Sukkot values receptiveness

MIRA SUCHAROV

Our sukkah is up, all 225 pounds of lumber and screws and branches and foliage. I've made my annual pilgrimage to the overflowing art drawer in the kitchen to affix a seasonal gallery of our kids' creations to the walls. And while I'm aware that Sukkot marks the culmination of the exodus from Egypt before the Jewish people's entrance into ancient Israel, I've been trying to find a holiday to serve as a marker for my current preoccupation: the value of open-mindedness. I think Sukkot is it.

With its four movable walls and its thatched roof open to the sky, the sukkah expresses a quality that is increasingly elusive in society yet desperately necessary. Within our mooring, we need the possibility of personal expansion, discovery and interconnectedness. We need to allow for the entry of new ideas into our field of certainty.

Everywhere people are talking but few are listening. Politics is abundant, but how many people begin their activism with questions rather than answers?

I admit to having been guilty at various points in my life of clinging to partisan loyalties and philosophical labels over free thought. There is a certain political "wing" with which I generally identify. Yet I'm also aware that self-affixed political labels can all too often lead to the prizing of ideology over ideas. Using encampments to guide opinions means, sadly, that ideas are accepted or discarded based more on how they jibe with one's identity – or projected image – rather than on the basis of their inherent logical or ethical merits or flaws.

I like that by it being a temporary structure, the sukkah reminds us that we can shift and grow without threatening our essence. After the eight-day holiday, the wood and hardware will go back into our garage, ready for service again next year. And, to me, the airy roof suggests that we don't necessarily have all the answers. The world might feel like it begins at our tiny selves, but it certainly doesn't end there.

I like that Sukkot encourages us to invite friends and family into our yard or deck or balcony to dine with us. Many have lamented the demise of front-porch culture, where neighbors stop by to chat about events of the day. The sukkah helps reignite such social interaction. And in doing so, we're reminded that others may have perspectives that can help shape and refine our own.

These kinds of spontaneous interactions can lead to the discovery of new ideas – though certainly it can often simply serve to bolster our own preexisting views and beliefs. (Ultimately, it depends on who we invite into our literal and metaphorical sukkah: whether we fill our lives exclusively with people who already agree with us on everything.)

Believers in God can see the open roof as allowing us to better connect with the Divine. And spiritual atheists can experience the starry view – visible as we peek through the foliage – as reminding us that we are part of a cosmic eternity. Either way, as individuals we can imagine that we are part of a whole that surpasses any social, ethnic and religious boundaries that we set for ourselves – a daunting intellectual task when such boundaries are all around us.

Open-minded people don't necessarily advertise their open-mindedness on their proverbial sleeve. But, in my experience, talking to an open-minded person is simply more fulfilling – emotionally, intellectually and spiritually – than talking to someone who holds their beliefs about the world to be sacrosanct. A conversation where open-minded rules is one where ideas get played with and new discoveries are made. Open-minded conversation is like a laboratory of philosophy where no formal training is needed for admittance.

The interesting thing about open-mindedness is that it transcends ideology. While liberalism should naturally boast an affinity with that disposition, I've met liberals who are off-puttingly small-minded. And I've met conservatives who are naturally broad-minded. And, of course, vice versa.

The key is how ideas are heard, digested and reformulated. Open-minded people don't let the end of a conversation be the end of their reflection on that topic. They relish chewing the cud of perspectives, as it were.

Of course, and as philosophers remind us, being open-minded doesn't mean embracing all possibilities as equally valid. But it does mean assessing ideas according to the strictures of reason, including obtainable evidence and, I would add, some sort of universalist ethics, so that the "golden rule" is maintained.

With the esthetic pleasures of a week of festive meals and the rustling lulav and the fragrant etrog, Sukkot affords us the time to feel the elements and listen to each other while we soften the boundaries between ourselves and others – and between certainty and wonder.

Mira Sucharov is an associate professor of political science at Carleton University. She is currently writing a book on nostalgia and political change.

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