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The Sukkah Reminds Us That the Jewish People Will Always Rise Again
15-year-old Adin Stanleigh cleans palm branches used to cover a sukkah, or ritual booth, used during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, in Jerusalem, Israel, Oct. 11, 2019. Photo: Reuters / Ronen Zvulun.
If you’ve ever traveled through the countryside in the UK or across Europe, you’ve probably come across the hauntingly beautiful ruins of medieval castles. These ancient strongholds, with impressive moats and thick walls, were once the homes of powerful kings and aristocrats. They now stand in varying states of decay.
Take, for example, Corfe Castle in Dorset, England. I’ve been there. It was originally built by William the Conqueror and remained in the English royal family until Elizabeth I sold it to Sir Christopher Hatton in 1572.
Sixty years later, the Hatton family sold the sprawling 20,000-square-foot palace to Sir John Bankes, a loyal royalist during the English Civil War. Bankes’ allegiance to the monarchy led to the castle being targeted and eventually destroyed by parliamentary forces in 1645.
Corfe Castle was once a formidable fortress, the seat of kings, and a symbol of immense power. Today, its crumbling walls are a picturesque reminder of its former glory, a shadow of what it once was.
Then there’s Château de Chinon in France, where Henry II of England once held court. Much of its medieval grandeur still lingers despite the obvious signs of decay. Initially built in the 10th century, this expansive fortress became a critical political hub during the 12th century under Henry II, whose influence stretched across England and vast territories in France.
At its height, the château was a center of political intrigue and royal might, even playing host to Joan of Arc in 1429, when she convinced Charles VII to claim the French throne. But now, much of it lies in ruins, a sad, empty shell with towers and walls weathered by centuries of neglect. Despite restoration efforts, large sections of the château remain crumbling ruins, reminding visitors of the passage of time and the impermanence of power.
Schloss Heidelberg in Germany is another similar example. Once the majestic seat of the Electors Palatine, it was a symbol of wealth and influence in the region. Perched high above the Neckar River, the castle was originally constructed in the 13th century. Its architecture, a mix of Gothic and Renaissance styles, was expanded and extended over the centuries, reflecting the grandeur and opulence of the notables who resided there in different eras.
But the castle’s fate took a tragic turn in the late 1600s when it was repeatedly damaged during the Nine Years’ War and the War of the Palatine Succession. After being heavily damaged by French troops, most of Schloss Heidelberg was left in ruins, and it has never been fully restored.
Today, the castle remains a pale shadow of its former glory, with grand façades that lead to empty spaces and stairways that lead to nowhere — a reminder of the fleeting nature of human achievement and the virtual impossibility of restoring the past to its idealized perfection.
These castles were all once symbols of strength and permanence, but they now lie in ruins. Ironically, the very fortifications built to last forever couldn’t withstand the ravages of time and history.
In the lead-up to Sukkot, I found myself reflecting on these castle ruins and others I’ve visited over the years, in connection with the special addition we include in Birkat Hamazon during the festival: הָרַחֲמָן הוּא יָקִים לָנוּ אֶת סֻכַּת דָּוִד הַנּוֹפֶלֶת — “May the Merciful One restore for us the fallen Sukkah of David.”
The phrase “Sukkah of David” has always intrigued me. After all, King David’s dynasty is usually called the “House of David,” which suggests something solid and permanent. So how do we understand the reference to this glorious royal dynasty as a “Sukkah” — a structure that is temporary and fragile by its very nature?
The reference in Birkat Hamazon is based on a verse in Amos (9:11): בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא אָקִים אֶת סֻכַּת דָּוִיד הַנֹּפֶלֶת—“On that day I will restore the fallen Sukkah of David.” Amos was prophesying during the First Temple period, when the House of David was on the verge of collapse. The use of the word Sukkah in this context is significant. Why not call it a house, which signifies strength and permanence, particularly when discussing the fallen monarchy’s reestablishment?
The Maharal of Prague offers a fascinating explanation. The Davidic dynasty is deliberately referred to both as a “sukkah” and as a “house.” A house is a structure that has a powerful, material existence—because it is meant to last. Which is why royal dynasties are often referred to as a “house – a word that connotes permanence and stability.
But here’s the thing: is a house truly permanent? When a house falls, it doesn’t just crumble — it loses its essence. Even if you rebuild it, it’s not the same house — it’s something new. The original house is gone, negated by its destruction. What you’ve built is a new creation, not a restoration of the old. And the larger and grander the house — like a castle, for example — the less likely it is that it will ever be reconstructed at all.
But a sukkah is different. It’s not permanent to begin with. When it falls, it can easily be reconstructed. Its whole purpose is to be reconstructed when it falls. And what’s more — when you rebuild it, it’s not considered something new — it’s still the original sukkah, regenerated in its full essence. It retains its identity, no matter how often it has to be put back up.
Which is why the Kingdom of David is called a “sukkah.” As a royal dynasty, it may be fragile, but it is always ready to rise again. It doesn’t need to be replaced or reinvented—it can simply be reestablished and it will be as if it was never gone.
This idea of the sukkah as a symbol of reestablishment is also a perfect metaphor for the Jewish people. Like a sukkah, we may be vulnerable, exposed to the winds of history, but each time we fall, we rise again. And we rebuild, not as something new, but as a continuation of who we have always been. We are not like a castle that, once ruined, can never reclaim its former glory. Instead, we are like a sukkah — temporary yet eternal, fragile yet enduring.
That’s why, during Sukkot, we invoke the image of the fallen “Sukkah of David” — a reminder that, like the sukkah, the Jewish people and the Davidic dynasty may fall, but they will always rise again, renewed and reestablished, as they have throughout history, and as we will again in the Messianic age that is unfolding before our eyes.
The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California.
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US Clamps Sanctions on Israel-bashing UN Rights Monitor Albanese
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, attends a side event during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
The Trump administration has imposed sweeping sanctions against Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, citing the UN official’s lengthy record of singling out Israel for condemnation.
In a post on X, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions under a February executive order targeting those who “prompt International Criminal Court (ICC) action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.” He accused Albanese of waging “political and economic warfare” against both nations and asserted that “such efforts will no longer be tolerated.”
“Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt [International Criminal Court] action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives,” Rubio announced on X/Twitter.
“Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,” declared the Trump administration’s top foreign affairs official. “We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.”
Rubio concluded: “The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare and protect our sovereignty and that of our allies.”
The decision to impose sanctions on Albanese marks an escalation in the ongoing feud between the White House and the United Nations over Israel. The Trump administration has repeatedly accused the UN and Albanese of unfairly targeting Israel and mischaracterizing the Jewish state’s conduct in Gaza.
Albanese, an Italian lawyer and academic, has held the position of UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories since 2022. The position authorizes her to monitor and report on alleged “human rights violations” by Israel against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
Last week, Albanese issued a scathing report accusing companies of helping Israel maintain a so-called “genocide economy.” She called on the companies to cut off economic ties with Israel and warned that they might be guilty of “complicity” in the so-called “genocide” in Gaza.
Critics of Albanese have long accused her of exhibiting an excessive anti-Israel bias, calling into question her fairness and neutrality.
Albanese has an extensive history of using her role at the UN to denigrate Israel and seemingly rationalize Hamas’ attacks on the Jewish state.
In the months following the Palestinian terrorist group’s atrocities across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Albanese accused the Jewish state of perpetrating a “genocide” against the Palestinian people in revenge for the attacks and circulated a widely derided and heavily disputed report alleging that 186,000 people had been killed in the Gaza war as a result of Israeli actions.
The action comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington, where he has received a warm reception from the Trump administration. Netanyahu has been meeting with US officials to discuss next steps in the ongoing Gaza military operation.
Gideon Sa’ar, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Israel, commended the Rubio announcement with his own post on X/Twitter, exclaiming: “A clear message. Time for the UN to pay attention!”
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Hardball: Trump Administration Reports Harvard to Accreditor Over Antisemitism Allegations
US President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
The Trump administration escalated its showdown against Harvard University on Wednesday, reporting the institution to its accreditor for alleged civil rights violations resulting from its weak response to reports of antisemitic bullying, discrimination, and harassment following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 massacre across southern Israel.
The US Department of Education (DOE) announced the action on Wednesday. Citing Harvard’s admitted failure to treat antisemitism as seriously as it treated others forms of hatred in the past, the DOE called on the New England Commission of Higher Education to review and, potentially, revoke its accreditation — a designation which qualifies Harvard for federal funding and attests to the quality of the educational services its provides.
“Accrediting bodies play a significant role in preserving academic integrity and a campus culture conducive to truth seeking and learning,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Part of that is ensuring students are safe on campus and abiding by federal laws that guarantee educational opportunities to all students. By allowing anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination to persist unchecked on its campus, Harvard University has failed in its obligation to students, educators, and American taxpayers.”
The DOE, McMahon added, “expects the New England Commission of Higher Education to enforce its policies and practices, and to keep the Department fully informed of its efforts to ensure that Harvard is in compliance with federal law and accreditor standards.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Harvard’s Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism has acknowledged that the university administration’s handling of campus antisemitism fell well below its obligations under both Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its own nondiscrimination policies.
In a 300-plus-page report, the task force compiled a comprehensive record of antisemitic incidents on Harvard’s campus in recent years — from the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee’s endorsement of the Oct. 7 terrorist atrocities to an anti-Zionist faculty group’s sharing an antisemitic cartoon depicting Jews as murderers of people of color. The report identified Harvard’s past refusal to afford Jews the same protections against discrimination enjoyed by other minority groups as a key source of its problem.
Coming several weeks after President Donald Trump ordered the freeze of $2.26 billion in federal research grants and contracts for Harvard, the task force report found it was “clear” that antisemitism and anti-Israel bias have been fomented, practiced, and tolerated not only at Harvard but also within academia more widely.”
The university is now suing the federal government over the funding halt.
President Trump has spoken scathingly of Harvard, calling it, for example, an “Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institute … with students being accepted from all over the world that want to rip our Country apart” in an April post to his Truth Social platform.
In recent weeks, however, both Trump and McMahon had commended Harvard’s constructive response in negotiations over reforms the administration has asked it to implement as a precondition for restoring federal funds. The requested reforms include hiring more conservative faculty, shuttering diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI] programs, and slashing the size of administrative offices tangential to the university’s central educational mission.
The administration has since changed its tone in the wake of a report by The Harvard Crimson that interim Harvard President Alan Garber has said “behind closed doors” that he has no intention of doing anything that would make Harvard more palatable to conservatives.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism issued Harvard a formal “notice of violation” of civil rights law. Charging that Harvard willfully exposed Jewish students to a flood of racist and antisemitic abuse both in and outside of the classroom, it threatened to strip whatever remains of Harvard’s federal funding.
“Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,” wrote the federal officials comprising the multiagency Task Force. “Harvard may of course continue to operate free of federal privileges, and perhaps such an opportunity will spur a commitment to excellence that will help Harvard thrive once again.”
In Wednesday’s announcement, US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Harvard’s conduct “forfeits the legitimacy that accreditation is designed to uphold.”
“HHS and Department of Education will actively hold Harvard accountable through sustained oversight until it restores public trust and ensures a campus free of discrimination,” he said.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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IDF Strikes Hezbollah Sites in South Lebanon as Terror Group Pushes to Rebuild Amid US Disarmament Talks
IDF operating in southern Lebanon. Photo: IDF Spokesperson
Israeli forces uncovered and destroyed Hezbollah weapons caches in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, as a new report indicated that despite ongoing U.S.-led efforts to secure a disarmament deal, the Iran-backed group is making repeated, largely concealed attempts to rebuild its military presence in the area.
Troops carried out several operations targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon on Wednesday morning, destroying weapons depots, explosives and multibarrel launchers concealed in forested terrain, the IDF said, in violation of the November ceasefire, which requires Hezbollah to withdraw its forces 20 miles from the Israeli border.
A new report released this week by the Alma Research and Education Center found that Hezbollah is focused on rebuilding in three areas: operational deployment, weapons acquisition, and financial recovery.
“Hezbollah didn’t give up its resistance narrative and motivation,” Alma’s director, Lt. Col. (Res.) Sarit Zehavi, told The Algemeiner.
“It wants to rebuild its capabilities and infrastructures, whether it’s the villages that will be used as human shields or the military infrastructure in South Lebanon and in Lebanon in general.”
According to Zehavi, Hezbollah is attempting to return Radwan fighters to positions south of the Litani River as part of a wider plan to restore its elite forces to operational readiness. The IDF on Monday killed Radwan commander Ali Abd al-Hassan Haidar in a targeted strike. The action came hours after US Special Envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut to discuss a long-term deal that would include an Israeli withdrawal and complete disarmament of Hezbollah.
Barrack described the Lebanese response to the proposal as positive. Later, he issued a blunt warning to Hezbollah in response to a vow by the terror group’s leader, Naim Qassem, not to lay down its arms. “If they mess with us anywhere in the world, they will have a serious problem with us,” Barrack said in an interview with Lebanese news network LBCI. “They don’t want that.”
Zehavi said it was premature to predict the outcome of the diplomatic efforts. She warned that the challenge of disarming Hezbollah remains enormous and emphasized that the Lebanese Armed Forces have not demonstrated the capability or willingness to confront the group.
“It’s too soon to be optimistic or pessimistic,” she said, noting that no firm commitments have emerged from the Beirut talks.
Hezbollah’s efforts to smuggle and manufacture weapons have been complicated by both Israeli strikes and the regional realignment over recent months. While Israeli strikes have disrupted many supply routes, according to Zehavi, Syrian authorities have intercepted far more Hezbollah-bound weapons than the Lebanese Army, which claims to have uncovered 500 arms caches but has provided no evidence.
The financial front marks the third aspect of Hezbollah’s rebuilding effort. Last week, the group halted cash payments to Shiite civilians whose homes were damaged in the war, citing liquidity problems. Zehavi attributed the shortfall to disruptions in Iran’s funding networks — an outcome of the 12-day war against the regime in Tehran — and said the constraints would likely hamper Hezbollah’s ability to compensate its base and sustain operations.
“I hope they will continue to have problems with the cash flow, that way it will be very difficult for them to recover,” she said.
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