Sukkot Reflections

At the daily morning service during the Feast of Tabernacles a libation of water, in addition to the usual libation of wine, was poured out on the altar. This was drawn from a pool on the first night, and carried in procession to the Temple amid great rejoicing; (cf. Suk. 53a):In the Talmud it is written: the person who has not seen the rejoicing of the Water-Drawing has never seen rejoicing in his life. Sukkot is called Z’man Simchateinu, the time of our rejoicing. It is the time of plenty: of a bounteous harvest, of ease after spiritual effort and physical labor to bring in that harvest. The water drawing ceremony, one of pouring out water, was, in a sense a physical manifestation of overflow: letting a renewable resource go to waste, in the service of The Eternal. The juxtaposition of harvest, gathering, and spilling, going to waste, retention and abandon, protection and being unprotected permeates this holiday. We are on the edge of winter, still looking back to the hot weather we so recently left behind, balanced between two poles. We have the illusion of plenty in the hut that does not shelter us. This is the holiday that makes its point through paradox: from where do our blessings come? What offers protection? What is real and what is illusion? The custom of reading Ecclesiastes, attributed to Kohelet, or King Solomon, also urges us to take a look at the deeper meaning of our lives.

In the mussar literature, Living Mussar every day by Rabbi Zvi Miller quotes from the sage, Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, who said that the sukkah is related to the clouds of glory that accompanied the Israelites in the wilderness, after a verse in the Zohar. The clouds led them by day and by night. Insubstantial as they were, yet they comforted the people because they knew that the clouds represented Divine protection, sustenance, and plenty. The clouds imparted spiritual elevation, bathing them in spiritual benefits, with supernal light from the Eternal, The sukkah too, insubstantial as it is, creates an aura around us of the spiritual benefits that are more real than material; more important than that which can be seen. Kohelet sums up a whole life of material treasure and power with the simple words: The end of the matter, after all has been considered. Revere God, and keep God’s commandments; for this is humankind’s whole duty. For God will judge every deed, even everything hidden, whether good or evil. Kohelet urges us to value the insubstantial, to reverence what cannot be seen: to sit in the sukkah and, while we are enjoying the fruits of the harvest, to take a deeper look into reality. As the Hindus say Life is an illusion, On sukkot we have the opportunity to peel away the mask from our eyes and see the power that is concealed by the mundane. As we sit in the sukkah, we are transported into the miraculous existence of our ancestors, basking in the light of the Shechina, seeing clearly, that what seems is not what is; that there is Divine light and the potential for enlightenment, which is the true power in the Universe. May our eyes be opened as we sit in the sukkah and ponder our existence. As Rabbi Miller writes, May the light of God’s glory illuminate our souls, nurturing them with exquisite light and holy emanations on this holiday of Sukkot.