Sukkot 2026: Yom Kippur reminds us life is short - Sukkot asks what we do with it - opinion

Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Lieberman reflects on the connection between Yom Kippur and Sukkot, noting that while Yom Kippur is a day of pleading for life, Sukkot asks what one will do with that life. Drawing on Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks' commentary on life's brevity and a parable about saving a drowning child, the piece urges readers to use time meaningfully through kindness, healing, and leaving the world better.

Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Lieberman's opinion piece draws a thematic link between Yom Kippur and Sukkot. On Yom Kippur, Jews spend the day pleading for life, reciting 'Remember us for life. Inscribe us in the Book of Life.' Sukkot, beginning days later, asks the harder question: what will one do with the life just prayed for? The author reflects on Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks' commentary on life's brevity—'Man is founded in dust and ends in dust'—and notes that time is the one currency spent constantly, with no one knowing the balance remaining. He recounts a parable about a man who saves a drowning child and tells him, 'Then make sure it was a life worth saving.' The sukkah, a temporary structure, forces a confrontation with impermanence, yet the festival is described as a time of joy. The piece urges readers to use time for kindness, healing, teaching, and leaving the world better. The author is a rabbi and physician who writes on Jewish ethics.