Cloud and Salt Rabbi-Cantor Michael McCloskey
Note : This poem , with its exploration of Sukkot as Clouds of Glory will add meaningful accompaniment to the
ת ו ז י פ ש ו א / ן י ז י פ ש ו
א evening ritual and the blessing of ה כ ס ב ב ש י ל ” during Kiddush immediately following . According to the Zohar , 28 the 7 Supernal guests are not the spirits of our ancestors , but the emanations of the Divine Organism with which each ancestor is associated . Not only did they accompany us as 7 clouds in the Sinai wilderness , but they also do so in our contemporary Sukkot , especially when we welcome guests and attend to the needy , ensuring that they have provisions .
In ascending ladders , stretching to place the boughs some under cover of cloud 29 , some in fallen booths 30 , and some in tents 31 . Can one sukkah yet contain us ! 32 ?
7 clouds 33 encircling us 34 :
28
Emor 43:276
29
There is a debate among Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Eliezer in the Sifra : Parashat Emor 17:10-11 about what the real essence of the sukkah is . Akiva asserts that they were supernatural in nature , clouds of glory that provided protection , presence , and blessing to our ancestors in the wilderness . Rabbi Elizer asserts that they were the temporary booths utilized primarily during the grape harvest , which was the essential agricultural feature of this fall festival in Ancient Israel .
30
Amos : 9:11
31
This is now a very complex and charged symbol . Those at the Nova Festival dwelled in tents , Abraham and Sarah , the quintessence of hospitality dwelled in tents . Our ancestors in the desert were praised for the arrangement of their tents , and simultaneously protesters sat in tents on college campuses for many months this past year . In fact , some of these residents in tents were Jews , holding Passover Seders .
32
Babylonian Talmud : Sukkah 27b
33
Mekhilta de Rabbi Yishmael : Parashat Vayehi Beshalah 1:20-21
34
I imagine these seven clouds as a sort of corrupted version of the 7 that followed our ancestors in the wilderness , perhaps part of the “ sitra ahra ( the other side ), the ways in which this conflict and the 123