SUKKAH CONTRADICTION
SUKKAH CONTRADICTION
Sukkot has some sort of paradox in it. On the one hand, we are to go out to the hut and live a temporary lifestyle for a week, to internalize the lesson of temporariness in this world. On the other hand, there is a concept of תשבו כעין תדורו – the sukkah needs to be livable, as if one could live in it permanently. If the Sukkah is not livable, it is forbidden to make a Beracha on it. There is even a law that one is to bring all of his fancy household items into the Sukkah and make the Sukkah somewhat luxurious. So, what lesson are we to get out of this? Temporariness, or Lavishness?
I heard the answer to this question this morning at a Brit, by a student from Yeshivat Kol Torah. His name is Avraham Aryeh. I did not want to forget it, for it has a powerful message. Yes, the point of the Sukkah is to teach us the concept of temporariness in the world. So why are we to bring our luxurious utensils out into the Sukkah? Because if your life accessories are too luxurious to bring out to the Sukkah, if you have so many worldly possessions that your Sukkah cannot contain them, your lifestyle may be more materialistic than spiritual. Your materialistic lifestyle might contradict the temporary approach to this World that Judaism holds by. So yes, you need to have a lifestyle of תשבו כעין תדורו, a lifestyle in which the physical conditions are livable. But you also need it to be distanced from all the material objects that magnetize one towards fantasizing permanence in this World.
