Sukkot Torah
Can our sukkah welcome the holiest of all the ushpizin?
Reflection by Rabbah Mira Niculescu, Or HaLev Teacher:
"On the festival of Sukkot, we are invited to get out of our houses and dwell in temporary booths, in sukkot.
On a spiritual level, one of the main purposes of this strange embodied ritual is to help us feel more deeply connected to God. When we dwell between earth and sky, separated from the comfort of our homes and unmediated by our familiar surroundings, an organic connection with nature, the glorious mystery of Life Source behind all of it, can make itself manifest again.
This is our invitation after the great rebirth of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur; can we take the time to feel surrounded by divine presence, from day to night, from sunlight to stars?
It works in the other direction, too.
We too, surround the divine presence. Our bodies are the sukkah of God.
Our bodies, this temporary shelter for the soul in this life, is also the dwelling place of the holiest of all the ushpizim (guests): the breath of life (nishmat chayim), who renews each of us in every moment.
Sukkot is called zman simchatinu, the time of our joy.
Last year, that joy was challenging for many of us to access. This year, in light of the latest news of the upcoming release of the hostages and the end of the war, joy feels more accessible again.
This year, the `time of our joy` has become the time of our hope.
On Simchat Torah this year, our brothers are to be freed, and the war is to end. Let us keep praying for this, and as we sit in our Sukkot, of wood and branches or of our bodies, let us keep praying, and let us keep caring for this little piece of God we all share as humans on this earth."