Wedding dresses and financial priorities

• Published date: 23 September 2021
• Author: AARON KATSMAN
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

We are now in the middle of Sukkot. The High Holy Days are over. Hopefully we were successful in getting back to our core values. Due to surging corona numbers our synagogue decided that while services were allowed indoors, it would be best if we held them outside. It was truly amazing and emotionally uplifting and after Yom Kippur, many who I prayed with said that this was the most moving Yom Kippur they had experienced. We must have had 300-400 people on a little Jerusalem street. Keep in mind that in a normal non-corona year, we would have around 130 participants indoors. Religious and secular together on the street and sidewalks with no boundaries separating them, praying as the sun set and then waiting in anticipation for the shofar blow signaling the end of the day, was such a strong display of national unity so sorely lacking in our current situation. Many congregants and neighbors alike commented that regardless of the corona situation next year, we should hold services outside for Yom Kippur, because it was so unifying and powerful.

But enough about Yom Kippur, we are already halfway through Sukkot. As I have mentioned before, Rabbi Benjamin Blech describes the holiday and writes, "Sukkot was the time when, in the agricultural society of old, farmers found themselves the wealthiest they would be all year. It was the time of the harvest. The granaries were full." He continues, "They needed to recall, in a festival appropriately named "the season of our joy," that true happiness comes not from our possessions but from our priorities, not from what we own but from who we are, not from our mansions that offer physical comforts but from our families with whom we create everlasting bonds of love and affection."

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One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is that we get to spend lots of family time. All the kids are home at the same time, and even the most mundane activities become fun as they are all done together. A few nights ago, it was almost midnight and we were all sitting around and someone turned on the TV. We got to a show called "Say yes to the dress" and it was decided by majority (something not common in our home!) that this would be the show to watch. The premise of the show is that brides go with a few friends and family members to buy their dream wedding dress. It's full of drama as inevitably...