Sukkot
What's possible for us in the space of Sukkut?
Reflection by Or HaLev teacher Rabbah Dr. Mira Neshama Weil
"On the first day of Sukkot, we read from the Torah about the calendar journey from Pesach until Shemini Atzeret, the day that completes the seven days of Sukkot.
Our torah reading starts with a seemingly unrelated passage:
‘When an ox or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall remain under its mother for seven days` (Lev 22:27).
Why begin with this law pertaining to the rules of schitah, ritual slaughtering, when talking about Festivals?
This seemingly unrelated passage is actually very meaningful. Sukkot lasts seven days, and it begins just a few days after Yom Kippur, the day of our great restart about which the Talmud says that God, the Source of Life, is our mikveh (Yoma 85 b).
The seven days of Sukkot can be seen as a time of emerging from the mayyim hayim, the living waters of Yom Kippur, where we can see ourselves as newborns.
And like newborns, we too need to not be taken from under our cosmic Mother.
We need a transitional space and a time of settling, a time to protection and care while we begin again to meet the world.
This time is the seven days, the days the calf stays under their mother and the days we dwell in sukkot. The space is the sukkah, a booth both protecting us and also gently exposing us to earth and sky, inviting us to invite others.
After the days of judgment and introspection, Sukkot opens a time of intimacy and connection: with the divine, with nature, with each other. And we get to do it in a safe space, the space of the Sukkah of God, which, like the mother of the calf, protects us.
As the Sfat Emet reminds us: (Deuteronomy, Sukkot 2:4)
`On Sukkot, God draws Israel near, as it says, Hapores sukkat shalom, `who spreads forth a sukkah of peace.` God protects us because we are called God's children.`
Maybe the joy we are invited to nurture on Sukkot is coming just from that. This Sukkot, may we enjoy the shelter of peace, and may we also be one for others."