The Experience of Sukkot, The Experience of the Year

The nature of the Chag of Sukkot is unique among the Chagim. It is unique in that there is no one mitzva that defines the day. It is unique in that it celebrates not one Chag but two, Simchat Torah and Sukkot. And it is unique in a full Hallel is said on every day.

It is also unique in that it immediately follows the experience of the Yamim Noraim. While it may be argued that Shavout is the culmination of Pesach, both of those experiences are clearly holidays in the traditional sense. They are a time of happiness, a time for family and a time meant to commemorate events that occurred on those days.

Sukkot on the other hand does not clearly mark any particular event on the calendar. Its only significance is its relation to the Yamim Noraim. It also follows the only other holiday that requires a full body experience. Yom Kippur demands that we deprive ourselves of bodily pleasures while Sukkot requires that we sit immersed within the structure we created.

As we already mentioned, Sukkot is the natural progression from Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is the pinnacle point of 6 (ish) weeks of preparation to achieve a ultimate spiritual goal. Sukkot is utilizing that spiritual to inform our every day experience. The נצי”ב point out that the fact that the Torah made use of the term תעשו סוכות, highlights the there is a מצוה to build the Succha. I would suggest further, that there is a מצוה to prepare ourselves for Sukkot. The spirituality achieved on Yom Kippur must now inform our day to day lives through Sukkot.

It may then be the reason we have so many mitzvot during these day and so many opportunities to celebrate new holidays. After the physically deprived Yom Kippur we are searching for ways to use our physical abilities to perform more mitzvot. It is also why there is a beautiful minhag immediately after Yom Kippur to begin building the Sukkah. We simply cannot contain our excitement to allow Yom Kippur’s spiritual accomplishments flow into our physical lives.

If so, perhaps, Yom Kippur was not our final goal. Sukkot is. Yom Kippur was a version of ourselves that was necessary for the holiness of the day but it does not represent who we are as Jews. As Halacha abiding Jews, we believe in viewing our world through a Torah prism. In living in a structure whose every detail is encoded in Halacha. And more globally, in addressing our day to day lives and contemporary issues with a Halachic perspective.

On Sukkot then we are celebrating our Halachic way. Not a intellectual perspective that is limited to the Beit Medrash but one that guides us in all we do. Such a perspective is not one that we want to limit to ourselves. It is perhaps why in the Haftorah today we read about how Suchot would be the mitzva that all the non-Jews would come join us for. They are not simply sitting in a temporary structure. They have come to join us to hear how we view the world through the Halachic prism.

This experience is one that we yearn for and look forward to. It is one that demands having not one holiday over the course of the week but two. It is one that demands reciting a full Hallel each and every day. And it is one that requires accomplishing as many mitzvot as possible during that time. And the longing for this experience is expressed in two conflicting halachic perspectives of how to approach the mitzva of sitting in the Sukkah on the first night of Sukkot when it is raining. While the Rema argues that although in general we would not sit in the Sukkah if it is uncomfortable, on the first day of Sukkot we anyway go out in the rain, make kiddush and have some bread. The Gra on the other hand, argues that we cannot fulfill the mitzva while it is raining. And so instead, while it is wet, we do as they did in the Cat in the Hat and “sit, sit, sit, sit” and wait. We stay up all night waiting, hopeful that the rain will cease and we may get the opportunity to go out to the Sukkah to enjoy our meal. It is interesting though that even according to the Rema we do not make a bracha on sitting in the Sukkah. It seems that even he maintains that we cannot fulfill the mitzva of sitting in the Sukkah while it is raining. If so, we must ask, why would the Rema mandates we sit in the Sukkah regardless?

Perhaps it is exactly our point. After the spiritual experience of Yom Kippur we simply cannot hold ourselves back. We MUST express our spirituality in a physical mitzva. Even if we may not fulfill the mitzva, even if we cannot say a bracha, we still have no choice but to go sit in the Sukkah. We just cannot contain ourselves. And so while it is raining we sit in the Sukkah.

And that is the lesson of Sukkot. We dare not keep our spiritual gains confined to one day a year or only while we are withing the walls of our Shuls. We must seek opportunities to allow our Halachic experience permeate through our physical lives. So on this Sukkot let us take the time to ensure that the spiritual accomplishments of Yom Kippur are not limited to that day. Let us ensure that they continue to infuse every aspect of our lives. Let us ensure that everything we do is done through the perspectives of our way of life.