Only five days after Yom Kippur, we enter Sukkot, one of the three pilgrimage holidays. Sukkot is the harvest festival and recalls our ancestors’ journey through the wilderness.
Rosh Hashanah asks us to awaken.
Yom Kippur asks us to return.
Sukkot asks us to rejoice.
וּשְׂמַחְתֶּם לִפְנֵי ה׳ אֱלֹהֵיכֶם שִׁבְעַת יָמִים
“You shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.”
For seven days Jews spend time in a hut with a roof of branches. The Zohar calls the sukkah צִלָּא דִמְהֵימְנוּתָא, “the shade of faith.” Jewish tradition also associates the sukkah with ענני הכבוד, the Clouds of Glory, God’s protective presence surrounding the Israelites in desert.
Sukkot is called זמן שמחתנו, the season of our joy. Sitting under the stars, we recognize that true security is not found just behind walls or possessions. It is found in faith.
For me, that contradiction is the beautiful part. Sukkot reminds us to be grateful and joyful for what we have and, even when life is uncertain, to hold on to hope. To trust that, at all times, we are surrounded by the Clouds of Glory. That is the meaning of living in the shade of faith.
חג סוכות שמח ושבת שלום
Chag Sukkot Sameach and Shabbat Shalom.
