Ushpizin Rabbi Pam Ehrenkranz
Beginning on the 15 th of Tishrei , we sit in our temporary homes , our sukkot , for seven days . Not for shiva — but the opposite of sitting shiva : Eating festive meals , drinking wine , celebrating with guests , all in an effort to experience z ’ man simchateynu , this time of joy . This year , that seven day sitting period of dwelling in the sukkah is also a countdown to the anniversary of our deepest trauma as a people since the Holocaust . Our time of joy coincides with our time of shock and trauma . We have experienced this duality on every holiday this past year , and sukkot is the last in the cycle .
We are commanded to live in a sukkah to commemorate the way we lived for 40 years in the desert , according to Leviticus 23:42 . Rabbi Eliezer says that sukkot are not actual booths , but clouds of glory , divine protection 25 . Either way , it is a Toraitic obligation so that we remember how vulnerable we were , how vulnerable we are . So what need have we for a sukkah this year ? If it is to remind us of the fragility of life , of how our permanent homes and material wealth can lead us to complacency — we have all learned that our homes are indeed , sukkot . Not fragile enough to blow away in a heavy gust yet deeply susceptible to the winds of war . Over 100,000 people in Israel have had their permanent homes blown away by the war in the south and in the north . Tel Avivians now also know that a
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Babylonian Talmud , Sukkah 11b
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