Sukkot:

Inner Space

Everybody wants a home, if not a home, at least an apartment or personal room to call their own. Deeply we all quest a secure a place where we can just be ourselves; somewhere we can let down our garbs and guards.

To the people around us we are always something different — for some we are a mother or father, to others a brother or sister, and yet others a child, sibling or grandparent. Beyond the position in a family unit, we also carry around titles; the things we do become the title we have, whether doctors, lawyers, accountants or business people.

Yet, deep within us, no matter how old we grow or how successful we are or may appear on the outside, there is the little vulnerable you, the modest you who seeks reassurance in being your simple self – just you. Not what you do and not the image you project – just you.

The High holidays, beginning with Rash Hashanah and culminating with Yom Kippur, is a time that is dedicated to profound soul-searching, a process in which we lay open our deepest self. Hopefully nothing remained unexplored and no area of self unexcavated. Yet, having exposed the real self, we now desperately need a secure place, a safe environment where we can relax and be totally comfortable with who we are. Once we have regained our confidence in the newly rediscovered self we can then venture out into the public arena of life and openly bare our souls. Sukkas is just this right antidote.

Entering the Sukkah, even for just a few moments, allows us to be fully surrounded and enwrapped within the walls of a sacred mitzvah. Rather than locks or safety systems to deem us protected, when we settle ourselves within a Sukkah we feel protected, safe and secure in her holy embrace. Within a Sukkah we can truly be ourselves and be comfortable. Gradually, sitting in the Sukkah empowers us to leave the sheltered space and leave in a way that we are true to who we are, proud of who we are, and proud for what we stand.