Rivki D. Rosenwald Esq., CLC, SDS
Once you make it through Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur you are truly drained, ready to sit down anywhere. You are not so picky. You are finally able to stop feeling so nervous about being judged and finally able to eat again. Do you really care if you make it back in to your dining room. Under the stars is just fine!
You have soul searched, reviewed your past behavior, truly renewed a relationship with your creator, it’s time to celebrate that reconnection. By now you know the walls of your house are irrelevant. If Gd wants you safe, you are, if not, no fortress can protect you! So a Succah is as great a place to have a reunion, as anywhere else. In fact what’s wrong with it at all? The bees seem to love it!! The ants seem to find it rich in supplies. Even the neighborhood cats seem to sense it’s a wonderful place to hang out. They can’t all be wrong.
I think people overlook the talents Succahs possess. For instance:
-I hear they have physical talents – Succahs hop.
-They make good neighbors -since they must have walls -and as the poet Frost says, good fences make good neighbors.
-And finally they are a great place to operate as a look out- since you must be able to see the sky from everywhere inside of them.
If the weather’s good it’s a pleasure to sit there. If it rains, you’re exempt. Only cold weather is a problem and in my house they keep the AC so high, all summer, I’m used to wearing a jacket when I eat so it’s nothing new to me.
Anyway, I see people bringing heaters, air conditioners, beds and curtains in to their Succahs. Therefore, how it’s any different from their houses is actually a mystery to me. In fact in my home curtains would be a step up for me, I’m still using role up shades.
Succahs give you the opportunity to use your deck, your yard, even your driveways in new and unusual ways. We pay for those extra pieces of real estate they might as well multitask.
And Succahs do keep families intimate. It’s like when you were first married, everything happens in one room. When you eat inside the house, kids seem to disappear somehow during the meal. They often have this unique way of getting up to get some salt and you’d attest they were out syphoning it out of the ocean it takes them so long for them to reemerge.
Travis, in his book Days of Majesty explains: Hashem created this world to have a relationship with man. The walls we build, is what inhibits it. On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur we dismantle those barriers. By Succos the spiritual wall is dismantled.
We go from days of mercy, to days of repentance, to days of mitzvot , to days of jubilance- that’s Succoth!
So-Within the walls of the succah celebrate the reconnection, the renewed relationship between you and Hashem. And the relationship between you and all those created in Gd’s image and especially, the ones near and dear to you, created in your image as well. This is the gift of Succos. Build walls around you not between you!
Rivki Rosenwald is a certified relationship counselor, and career and life coach. She can be contacted at 917-705-2004 orrivki@rosenwalds.com<mailto:rivki@rosenwalds.com