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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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Gaza-Based CBS News Producer Questioned Whether Jews Are ‘Human,’ Called Israelis ‘Zionist Nazi Murderers’
CBS News producer Marwan Al-Ghoul. Photo: Screenshot
A Gaza-based producer for CBS News praised by higher-ups for his “resolve” has a history of denigrating Israel on social media, calling into question the publication’s potential bias against the Jewish state amid uproar over recent treatment of Jewish anchor Tony Dokoupil.
According to social media posts unearthed by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting & Analysis (CAMERA), Marwan Al-Ghoul has “liked” various comments on social media that refer to Jews as “Nazis” and “murderers.” He has also penned lengthy screeds on social media which gush about the potential “demise” of the United States and Europe.
In 2022, Al-Ghoul “liked” a Facebook comment claiming Israeli Jews “are Nazi Zionist murderers whose crimes are silenced, covered for by the US and international complicity. The date of holding them accountable will reach them one day and our children do not forget.”
That same year, the CBS News producer “liked” a Facebook comment about Israeli Jews that read, “By no means do they count as human, these are monsters in a human body.”
In 2017, as Hamas fired rockets at Israel in response to the US recognizing Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, Al-Ghoul wrote that Gaza’s civilians should join the “permanent resistance” against the Jewish state.
In 2018, he wrote that “there is no doubt that the United States of America is the greatest empire in the world and because Israel is its offspring and industry, it will not be able to breathe even one day if the American empire is gone. And because it is the year of God in his creation, America and Israel are about to go down, but when?”
In May 2022, Al-Ghoul openly questioned, “Are the Jews human like us?”
CBS has recently received criticism over its treatment of Jewish anchor Tony Dokoupil, arguing that his tough on-air questions directed at Ta-Nehisi Coates regarding his new book, The Message, were biased and did not meet “editorial standards.” Dokoupil directly challenged Coates’s assertions that the Jewish state was practicing “apartheid” against Palestinians and claimed the writer excluded important context about Israel’s security concerns.
Dokoupil’s pointed questioning of Coates drew outrage from CBS News staffers and the broader media landscape. Staffers demanded that the CBS brass punish Dokoupil for his supposedly “biased” line of questioning against Coates. Dokoupil was subsequently dragged into a meeting with the outlet’s “Race and Culture Unit” in which he was criticized for his tone, phrasing, and body language.
With a brighter spotlight now on CBS over its coverage of Israel, Al-Ghoul’s previous social media commentary may call into question the accuracy and fairness of his work. Many journalists from the Palestinian territories have previously exhibited a consistent anti-Israel bias in their reporting, even parroting narratives from the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
According to a Jewish Insider report from earlier this year, one-third of the Palestinian journalists listed by the Committee to Protect Journalists as being killed in the war in Gaza were connected to terrorist groups. There is no evidence that Al-Ghoul has any such connection.
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‘US Army = Terror Org’: Georgetown University Building Vandalized With Anti-American, Pro-Hamas Graffiti
The Rafik B. Hariri Building at Georgetown University in Washington, DC was vandalized with pro-Hamas graffiti on Oct. 16, 2024. Photo: Screenshot
A building at Georgetown University in Washington, DC was vandalized with pro-terrorist graffiti in the early hours of Wednesday morning, according to the school.
The pro-Hamas and anti-American graffiti was discovered on the Rafik B. Hariri Building. The messages were “pertaining to the war in Gaza,” according to a message sent to the campus community by the university’s associate vice president of public safety along with its chief diversity officer and vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“We condemn this act and are coordinating with the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in the investigation of this crime,” the message continued. “This incident, and a similar act that occurred on campus on Sept. 20, 2024, are unacceptable and are contrary to our values as a university community. Anyone found responsible will be held accountable.”
The vandalism included graffiti that read “US Army = Terror org” and inverted red triangles. The inverted red triangle has become a common symbol at pro-Hamas rallies. The Palestinian terrorist group, which rules Gaza, has used inverted red triangles in its propaganda videos to indicate Israeli targets about to be attacked. According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), “the red triangle is now used to represent Hamas itself and glorify its use of violence.”
The building that was vandalized is named after Rafik. B Harari, a former prime minister of Lebanon who was assassinated by a Hezbollah suicide bomber in Beirut in 2005.
An Instagram account called GeorgetownIntifada posted pictures of the vandalism with the caption, “NO WAR CRIMINALS ON CAMPUS,” and added, “THE US ARMY IS A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.”
The group also claimed the vandalism was done by “autonomous actors.”
Jewish on Campus, a group that documents anti-Jewish incidents on college campuses, asked rhetorically on X/Twitter, “When our campuses look like this, how are Jewish and Israeli students meant to be safe?”
“Antisemitism is rising. Wake up,” it added.
ADL Regional Director Meredith Weisel wrote in a statement that it is “horrifying that students woke up this morning and were faced with pro-terror graffiti defacing Georgetown University’s Business School. The red triangle is a pro-terror symbol that in some cases signifies support for violent Palestinian resistance against Israel. This hate has no place anywhere and certainly not on a college campus.”
She continued, “Jewish students, and all students, deserve to feel safe in their place of learning.”
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war — when Hamas invaded Israel, killed 1,200 people, and took 251 hostages last Oct. 7 — college campuses have become a hotbed of anti-Israel and pro-Hamas protests. In the spring, “Gaza solidarity encampments” began to pop up on campuses across the country. The Algemeiner documented dozens of statements just within the first week of the movement that were explicitly pro-terrorist.
Some encampments had to be forcefully removed after protesters got violent, invaded school buildings, and/or resisted the police when asked to disperse.
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Israel’s Defense Chief Calls Macron a ‘Disgrace to France’ After Israeli Firms Banned From Arms Show
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at Israel’s Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, Israel, Dec. 18, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura
Israel‘s defense minister on Wednesday called French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to ban Israeli firms from exhibiting at a naval arms show “a disgrace” and accused Paris of implementing a hostile policy towards the Jewish people.
The decision to bar Israeli firms is the latest incident in a row fueled by the Macron government’s unease over Israel‘s conduct in the wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah Lebanon.
It came after French efforts to secure a truce in the conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah in Lebanon foundered and as Israel carries out more airstrikes on targets in the country.
“French President Macron’s actions are a disgrace to the French nation and the values of the free world, which he claims to uphold,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant posted on X.
“France has adopted, and is consistently implementing, a hostile policy towards the Jewish people. We will continue defending our nation against enemies on 7 different fronts, and fighting for our future — with or without France.”
French officials have repeatedly said that Paris is committed to Israel‘s security and point out that its military helped defend Israel after Iranian attacks in April and earlier this month.
Euronaval, organizer of the event set to take place in Paris from Nov. 4-7, said in a statement that the French government had informed it on Tuesday that Israeli delegations were not allowed to exhibit stands or show equipment, but could attend the trade show. The decision affected seven firms, it said.
It is the second time this year that France has banned Israeli firms from a major defense show. In May, France said conditions were not right for Israel to participate in the Eurosatory military trade show when Macron was calling for Israel to cease operations in Gaza, the enclave ruled by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
“These measures not only harm relations between our two countries, but also the bonds of trust that they have built, and thus cast doubt on France’s ability to play a leading role on the diplomatic scene to promote peace and stability in the Middle East,” the Israeli embassy said in a statement.
DIPLOMATIC SPARRING
Israeli forces have carried out numerous air strikes and a ground incursion targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, causing civilian casualties and leading Western allies, including France, to call for an immediate ceasefire.
Diplomatic sparring between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Macron has increased in recent weeks after Paris had worked with Washington to secure a 21-day truce that would then open the door to negotiations on a long-term diplomatic solution.
France and the United States were caught by surprise last month when Israel launched strikes that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Netanyahu has rejected a unilateral ceasefire that fails to stop Hezbollah, whose stated goal is to destroy the Jewish state, from rearming and regrouping. France has sought to continue to work on a diplomatic resolution.
Macron has irked Netanyahu several times, notably as United Nations peacekeeping forces have been caught in Israeli crossfire in southern Lebanon.
France, with nearly 700 troops in the 10,000-strong UNIFIL peacekeeping force, is one of the main European contributors alongside Italy and Spain.
Macron has called for an end to the supply to Israel of offensive weapons used in Gaza.
On Tuesday, Macron told a cabinet meeting that Netanyahu should not forget that Israel was created by a UN decision, according to a French official.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot sought to downplay the comments, saying they had been general remarks reminding Israel of the importance of respecting the UN charter.
But Netanyahu’s office said in response that Israel was established through “the War of Independence with the blood of our heroic fighters, many of whom were Holocaust survivors, including from the Vichy regime in France” — referring to the French government that had collaborated with Nazi Germany.
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