"You shall live in sukkot seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in sukkot, in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in sukkot when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I am the Lord your God." Leviticus 23:42-43
The sukkah is a singular commandment among our commandments. Ours is a religion that sanctifies time. We light candles at certain times, we pray at certain times, we count days, weeks, hours, minutes. We set aside time as holy and special for God. But the sukkah is a commandment where we sanctify space. And, unsurprisingly for a religion that sanctifies time, it is a commandment where we sanctify space within time.
The sukkah – usually translated as "booth" -- is a flimsy structure, built of poles and with branches laid on top for a roof. A sukkah is temporary; it is only meant to last for one week. But during that week, just to go into the sukkah is to fulfill the commandment.
Notice that the commandment is to live in the sukkah; it is not to build the sukkah. But how do we live in the sukkah?
When I was a teenager living in an apartment building, some families got together and built a large sukkah on the roof. I remember going into the sukkah in the afternoon with the other teenagers and playing board games. Just by entering into the sukkah and going about my business I was fulfilling a commandment. The sukkah is a sanctified space; just by "being" in it; that is, just by entering and being yourself, going about your daily living, you are fulfilling a commandment.
When you choose to enter the sukkah – whether it is to eat, to sleep, to do homework, to read the newspaper – you are making the sukkah a sanctified space by your presence. But it is not holy if you are not in it. An empty sukkah is nothing but poles and tree branches; a sukkah with a solitary person going about his daily life in it is sanctified.
But it is a sanctified space in time. The special magic of sanctified space lasts only during the week of Sukkot.
According to Scripture quoted above the purpose of this singular commandment is to remind us that God made the Israelite people live in sukkot when God brought them out of Egypt.
A random sampling of day school students residing in my house indicates that three out of every four Jewish school children know that Sukkot commemorates the Israelites living in sukkot while wandering the wilderness. But when asked "Did the Israelites really live in rickety booths while in the desert?" the answer elicited was usually "You know, I’ve always wondered about that!"
On a practical level, it’s hard to believe that the Israelites actually lived in sukkot when they left Egypt. Sukkot are supposed to be built open to the elements; you must be able to see the sky, and there should be a mix of sun and shade. Yet, if you were living in the desert for forty years, you would do better to protect yourself from the harsh environment. Additionally, where would you find enough palm fronds in the desert to cover sukkot to house over 600,000 Israelites? And as you are moving from place to place in the wilderness for a period of 40 years, would not something more along the lines of tents be easier to break down, roll up, transport, and set up again, than sukkot? Besides this lone mention the Israelites living in sukkot, sukkot are never mentioned in any of the descriptions of the Israelites’ camps throughout the Torah. Tents are mentioned a few times, but never sukkot.
On the other hand, the Torah says that God made the Israelites live in sukkot, so perhaps God provided the palm fronds, and transported the sukkot from campsite to campsite. Rabbi Akiva said that indeed God did provide the sukkot for the Israelite people, and that, rather than the physical structures which we call sukkot, the sukkot that God provided were an extension of His protection, and that they were clouds of glory.
But yet does living in a rickety shack with palm fronds remind us of clouds of glory? Throughout their forty years in the desert the Israelites were led by physical manifestations of God’s presence – a pillar of smoke and a column of fire, and Rabbi Akiva found the clouds of glory within these – but how does a rickety, swaying, open to the elements, prickly roofed booth remind us in any characteristic of pure spirit? Or of clouds? Although this is an accepted rabbinic tradition, to my mind it is not very convincing.
Another possibility, which works logically and also grammatically, is that living in sukkot is to remind us of when God made us to live in Sukkot. Capital "S" as in a place called Sukkot. Great! If only there was such a place.
The Israelites traveled from Ramses toward Sukkoth… Exodus 12:37
[The Israelites] moved on from Sukkoth, and they camped in Etham, at the edge of the desert. Exodus 13:20
The Israelites’ first campsite after fleeing Egypt was a place called Sukkot. What was so important about Sukkot -- what wondrous thing happened there -- that we commemorate it yearly by living in sukkot?
Sukkot is actually the location of the realization of the Exodus.
Throughout the trials with Pharaoh, Moses continually demands of Pharaoh to release the Israelite slaves so they can go into the wilderness and celebrate a festival for God. When they arrive in Sukkot, these newly freed slaves, hungry after walking all day from Ramses, finally stop and eat a meal together. Their bread is flat; because it didn’t have a chance to rise they were in such a hurry to be gone from Egypt. By eating their unleavened matzo – not made special for the holiday but the actual unrisen dough they carried out of Egypt on their shoulders – they fulfilled the commandment of eating matzo.
They commemorated their exodus by celebrating the festival they had been brought out of Egypt to celebrate. They close the circle; they fulfill, with their very being, their reason for being. And they do this in Sukkot.
Sukkot is an important place; but why commemorate staying there? It was the site of the very first Passover, but we have Passover to commemorate that so why do we have the holiday of Sukkot as well? We live in sukkot to remember what the importance of Sukkot was in the formation of the Jewish People, and in an attempt to recapture that initial spirit.
God brought the Israelites out of Egypt; they left Ramses and they camped in Sukkot. Suddenly, they were free. After generations of slavery, they moved en masse out of slavery and to -- Sukkot. They soon left Sukkot and continued on their way. But Sukkot was the first stop as a newly freed and newly forming people. Before slavery they were a family; after the Exodus they became a People.
At Sukkot the Israelite people are at an exquisite point in their history. Joined together by familial ties and the shared experience of slavery they celebrate their exodus; thus realizing the purpose of the Exodus. But they are also at the very beginning – figuratively as well as literally – of their journey. How will they develop? What will happen? They are not only at the beginning of their journey; they are at the pinnacle of their people hood. They are an extraordinary people, one in which the first born offspring of man and beast are consecrated to God.
While they are in Sukkot, the Israelite people represent pure potential as a people. They have not yet shown themselves to be complainers. They have not rebelled against Moshe or God. They have not built a golden calf. They also have not yet shown bravery or awe. They have no characteristics, they just are.
The birth of the Jewish people resembles the birth of a child. The parents eagerly await the birth of the baby, and when he arrives it is the realization of all of the parents’ dreams. Yet the child’s entire future lies ahead. The baby represents pure potential. Like the budding Israelite people, the baby has not rebelled – although he will. He has not forsaken his parents’ teaching – but, come high school, he will. He also hasn’t achieved any of his potential goodness; yet he will accomplish some of that as well.
Coming on the heels of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, we are reborn to Sukkot. We arrive at the holiday cleansed of our past transgressions, and in a state of potential goodness. The journey of 5767 lies in front of us. Now we are commanded to be in the sukkah – with no particular sign, nor ritual, nor action needed. Indeed, with no great effort we fulfill the commandment, reminding us that sometimes we represent our greatest potential when we just allow ourselves to be ourselves.