Life is full of tests. Some of them we choose, but many of them choose us. Some tests are predictable while others come out of nowhere. The real question is not whether we’ll fall — it’s what we do after we fall.

Without question, “the struggle is real” as they say, and how we face those struggles — how we get up after a fall — defines the very nature of who we are.

The Gemara in Sukkah 23a recounts a debate between two great Sages. Rebbe Akiva and Rabban Gamliel were traveling together in a boat during or around the time of the Sukkot festival. Rebbe Akiva stood up and made a sukkah on the boat. The next day, a wind came and “uprooted” the sukkah – it completely blew away. Rabban Gamliel remarked: “Akiva, where’s your sukkah?”

At first glance, one might think this is merely a legal dispute about the nature of a sukkah: Can a sukkah be built on a moving vessel? Does it have to hold up to a sea wind or merely a common land wind? However, a deeper look reveals a powerful message about life’s tests, falling down, and rising again.

The Gemara later asserts that everyone agrees........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)