SUKKOT 5784

The Sukkah, a Hug from Gd

Most of us feel somewhat spiritually deflated after the high of Yom Kippur. To plunge immediately and directly into the icy waters of everyday life is really challenging. On Yom Kippur we nurtured our souls for an entire day—existing as angels without fulfilling bodily requirements. So now Gd asks us to forego the comforts of our homes for a week on Sukkot to dwell in a Sukkah—exposed to the heat, the cold, the rain. As the Torah (Vayikra 23:42) commands: Basukot teyshvu shivat yamim (You shall dwell in Sukkot for 7 days).

I like to think of a Sukkah as a womb. A new soul was conceived on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and gestates in that womb for the week of Sukkot, and then is released into the world.

One of the unique things about the mitzvah of a Sukkah is that it is done with the entire body—all of you sits in the Sukkah. Other mitzvot are performed with specific parts of the body like tefillin with the hand and head, or the mouth blessing a piece of fruit.

Another unique quality is that a person can dwell in his Sukkah virtually the entire holiday and the longer you stay, the more the mitzvah! Once you eat matzah on Passover, you have performed the mitzvah. There’s no additional reward for the 2^nd or 3^rd bite!

In addition, most mitzvot are done for a specific and limited period of time: tefillin are worn in the morning, Shema is recited in the morning and at night, a shofar is blown on the day of Rosh Hashanah—not the night. Sukkah? Wow!!! All day and all night long you can observe and fulfill the mitzvah—just by sitting within its walls!

Lastly, the Torah instructs us to “dwell” in the Sukkah. This means to turn the Sukkah into our “house.” How? Jewish law (Shulchan Aruch Hilchot Sukkah) tells us: by doing as many every day, routine activities as possible in it: eating, reading, studying—even sleeping. Business meetings? Yes! Phone calls? Lots! How about watching Netflix or Prime? During Sukkot these commonplace activities—because they are essential to turning the Sukkah into our “dwelling”—become mitzvot and are imbued with holiness. So, one lesson of the Sukkah is that we can change any activity from secular to holy by how we do it!

I was listening to a shiur (Torah lesson) by Rabbi Mannis Freidman about the Sukkah, and he said something so profound that I knew I would share it with you today, so I wrote it down: What is unique about the Sukkah is that it represents an embrace of love. You can express love through words. Words can be very powerful if you say the right things. If you know what to say, words can carry a lot of love. Of course, a kiss is also an expression of love that comes from the mouth. Then there is the love that is expressed through gazing with the eyes. Your eyes can speak love with just a loving look. It can be more powerful than any words…

         Then there’s also the hug or the embrace. What is unique about a hug is that it embraces the entire person—including the back … In other words, the other expressions of love have to do with something special about you, the things that I find attractive about you, the things that are lovable about you. Those can be expressed in words, in a kiss and in a look.

         What about those parts that are not always lovable? What about the entirety of the person? A hug expresses an acceptance, a desire, an embrace of even the parts that could be a little distasteful, rebellious. You cannot tell by looking at the back of a person the qualities of the person. You can’t tell their beauty, their refinement or character. That you can only see in the face. But in a hug, you include that part of the person—and you don’t want to let go, even when there might be a reason to let go. A hug means, “I don’t want to let you go even if you want to turn your back on me. A hug shows my love to the entire person—not only to their finest qualities.

When we go into a Sukkah, we do it with our whole selves—not just our most lovable parts—and yet the Sukkah embraces all of us.

Let me show you something amazing. The Talmud (Sukkah 6b) teaches that to have a Kosher Sukkah, you need a 4-wall structure. But 3 walls are also good. Even 2 walls and a little bit of a 3^rd is sufficient. Why is that? Because this is the nature of a hug. When you hug someone, you hug them with your arm, and the arm has 3 parts: the upper arm, the forearm and the hand. When you hug someone, you wrap your arm and forearm around them with your hand around their back. That takes 3 parts, so in a Sukkah you need 3 walls—and sometimes even 2 walls and a little bit are enough —because if you look at the arm, the forearm is significant; the upper arm is significant; and the hand compared to the wrist is a tiny part. So, really the arm represents 2 walls plus a partial wall.

What needs to be added is the idea that a hug can’t be performed just by a detached arm. You hug a person with your arm, forearm, and hand. But they’re attached to your body. So, really there are 4 walls: your body, the upper arm, the forearm, and the hand—a little piece of the 4^th wall.

The Kabbalistic master, the Ari z’l, compares the shapes of the letters that spell Sukkah to the Sukkah’s walls. Each shape of a letter represents an act of embracing:

ס כ ה

·        The samech “ס” represents 2 people opposite each other hugging.

·       The kaf “כ” has 3 sides and represents a person with open arms inviting another to embrace.

·       The hey “ה” represents a person with their upper arm extended and the little piece on the bottom left is an open hand beckoning to hug with a wave of the hand. 

Did you notice something? Look at the letters again. The samach “ס” has 4 walls—closed on all sides. The kaf  “כ” has 3 walls—open on one side. And the hey “ה” has 2 walls and another little bit—with an opening. Amazing, isn’t it?

My friends, the hug of a Sukkah is so special—more special than the expression of love from a kiss, a word, or a look—for it embraces all of you. This is what the Sukkah and Sukkot are all about. Entering the Sukkah is like entering the embrace of Gd. If you don’t have a Sukkah, by all means find a Sukkah to visit on Sukkot—in our shul and elsewhere. You can come any time during Sukkot and use our Sukkah. Bring your food and have a meal. Just remember to clean up. And when you enter a Sukkah, know that Gd is embracing you with a big hug! Amen!