:43-44). The journey is much longer and much harder than the great overnight act of heroism – marching off into a trackless desert to attain freedom.

Our unfinished journey to security and freedom

The Exodus, as recounted in the Bible, took 40 years to complete, and there were many ups and downs along the way. The highs were crossing the Sea of Reeds, also known as the Red Sea, and receiving the revelation at Mount Sinai. But there were also lows, such as the assault by Amalek (Exodus 16) and, later, a crushing defeat inflicted by the Amalekites and Canaanites at Hormah (Numbers 14).

The Israelites struggled with daily strains – collecting manna and water, carrying children, pitching tents, and finding paths in an endless desert – all of which eroded their faith and courage. Time and again, they were thrown for a loop by prosaic frustrations like water shortages, the absence of meat, and depredations by marauding tribes.

Freedom cannot be achieved in a single day. There is no quick cure for slavery. The Exodus generation never managed to shake its slave mentality. That was why they panicked at the thought of fighting the Canaanites to gain their homeland. That was why many threatened to turn back to Egypt when there was no water or fresh food.

In the end, a new generation matured into a free people, which is what we celebrate on Sukkot. They dealt with the endless daily challenges of coping. They took on the task of militarily conquering their homeland. They understood that they could not return to exile and dependency; their only option was to settle and build a new society.

On Passover, the prophet sings of the Israelites’ faith: “I remember the covenantal love of your youth… that you [the people of Israel] followed Me into an unsown [unmarked desert] land” (Jeremiah 2:2). On Sukkot, we honor the faithfulness of the people of Israel who overcame all the setbacks and completed the process of becoming a free people in their contested ancestral homeland.

The Israeli reaction to October 7 shows that we lost sight of the centrality of the journey to full freedom. On Independence Day, we celebrated the miraculous victory in the War of Independence against seven invading nations. We honored the “overnight Exodus” of our time – the declaration of the State of Israel. But from then on, we had to undertake the national journey to become an established society – a model Jewish society – as well as a secure state whose existence is beyond contesting and at peace with its neighbors. 

After the break from exile of 1948, we had to absorb the Exodus of 800,000 Arab Jews, 150,000 Ethiopian Jews, and a million and a half Russian Jews into Israel.The journey became much harder because Israel’s Arab neighbors tried to destroy the Jewish state. Then, jihadi Islam took up terror, boycotts, lawfare, and international efforts to undermine Israel. Israel then experienced four decades of growth, transitioning from dependence on foreign aid and philanthropy to prosperity, particularly through the development of hi-tech. Every step of Israel’s historic journey was marked by periodic wars. One of them, the Yom Kippur War, like October 7, started with a catastrophic failure that, if not reversed, could have threatened the existence of the nation.

Simchat Torah, the final day of Sukkot, commemorates the anniversary of the Hamas massacre, which shattered our national sense of security and our sense of control over our destiny. The disaster and the worldwide surge in antisemitism led to national depression, a rise in yeridah (Israelis leaving to live elsewhere), and open discussions as to whether this third Jewish commonwealth would outlast the 75-year term of the Hasmonean independent dynasty. These are understandable reactions to a multi-front assault on Israel’s right to exist.

Sukkot reminds us that we should see this moment through the lens of Jewish history and faith. We are on an unfinished journey to full freedom and security. The loss of national unity and the conflict over democracy that preceded October 7, followed by the savage pogrom and the multi-front wars, were setbacks along the way. But the IDF comeback – the clear signal from the parents’ generation that they are prepared to pay the devastating cost of putting their children’s lives at risk, as well as the younger generation and reservists going all-out to fight for Israel’s existence – shows that our hope for an ultimate tikkun (repair) is realistic and achievable.

The Jewish historical record is that every tragedy has been matched by our unbroken covenantal commitment (be it in religious or secular form) and overcome by our renewal of life. The existence of the State of Israel outshines the darkness and destruction of the Holocaust. The reborn and renewed Israel and the reasserted life of the Diaspora will outdo the devastation of October 7 and defeat the axis of evil and “uproar of the nations” (= antisemites; see Psalms 2:1).

The prophet Zechariah predicted that one day, the nations of the earth will come and celebrate Sukkot with us. It will take an all-out national effort to complete the journey and reach our highest goals. However, as Theodor Herzl said, If we will it, it is no dream.

The writer, a rabbi and new immigrant, was a leader of Modern Orthodoxy in America. He is the author of The Triumph of Life (Jewish Publication Society