Detachment
The requirement of using detached branches to cover the Sukkah is to repudiate the pantheistic conception that equates G-d with nature. While G-d can be found in nature, and manifests Himself within it, G-d is not synonymous with nature. He created it and He transcends it.
Payback for Hospitality
According to the Midrash, the Mitzvah of Sukkah was given to the Jewish people as a reward for their Patriarch Abraham’s incredible hospitality. The Midrash thus states that G-d said to Abraham:
“You said [to your guests] ‘And recline under the tree,’ I will therefore give them, [your descendants, the Jewish People] the Mitzvah of Sukkah.”
On the surface, the connection between Abraham’s offer to his guests and the reward of Sukkah is that Abraham’s hospitality was not restricted to feeding them, but he also provided them with shelter from the scorching son of the desert. In return, G-d gave the Jewish people protection in the desert that they lived in for forty years, shielding them from the desert sun. And, similarly, the Sukkah that we dwell in today is our way of reminding ourselves of the protection we receive from G-d, who is our Sukkah.
Was Abraham’s Sukkah Kosher?
Upon deeper reflection, one can raise a question about the connection between Abraham’s tree and the Sukkah that we dwell in during the Festival of Sukkos.
One of the requirements of a Sukkah is that it is covered with branches. A second requirement is that the branches not be attached to the ground. In fact, if one had built a Sukkah under the branches of a tree, the entire Sukkah may be invalid.
Isn’t it odd then that the very first “Sukkah”—Abraham’s tree— did not conform to the rule that a Sukkah must not be covered with branches that are attached to the ground?
Vegetation, Yes; Attached Vegetation, No!
To answer this question it is helpful to analyze the rule that demands the use of vegetation for the covering of the Sukkah, yet proscribes the use of vegetation that is attached to the ground.
Presumably, the use of branches that have not been altered by human efforts symbolize the pristine Divine dimension of life. Wouldn’t it be more fitting then to sit in the shade of the branches of a tree in its original and natural state rather than under the cut off branches and leaves?
One answer to this question is that dwelling in a Sukkah is intended to teach us that there is a Higher force that provides us with all of our needs. To symbolize G-d’s protective power, we cover our temporary homes with branches which, as stated, are unaffected by human hands. They represent the pristine Divine force that is inherent within nature.
Not Mother Earth!
Were the branches to still be attached to the ground, however, we might have mistakenly imagined that the source of our protection ultimately comes from nature – Mother Earth – itself.
In other words, the requirement of using detached branches is to repudiate the pantheistic conception that equates G-d with nature. While G-d can be found in nature, and manifests Himself within it, G-d is not synonymous with nature. He created it and He transcends it.
However, this analysis strengthens our question. Why was the “Sukkah” that Abraham made— and is the model for all future Sukkos—attached to the ground?
Pre and Post Sinai Dynamics
It may be suggested that the difference between Abraham’s “Sukkah” and ours lies in the different objective of those who lived before the revelation at Sinai and those who came later.
Before Sinai, the objective of a Mitzvah was to use it to connect to the Divine force that manifests itself within the parameters of the world. Prior to Sinai the world was not ready for the revelation of the G-dly force that transcends the world. That realization; that there is a G-d that utterly transcends nature and existence, would first come at Sinai.
Thus, when Abraham built his “Sukkah” he tried to impress upon his pagan guests that there was a unified force that pervades all of nature that is responsible for our protection and well-being. This did not suggest, G-d forbid, that his notion of G-d was pantheistic, but that the G-d who created the universe can be reached and perceived from within the universe that He animates.
In and Above Nature
Once he laid the foundations for the existence of a deity that was present within nature, the Jewish people were ready for the next level of understanding, that G-d utterly transcended the world of nature and the nature of the world.
Our Sukkah thus must have its covering of branches totally detached from its natural source of life—its roots—that symbolize that the essence of our G-dly protection derives from a force that transcends nature, even as it manifests itself within it.
Were the branches still attached to the ground in its most natural state it might have been misconstrued that we are paying homage to a G-d who is restricted to His manifestation within nature. Detached branches, which no longer exist through their natural source, alerts us to a trans-natural Divinity.
Secret of Survival
And in doing so it conveys an additional message.
The Sukkah is a reminder of the way the Jewish people have survived throughout their long and arduous history. The Jewish people are not subject to the natural order. If we had followed the rules of nature we would have become extinct ages ago. Our existence, sustenance and survival derives from a supernatural force—from a transcendent G- d who is not bound by the laws of nature.
Perpetual Transcendence
The future Redemption that will be ushered in imminently by Moshiach has been characterized as a monumental and all-encompassing Sukkah.
One of the reasons for this analogy is that while we can be aware of G-d’s transcendent nature even now, it is an awareness that comes only sporadically, such as during the Festival of Sukkos. For the lesson of the Sukkah to pervade every day of our lives and every facet of our existence, we must wait for the Messianic Age at which time, we will be perpetually be exposed to G-d’s true transcendent nature.
Moreover, this aspect of G-d will be seen by all as the source of our very existence.
The fact that we are only exposed to the transcendent aspect of G-d on special occasions and it may not be universally appreciated is evidence that we have not really been exposed to the ultimate transcendent level. For if that were to happen, there can be no place or time or personality that is not permeated with that awareness. That will occur when we all perpetually dwell in the ultimate Sukkah of transcendence.
From the book Light from the Future: Sukkos by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
