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Today is the third day of the most joyous festival of the Jewish calendar.ÌýÌýIf you visit my patch of Jewish London this week, you’ll spy small huts in gardens and squeezed between buildings.ÌýÌýIn religious districts in Israel, you see huts on balconies, rooftops and even trucks. Apartment blocks are built with staggered balconies to allow each apartment space for its hut. If you look closely, you’ll see that these huts don’t have proper roofs – just some branches or bamboo to protect them. Nearer still, and you may hear people chatting, enjoying a meal, a glass of wine or singing.

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These little huts are called Sukkot and the week-long festival has the same name.ÌýÌýUnless it’s pouring, we eat, host guests, relax and sleep in our Sukkah, even though the weather is changing, and it can be pretty nippy.ÌýÌýÌýUnsurprisingly, my wife doesn’t share my enthusiasm for sleeping in our Sukkah, especially after I was bitten on the leg by an unwelcome visitor – I’d guess a rat, given the teeth-marks – one Sukkot a few years back. This isn’t quite the mass insanity that it seems.ÌýÌýThe Jewish Bible requires us to spend a week living in a Sukkah to recall God’s care for our ancestors during their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land.ÌýÌýWith its flimsy roof that can blow in or let the rain through at any moment, the Sukkah has a simple but profound meaning, which I think can speak to us all.ÌýÌýWhich is that life itself is impermanent, flimsy, subject to change or even, God forbid, sudden end, at any moment.

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I suspect that many of us tend to think we’ll live forever, or at least behave like we will.ÌýÌýHow many of us have fallen out with loved ones and regretted it when they are no longer there?ÌýÌýOr taken risks with our health, assuming that our lifestyle won’t catch up with us?ÌýÌýSukkot is an opportunity to realise that nothing is forever, and we should take advantage of every moment – repair relationships when we can and look after ourselves to the best of our ability. And I wonder if that’s why Sukkot is so joyful.ÌýÌýReal, lasting joy lies in the realisation that life is short and that we need to make the best of every moment.