Dwelling in a Sukkah. Physically and Spiritually.

I began writing this post at the beginning of the Jewish Festival of Sukkot. (You may also hear it pronounced Succus, which is the Azkenazi Hebrew way of saying it.) "Sukkot" means Booths or Tents. You will also hear it translated as Tabernacles. So the holiday is commonly known as The Feast of Booths or the Feast of Tabernacles. You can find it mentioned in the Bible in Leviticus 23:34.

Sukkot is the plural form of the word sukkah. Holiday observance requires that we build a temporary structure, a sukkah, and dwell in it for 7 days. This does not mean that we are to "live" in our sukkah, spending every waking hour in it. But we are to spend what time we can, sitting in the sukkah, eating in the sukkah, etc. The main point is we are to reflect on what it was like for our ancestors as they traveled through the wilderness, waiting for G-d to bring them into the land he promised them.

After G-d brought us out of Egypt as slaves, He led us to the land that He promised for us. When we got there, twelve men were sent into the land to scope it out. Two came back saying it was a great land and that since G-d had promised it to us, we should go in and take it. The other 10 however did not see it the same way. They saw how good the produce was, but that it was also filled with men who were "giants" in their eyes, and they saw no hope of ever taking the land. And so for their lack of faith, those ten men, and the people that sided with them were not allowed to enter their promised homeland. After that, G-d required all of Children of Israel to wander in the wilderness for 40 years until the generation that did not believe that G-d had the ability to bring them into their land had passed away.

So for 40 years we never had a permanent place that we would be able to call home. We lived in temporary structures. The sukkot (booths, tabernacles, tents), were a reminder that we were not home yet, we were still on our journey to what would be our home. And since our people had been in Egypt for about 400 years, no one knew what "Home" looked like or what it consisted of. Only a couple of men had a glimpse of what our home would be like. All we had to keep us going were what these two men remembered, and what we were told by G-d, that is, it was a land of milk and honey. So while we were travelers, living in tents, our final destination was some place that all but two of us had never seen and we had no idea what was in store for us when we got there.

But, we were given a promise. That promise was that when we got to this land that no one had ever seen, we would be able to stop living like nomads. We would be able to build permanent houses, plant fruits and vegetables, raise livestock, start businesses, etc. We would finally, be Home!

Sukkot is a holiday to remind Jews of our historical wandering. But it also serves as a symbolic reminder to all human beings that while on earth, we are on a constant journey. Even if we find a place to physically call home, spiritually we know that we are only traveling through, on our way to a permanent spiritual home.

Our bodies, are our "sukkot". Our tabernacles, or tents. A place for our spirits to temporarily dwell while we are here on earth in our mortal coil.

The sukkah that we build during this time of the year needs to be recognized as a temporary structure, which means it has no solid foundation. Its frame is made of wood, rods of metal or tubing and it's walls are normally made of some type of cloth or tarp. It would never meet any type of modern building code. And it seems like it is a yearly occurrence that a strong wind, or storm tries to bring your sukkah crashing to the ground. (Sure enough, while I was writing this, a giant thunderstorm moved through the Bronx. What timing!) It's not unusual to have to go out after such a storm and make some necessary repairs to make sure the sukkah will stand for the rest of the holiday.

While on earth, our body (our sukkah) is also subjected to storms, heavy winds, and tempests with the result of testing our structure and seeing if we are strong enough to withstand whatever is thrown at us. Occasionally it is necessary to go in and make some repairs after a "storm". Personally, I have had some parts of the structure broken, and have had my share of repairs. I have had to have some parts completely removed because they had been subjected to "fungus" (cancer). And as more parts are removed, without the capability of replacing them, the sukkah begins to wear down. And sometimes, as the physical structure becomes less stable, the spirit, or the "thing" that dwells in the sukkah, starts to become stronger. We begin to remember that our sukkah is only our "temporary" dwelling to be used while we are on our journey to our final home. It is not meant to be a permanent dwelling, and eventually it will be taken down and we will move into our real home.

How long will our "sukkah" hold out? How long will our journey here on earth last? None of us really know the answer to that. Like the Children of Israel wandering through the wilderness, all we know is that when we are told by G-d to stay, we stay. When we are told by G-d to move, we move.

What will our final home be like? Will it be in a land full of milk and honey? Again like the Children of Israel wandering through the wilderness, we are not given a detailed description. We are just told that when we get there, we will know we are there. We are told by G-d that if we keep His covenant with us, He will lead us there, so our job is to follow Him. Like the Children of Israel, our journey is not easy, and there are trials along the way, but there are also times of joy, and G-d's promise of having a land or home, that will be OUR home. A place where we no longer have to worry about storms, winds, diseases, hunger, fear, etc.

When we get "home", we will then be able to rest, for some of us, cancer-free, and finally "dwell in the house of the Lord forever."