Political parties often speak about a big tent. Some religions also imagine a comprehensive unity. Most of us get stuck and focus on what divides us.

Occasionally, I tell this joke to Christian colleagues. They share a wistful and rueful laugh.

George was walking across a bridge when he saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. He ran over and shouted, "Stop! Don't do it!"
"Why shouldn't I?" said the stranger.
George: "There's so much to live for!"
"Like what?"
"Well ... are you religious or atheist?"
"Religious."
"Me too! Are you Christian or Jewish?"
"Christian."
"Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?"
"Protestant."
"Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?"
"Baptist."
"Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?"
"Baptist Church of God."
"Me too! Are you Original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?"
"Reformed Baptist Church of God."
"Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?"
"Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915!"
To which George said, "Die, heretic!" and pushed him off.

The Torah tell us: בַּסֻּכֹּת תֵּשְׁבוּ שִׁבְעַת יָמִים כָּל הָאֶזְרָח בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל יֵשְׁבוּ בַּסֻּכֹּת.
"For seven days ... all who belong to the people of Israel will live in sukkot" (Lev. 23:42).  Based on the idea of “all”, the Talmud makes a remarkable claim regarding the holiday of Sukkot:
ראויים כל ישראל לשבת בסוכה אחת~ This teaches that it is fitting for all of Israel to sit in one sukkah. (Sukkah 27b)

This can’t be a physical entity. It must be something else. It seems to be a claim about the idealized unity of the Jewish people. What is this unity? Is it  possible? Is it desirable?

Chanan Morrison, in Silver from the Land of Israel, provides a teaching of Rav Avraham Hakohen Kook:  As long as we are plagued by pettiness and other character flaws, we cannot attain unity. But after experiencing the holiness of Yom Kippur, after our lives have been illuminated by the light of teshuvah, after the Jewish people has been purified from the negativity of sin and moral weakness, the  inner purity of the soul becomes dominant. With this regained individual integrity, we can anticipate greater harmony among the different groups with our people. That is, what blocks national unity is personal pettiness and individual alienation.

Rav Kook goes farther. He sees Sukkot as a time when we absorb an inner light of Torah. This leads to a different sense of truth. Instead of a restrictive view of truth, we are able to see a more expansive vision. With this perspective, opinions that appear to be in conflict or contradiction become integrated and unified. This period of the year gives us the opportunity to see things from God’s perspective, to attain a comprehensive unity, a unity that extends its holy light over all parts of the Jewish people. That holistic sense of truth is what will bring final and ultimate redemption. That’s what our Sages saw in the words of Yehezkel recited in today’s haftarah and that we quote from Zekahryah at the end of the Aleynu prayer. bayom hahu yeh’yeh… On that day, it is as if we are all sitting together in one sukkah.[1]

Long ago, the poltical theorist Isaiah Berlin warned us about the dangers of the quest for unity. Maybe we should hold it as a spiritual ideal, but not as a programmatic one. Perhaps we shouldn’t try for unity, just seek to respect each other and get along.

On Rosh Hashanah, I referred to the late Krister Stendahl, Lutheran Bishop of Stockholm, who articulated three principles of religious understanding:

1.  When we try to understand another tradition, we should ask the adherents of that religion and not its enemies.

2.  Don't compare our best to their worst.

3.  Leave room for "holy envy," a willingness to recognize elements in the other tradition that we admire and wish were, in some way, be reflected in our own faith.

I suggested that these principles would be valuable not only between Judaism and other religious traditions. They can also be applied to our interpersonal relations with family and others. These principles would also go a long way to reduce internal Jewish conflict and inter-religious acrimony. ^[2]

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks has a different model for inter-religious relationships. Based on a distinction made by Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik between a covenant of fate and a covenant of destiny, he applies this to interfaith relationships. The covenant of fate is shared by all people and brings all religions together to work for survival of our planet and human dignity. The covenant of destiny is what each religion teaches as its particular truth. [3]

Rabbi Soloveitchik originally applied this model to Judaism. He taught that post-Holocaust, all Jews share a covenant of fate: survival of our people, opposition to anti-Semitism, and concern for the State of Israel. That has been the historic strength of UJA, JDC, JAFI and local agencies such as Hillel, JFC.

We differ when we speak of a covenant of destiny: a more specific vision of what we want Judaism to be. That is, how should those more encompassing and comprehensive concerns be expressed? What elements of the larger culture do we welcome/oppose, how should we study Torah and how might we apply our study to Jewish practice?  How should we express our commitment to Jewish way of life through devotion to mitzvot and Torah study? That is why there are different synagogues and schools, alternate understandings of how to express love and loyalty to Israel, and differences about how to respond to the thorny challenges of contemporary society.

If we adopt Stehndal’s approach, we work toward greater toleration. If we use the Soloveitchik- Sacks model, we look for the more comprehensive ways to work together. Both models accept and welcome difference and do not seek an artificial unity.

But we can still dream of the super-size sukkah, thinking of the unity of our people. Occasionally, we catch a glimpse of that unity.

Last Monday, when we gathered in this synagogue to celebrate the release of Gilad Scahlit and to welcome him to Canada, we could feel the greater oneness of the big sukkah. We put aside the difference of opinion about whether his freedom was worth the release of so many terrorists. We simply focused on the young, shy man standing before us, knowing that he had spent five years in captivity and had survived.

According to the Hasidic master Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, a sense of unity is at the heart of the mitzvah of sukkah. He wrote in Likutei Halakhot that one should fulfill the mitzvah of sukkah with the following kavanah:

"One should concentrate on being part of the entire people of Israel, with intense love and peace, until it may be considered as if all of Israel dwells together in one sukkah."

As we enter our sukkot, let’s try to imagine who we might bring in to this frail shelter and how we might expand our vision of our community. If we do so with love, we may get a bit closer to that super-sized sukkah.