TO R A H D E V OT I O N A L | K E V I N G E O F F R E Y
Cause Me
“And you will take to yourselves… the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palms, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of a brook, and will rejoice before ADONAI your God seven days…. In , sukot you [will] dwell seven days; all who are native-born in , Yis’rael [must] dwell in , sukot, so that your generations will know that in , sukot I caused the sons of , Yis’rael to dwell when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I, ADONAI, am your God.” Vayik’ra (Leviticus) 23:40, 42-43
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hat’s a sukah?!? Apparently, it depends on who you ask. It’s a booth . . . no, it’s a tabernacle . . . I know! It’s a temporary dwelling. A temporary dwelling? You mean like a hotel? A place where a person can dwell, um . . . temporarily? Well, that’s part of it, I suppose—after all, it is only for seven days . . . But when a sukah is defined as a temporary dwelling, it’s because the sukah itself is temporary—it’s not a permanent
structure. So, for seven days each year, “all who are native-born in Yis’rael” are to live in short-term housing made up of a bunch of tree boughs, branches, and leaves. Sounds cozy, no? As far as lodging goes, the sukah pretty much only does two things: it shelters you (somewhat) from the light and heat of the sun, and it provides a modicum of privacy. It doesn’t provide shelter from extreme
12 JewishVoiceToday.org | September/October 2012
wind, rain, heat, dust, or sand. It doesn’t offer any kind of protection from thieves, murderers, or any other type of criminal. By itself, the sukah is an all-around ineffectual dwelling for long-term use. And yet, guess how the sons of Yis’rael lived in the wilderness for forty years? Now imagine yourself living in a sukah in your neighborhood. What’s to stop a murderer from coming in and killing you in your sleep?