Boulder Aish Kodesh

On Yom Kippur, the high priest would enter into the Holy of Holies and burn incense.  This service was not complete until the cloud of incense covered the Ark, at which point he could leave and complete the remainder of his service.

What happened to the cloud?  Rebbe Natan of Breslov writes that that cloud of smoke is the same cloud that our Sukkah symbolizes.  “'You shall dwell in Sukkot for seven days for I did cause the Jews to dwell in Sukkot' – these are the clouds of Glory'” (Shulchan Aruch 625:1).

On Yom Kippur we tasted a new version of reality.  But that reality is quite lofty and refined.  It cannot be immediately integrated into everyday life.  Some of us have a hard time integrating the experience through the break-fast, let alone all the way into our family life and work life.

But we cannot let it go.  The 'place' we reach on Yom Kippur defines the inner dynamic of who we strive to be for the remainder of the year.  But if we try to 'be' it, we may well become frustrated at how old habits and perspectives resurface.

Enter Sukkah.  Sukkah is the reality of Yom Kippur mixed with the reality of regular life.  It is the theater of enacting that reality – holy and refined, but exposed to the world of the normal.  It is in the Sukkah that we can begin to integrate what we have experienced without the danger of over-exposure.

So, what did you experience on Yom Kippur? Was there one piece, on thought that you took away from it?  Did you have a chance to see yourself, your community, and your reality in a different way?  And how can you integrate that into your Sukkah?  Is there a decoration, a kavannah, a word or two you might write on a piece of paper and hang on the wall?  Is there a particular guest you want to have over, or a particular conversation you want to have?

Sukkah is such a creative mitzvah.  There are rules, but they are loose enough that Sukkah can certainly be an expression of where we are going this year.

The essential rule of Sukkah is that the schach, the roof, must be more shade than sun.  The word for shade, tzel, is the actually the word of prayer in Aramaic.  And the sun always symbolizes knowledge and awareness.  In the Sukkah, there is more question than answer.  Yom Kippur does not promise answers, but it does promise liberating questions.  It cleans us of the past but does not describe the future.  So we should walk into our Sukkah from Yom Kippur with questions about the future.  If we 'know' a lot going into the Sukkah, we may still be holding on.  But if we are free to ask, to pray, to not know, then we can hope to glean 'answers' from the Sukkah.

Rebbe Natan writes that the Sukkah is an aspect of eitzah, advice.  Advice, for Rebbe Nachman, is the key to success, as it is the glue that helps us figure out how to do what we want to do.  And sitting in the Sukkah can help us with that.  So we come out of Yom Kippur with our old answers replaced by new questions.  We go into the Sukkah with those questions and come out with new answers.  Yehi ratzon that we all fulfill the mitzvot of Sukkot with joy, and that we merit the unique blessing that the Sukkah can give us.