PunkTorah

Independent Jewish Spirituality Online

  • Convert to Judaism
  • Online Rabbinical Program
  • Donate

D’var Torah For Sukkot: Let My People Camp!

October 11, 2010 by Patrick Beaulier

A retro repost from last year.

Yea! It’s time for Sukkot, or “The Feast Of Booths” or “Tabernacles”.

What the heck does that mean? It means “Go Camping!”

Seriously though, Sukkot is the holiday where we remember when we were traveling in the desert after fleeing Mitzrayim (Egypt), and we had to live in portable, fragile huts, or booths. In the time of the Temple it was one of the biggest pilgrimage holidays where Jews would come from all over to celebrate together as a people.

So why huts? What do they symbolize?

The sukkah, or booth, is a reminder of the booths that our ancestors lived in. We take this time to remember that we left Egypt with almost nothing and with nowhere to live, and we depended on G-d to provide and protect us.

They are also a symbol of the protective clouds, the Clouds of Glory, that hovered over our ancestors after we left Egypt and protected them through the wanderings. The Sages tell us about how the Clouds of Glory disappeared after the first Yom Kippur, and one of the things we celebrate is that the clouds returned on the 15th of Tishrei, symbolizing that G-d had truly forgiven us.

Observing Sukkot is usually done by building a sukkah following some specific Halachic rules, and spending the night and eating your meals there. Here is a fantastic link from a great resource for building a sukkah. While this is a great thing to do, and a really great experience for families, it may not be practical. So I would suggest some alternatives that, while maybe not Halachically “correct”, will allow you to explore and appreciate this wonderful Holy time:

  • Take a walk outside with your family.
  • Look at nature.
  • Reflect on your connection to the Earth and to G-d.
  • Go camping.
  • Get out of the house and feel the reality of the world around you.

Sukkot is a time when we take a look at what usually makes us happy. We’ve just asked for and (presumably) been forgiven for our transgressions from the past year. Sukkot is one of the agricultural holidays; it takes place during the reaping time where the Israelites would fill their storehouses with their produce grown during the summer. So we sit, forgiven and happy that we have so much. But what is the real source of happiness? Our connection to the Infinite. On Sukkot we take the opportunity to celebrate what was only days before a somber event. We now move outside and leave behind those things that may make us happy on the materialistic level, and bask in the connection to the Essence that was formed over the High Holidays. Seeing how fragile the physical world is, spending time out of doors in nature, and appreciating the basis of our reality is a gift that we are given as Jews, and one that I invite you to partake in.

Filed Under: Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud), Shabbat & Holidays Tagged With: booths, darshan yeshiva, festival, holiday, Holidays, Jewish, Jews, Judaism, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, Religion, sukkah, sukkot, tabernacles, temple, Torah

Pluralistic Rabbinical Seminary: Online Rabbinical Program

Through our relationship with Darshan Yeshiva, we are supporting the launch of Pluralistic Rabbinical Seminary (PRS), what we hope to be the very best in practical, distance learning based rabbinical education. What do we love about this project? PRS is the only rabbinical school … [Read More...]

Now Hiring: Rabbis, Educators & Creatives

Rabbis Sought Want to work one-on-one as a rabbi, educator and mentor for an organization that is growing by leaps and bounds, utilizing new models of Jewish community as well as the latest learning technology? Darshan Yeshiva is currently searching for rabbis to be part of our growing … [Read More...]

Become a Jewish Spiritual Leader

Our online leadership school, Darshan Yeshiva, teaches you everything you need to know to become a Darshan, a lay Jewish spiritual leader serving unaffiliated communities all over the world. There are so many Jews out there who need community, but for whom there will never be a … [Read More...]

PunkTorah Inc.
PO Box 1641
Midlothian, VA 23113

questions@punktorah.org
YouTube
Facebook

Read our DMCA notice

Search the PunkTorah Blog Archive

What We Do

Pluralistic Rabbinical Seminary: Online Rabbinical Program

Now Hiring: Rabbis, Educators & Creatives

Become a Jewish Spiritual Leader

  • Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud)
  • Judaism & Belief
  • The G-d Project Videos
  • Podcasts & Videos
  • NewKosher (Recipes)
  • Converting To Judaism
  • LGBTQ & Women
  • Shabbat & Holidays

Copyright PunkTorah Inc.© 2023