Inventory Management and the Festival of Tabernacles (Sukkot)

[Note: This is MUCH longer than my usual fare.]

Once upon a time, when the heels of your shoes would wear out, you would take them to the local shoe repairman, the cobbler. He would have an inventory of different types of heels, soles, laces of course, and everything else needed for the care of your shoes. Now, we just throw the shoes out and get new ones.

Almost any item of value in our possession had an industry of people who would fix it, companies that would manufacture the replacement components and an entire supply chain network that connected producers to customer. Most of those industries are dead or dying. We are living in the era of disposable everything.

The last holdout of the repair culture is the mighty automotive aftermarket. Not only are people continuing to repair their cars (though some of the newer vehicles are indeed entering the “disposable” category thanks to insurance companies, but I’ll save that discussion for another article) – people worldwide are holding on to their cars longer than ever before. The average age of cars on the road in the US is 13 years and growing. That means that for every person driving a leased car and returning it to the dealer after 2-3 years they have a counterpart that is driving a 25-year-old car. Not only are cars being repaired and maintained longer, but their complexity has increased. If you consider the multiplicity of sensors and software that is embedded in your car, it is a marvel of modern engineering.

Now imagine something is wrong with your car. You’re not sure what it is, but you can tell something is wrong because the check engine light went off. You take it to the repair shop or dealership. Usually, they know pretty quickly what the problem is, what needs to be fixed and what parts are needed. In some cases, they can fix the issue on the spot and have the very part you need on hand. In other cases, they need to order the part and can regularly get the part and fix the vehicle on the same day. In rarer cases it takes a little longer.

But for the above to happen, there is a vast supply chain that is needed to make sure the right part is available in the right place at the right time, so you have minimal wait in getting your car fixed.

Let’s consider all the steps. The iron needs to be mined. It needs to be smelted. The primary metal products are made. A manufacturer buys that and processes it in a finely tuned factory, with micrometer precision, whether it’s metal forming, casting, machining, stamping, injection molding, soldering, and that’s before you get into any electronics, semiconductors, programing, testing and more. The product needs to be manufactured with extremely high tolerance parameters. All of this is happening at least a year before you roll into the repair shop.

On top of that, the manufacturer needs to determine ahead of time how much of each type of product to produce. If they make too much, they go bust. If they make too little, they have unhappy customers and then go bust.

The distributor also needs to know how much of each product to stock. They are doing this on a continual basis, but they have also committed to their suppliers months in advance. If the distributor carries too much, it likewise is inefficient (and may go bust). Stock too little and you don’t have a business.

For all the above to flow, we use the science of Inventory Management. Local and regional sales history can give an idea of what parts are in growing demand and which ones less so. Keeping tight track of your inventory, taking stock or cycle counts as it’s referred to, helps an inventory manager know what she’s low on, what’s overstock and what’s dead inventory. Dead inventory means the money you invested in buying those parts isn’t paying off. Fast moving inventory is what pays the bills, the salaries, the lease, the electricity and is where a distributor makes its money on efficient warehouse utilization.

A good inventory manager can literally make or break a business.

All of the above is an extremely long-winded introduction to one of the lesser known, though not less important Jewish holidays known in Hebrew as Sukkot and translated at the Holiday of Tabernacles. It is celebrated this year Oct 6-14.

This is probably one of the more unusual holidays from an outsider or newcomers’ perspective.

Before I describe the practices and rituals of Sukkot I’ll explain why I went out of my way to connect it to Inventory Management.

Long ago, one of my teachers said that if you want to understand the deeper meaning of a Hebrew word, you look up the first use of that word in the Bible. This is where things get interesting.

While the word Sukkot is used extensively in the Bible to reference the holiday we are talking about, the very first use of the word, on the surface, is completely unrelated to the holiday.

It starts with a story. The biblical patriarch, Jacob, father of 12 sons, who would later become the 12 tribes of Israel, had fled the land of Canaan. He spent 20 years with his uncle Laban in the city of Haran (modern-day Syria), married his daughters, worked for him and with a lot of struggles built for himself a small fortune. His departure from Laban was not without incident or altercation. To complicate matters further, once he escaped Laban, he was confronted by his brother Esau who had a death-grudge against him and was the reason Jacob fled Canaan in the first place.

The night before Jacob’s encounter with his brother Esau, he is confronted by an angel with whom he wrestles the whole night. Jacob bests the angel but comes away from the match limping. That is when the angel and then God name Jacob by the name by which his progeny would be known: Israel.

Though Jacob had been extremely fearful of his brother, a huntsman with an army of 400 men, the encounter with Esau ends amicably and after an absence of over 20 years, Jacob returns to his birthplace.

What is most unusual is what Jacob does next. The verse states that he builds Sukkot (huts) for his livestock. That is the first use of the word Sukkot in the Bible, centuries before God commands the Children of Israel to keep the holiday of the same name. Its simplest meaning is indeed that it is a hut. A temporary, quickly built shelter.

So, what is the deeper meaning of the word Sukkot? What is the significance of the context and the story where the word Sukkot is first revealed?

Well, let’s analyze what is going on in the narrative. Jacob had just survived some trying times with various antagonists. He escapes relatively unscathed and still with a certain measure of wealth (he had given numerous flocks and gifts to Esau to appease him before their meeting). He had been herding and grazing his large flock for months in the slow trek from what today is Syria and the Golan Heights to the central mountain area of Canaan, what today are the Judean Mountains of Judea and Samaria to eventually reach his father Isaac in their hometown of Hebron.

As anyone who has herded a flock can tell you (not me, I’m a parts guy, but I have known some shepherds), it is very hard to count your flock when you’re on the move. The very simple reason that Jacob builds huts for his flocks is to take stock of his inventory!

He had goats, sheep, donkeys and camels. How many had died over the journey of many months? How many were born? Which animals were pregnant? Which needed special attention? Did the goat who produced good milk have more offspring? Was that a goat he wanted to make sure was mating well?

Jacob, by building his Sukkot, the huts for his livestock, was doing inventory management.

He was pausing in his journey, though he still had many miles and mountains to cross before he reached his father and his hometown of Hebron. But the time was ripe. He had survived and overcome the challenges God had thrown at him and now he had a moment of peace. He could rest. He could literally take stock to determine the physical health of his livestock and consequently his financial health.

That might be the deeper meaning of the holiday of Sukkot. To take stock. To appreciate what we have. Sukkot is a deeply agrarian holiday, tied in multiple ways to the earth, the water, the agriculture cycle and the harvest. It always occurs at the end of the summer, the beginning of fall, the end of the harvest season. The hard work of the summer is over. The produce has all been harvested, gathered and stored. It is the point of the year when a farmer has the most he will have. After that, what he has gathered needs to last through the cold winter and until the next season. He will be looking at mounds of grain and fruit. And he needs to take stock. Not just in a practical accounting way, but in an overarching comprehensive way of all the physical and spiritual blessings he has harvested over the course of the year.

What are my material possessions that allow me to do God’s will? What is my family situation that supports me in those efforts? Who is in my circle of friends and loved ones that strengthen me? Sukkot follows on the heels of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. We end Yom Kippur with the optimistic belief that God has forgiven us, that he has given us a clean slate for the new year. It is a time of great joy. In a sense we are like spiritual newborns, not yet jaded by the harshness and disappointments that life can send our way.

Sukkot is the opportunity to manifest that joy, by embracing the multiplicity of commandments, of Mitzvot as they are called in Hebrew, that God prescribes.

There are two main Mitzvot:

1. To live in a Sukkah for seven days (a hut, Sukkah is the singular form of the word, Sukkot is the plural).
2. To hold and wave the Four Species (more on that later) during the seven days.

For those who have not visited a Jewish neighborhood during the holiday of Sukkot, it is fascinating to see people building usually small wooden or canvas huts right next to their nice, permanent homes. While the walls are typically wooden panels or canvas, the roof is made out of palm fronds or bamboo mats.

The main practical interpretation of the requirement to “live” in the Sukkah is that all of one’s meals during Sukkot must be eaten in the Sukkah. Many families, especially in Israel, will also sleep in their Sukkah. Both of these can be challenging. Eating in a Sukkah in particular can be hard, when traveling or going to an office where there is no Sukkah. That’s the first Mitzvah.

The second Mitzvah is to hold and wave the Four Species during the morning prayers for the seven days of Sukkot. The Four Species are comprised of one Etrog (citron), one Lulav (palm frond), two Aravot (willow branches) and three Hadasim (myrtle branches).

During one part of the morning prayer services the Four Species are waved and shaken in a specific form at particular phrases of the Hallel prayer. During a second part of the morning prayer, the entire congregation marches around the synagogue with the Four Species in hand, while reciting the Hoshanot prayer. It’s quite a sight to see both the waving and the marching of the Four Species.

All in all, it’s a ritually intense holiday, with multiple aspects of both eating in the Sukkah and waving the Four Species. They both underscore our dependence on God for all of our material blessings. The Sukkah is more of a demonstration of faith in God and the ultimate protection that He grants us, while the Four Species relate more to prayers for blessings for the coming year. Both are engaged with a great amount of joy. Indeed, the second name for Sukkot is “Time of our Joy.”

When building the Sukkah and buying the Four Species, there is a palpable feeling of moving from the “Days of Awe” of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, to the “Days of Joy” of Sukkot and Simchat Torah (upcoming article).

For an unusual take on the Sukkah experience from my time in Uruguay, some may find the linked article below of interest:

Adventures of a Chief Rabbi: Existential Paradox by Design as Impetus in Spiritual Mechanics