The connecting thread is our awe and acknowledgment of God's power epitomized in nature and in the Torah, our desire to take these forces into our own hands and our realization that alas we cannot, they loom much larger than we. We are, at best, partners with God. These contrasts remind of a time a number of years ago when I hesitated to go Israeli dancing in Los Angeles in the wake of a terrorist attack in Jerusalem. We mix the bitter with the sweet and dance in the face of darkness. Look, my mother just died of leukemia, and now I'm pregnant.
Life indeed goes on.
It forces us to recognize our smallness and asks us to remember that splendor is a product of patience, of time. Nature's ferocity demonstrates to us that we are not in control, that there are forces in the universe far greater than we are. Yet it is somehow fitting that at the end of this festival of dwelling in nature, that we dance in the face of the forces more powerful than we, clutching all the while the Torah from which we find strength and sustenance. So, with dancing this festival of parade draws to a close, fortifying us with strength and energy for the challenges ahead. May not be reproduced without written permission .