Yom Kippur and Sukkos: Three Links

Both Yom Kippur and Sukkos enable us to “touch” the unknowable. The difference is that the cloud created on Yom Kippur was seen by the High Priest exclusively who alone entered into that inner precinct of the Temple. During the Holiday of Sukkos, however, the mystery of G-d’s hidden-ness and other-ness leaves the Holy of Holies and envelops every Jew who dwells in a Sukkah during this Festival.

Contradictory or Complementary?

Yom Kippur is arguably the most solemn day of the year. One can almost cut the somberness of the atmosphere with a knife. Ironically, just four days later we observe what is referred to in our liturgy as “the season of our rejoicing,” highlighting the most joyous time of the year!

Are these two Holidays contradictory in any fashion? If they were, wouldn’t it make more sense to have them in separate times of the year; at least in separate months?

In fact, these two holidays are not mutually exclusive; indeed, they are highly complementary.

What follows are three approaches to understanding the organic relationship between Yom Kippur and Sukkos (See preceding essay):

Yom Kippur is when we stand in judgment before G-d, beseeching and imploring Him to grant us our requests for a good year. Sukkos is G-d’s response to us. Entering into the Sukkah has been compared to G-d taking us into His embrace, in effect, telling us that He has heard our prayers and has accepted our pleas. Yom Kippur represents the outpouring of our souls to G-d whereas Sukkos represents G-d’s all encompassing love for us. Yom Kippur and Sukkos are two sides of the same coin.

The Clouds

A second link:

One of the primary rituals of Yom Kippur was the offering of incense in the Holy Temple’s innermost and holiest precinct—the Holy of Holies. The ritual required that the smoke generated by the burning of incense should fill the entire chamber. This smoke is characterized in the Torah as a cloud.

Sukkos too is associated with the idea of a Divine cloud. Sukkos, the Torah tells us, as our Sages clarify, is to commemorate the miraculous Clouds of Glory that surrounded the Jewish people in the desert upon their departure from Egypt.

Both Yom Kippur and Sukkos revolve around the theme of Divine clouds. On Yom Kippur we generate the cloud that will ultimately envelop us on Sukkos.

What is the significance of a cloud? And why, of all metaphors, is a cloud employed to describe G-d’s manner of revealing Himself to us?

In English, when we speak of something hidden, we will say that the matter is clouded. In theological terms, a cloud is an expression of a force that is unknowable and mysterious.

Touching the Unknowable

Both Yom Kippur and Sukkos enable us to “touch” the unknowable. The difference is that the cloud created on Yom Kippur was seen by the High Priest exclusively who alone entered into that inner precinct of the Temple. According to the Jerusalem Talmud, not even an angel was allowed to be present when the High Priest would offer that incense.

Every one of us has an inner precinct that is able to feel and touch the unfathomable essence of G-d, but only in the most hidden recesses of our soul.

During the Holiday of Sukkos, however, the mystery of G-d’s hidden-ness and other-ness leaves the Holy of Holies and envelops every Jew who dwells in a Sukkah during this Festival. What Yom Kippur is for the High Priest for the few moments he would spend in the Holy of Holies becomes the “normal” residence for every Jew for the duration of an entire week, day and night—an entire expanse of time. Dwelling in a Sukkah should therefore engender both incredible joy and awe for the unparalleled privilege of sitting in such close proximity to G-d’s transcendent presence.

Two Enveloping Experiences

Another parallel can be drawn between Yom Kippur and Sukkos:

In all of Jewish life there are just two Mitzvot that involve the totality of the Jew: The Mitzvah of dwelling in a Sukkah and the Mitzvah of immersion in a Mikveh.

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, our Sages say is comparable to a Mikveh. Citing the Biblical verse: “G-d is Israel’s Mikveh” our Sages in the Mishnah explain that the word Mikveh (that is literally translated as “hope”) can also be translated as a Mikveh, a body of water that totally envelops the person and purifies him or her. When a person approaches G-d on Yom Kippur with profound feelings of repentance and a sincere desire to return to Him and His commandments, G-d envelops that person and thereby cleanses him or her.

The other Mitzvah that involves and envelops the totality of the person is, of course, the Sukkah.

But there are two salient differences between the two forms of envelopment:

The first difference is that a body of water is not man’s natural state. Immersion in a Mikveh is therefore, of necessity, of but a short duration. The Sukkah, by contrast, is quite a natural setting and is eminently habitable for long periods of time, in which one can breath and live normally (unless it is during the October surprise in Buffalo…).

The second difference is that although the Mikveh envelops the entire body, one cannot immerse himself or herself in a Mikveh with their clothing on. When we immerse in a Mikveh we obviously do not take our food and drink, table and cutlery with us in the water. A Sukkah, by design, requires that we enter it fully clothed and equipped to have a hearty Festival feast.

Holy and Normal

These two differences are reflective of a qualitative shift in the manner of G-d envelops us during Sukkos as contrasted with Yom Kippur.

During Yom Kippur we enter into the Holy of Holies, a normally forbidden area; an area we must not enter at all other times of the year. Yom Kippur transports us to a different world. We cease to be normal humans and we adopt the identity of angels. Into that world we cannot take our clothing, i.e., our external identities and possessions, just the innermost aspects of who we are. The hope is that it will leave an indelible mark on us as so that even after Yom Kippur we will still feel the effects of that total immersion.

By contrast on Sukkos, we do not have to leave our own world to a foreign and more celestial world. We just change the venue of our world; from our solid structured homes to the frail Sukkah. This means that Sukkos affords us the ability to be totally enveloped in that G-dly aura even as we remain steadfastly connected to the normal world outside of the Holy of Holies. And as such, we enter the Sukkah even with our boots.

To be totally encompassed by a Mitzvah during Sukkos an additional dimension to the atonement process of Yom Kippur is necessary.

No Compartmentalization

Many well intentioned individuals suffer spiritual and moral relapses partly because they compartmentalize their Jewish life. Part of them might be comfortable in the safe haven of the synagogue, but they leave and live the rest of their life in a different location. This dichotomous existence leaves us vulnerable to the many pressures of life that conflict with our Jewish responsibilities.

By entering into the Sukkah right after Yom Kippur we eliminate that pitfall because the totality of the Jew is in the right place. It is not just our mind that understands Judaism. It is not just our heart that is passionate about G- d and Jewish practice. Every fiber of our being is included in and enveloped by the heavenly cloud and the G-dly embrace.

The Mikveh and Sukkah Synthesis

The Messianic Age has been compared to both a Sukkah as well as a Mikveh. In our prayers we say: “Spread upon us the Sukkah of Your peace.” And the prophet Isaiah describes the future Messianic Age as one in which we will be submerged in the waters of Divine knowledge.

In the present limited context of exile, we can either be in a Mikveh or in a Sukkah. We cannot be in both of them simultaneously. A Mikveh, as stated above, requires removal of our garments, while a Sukkah requires that we are dressed.

Removal of garments is also a metaphor for total surrender and divestment of our way of thinking and feeling. A prophet before prophesying would strip of his garments as a way of becoming receptive to the Divine message. Total nullification of one’s ego and selfhood is necessary in a Mikveh as a prelude for a new birth that follows. A Mikveh has often been likened to the amniotic fluid in which a fetus swims, as a prelude to becoming something.

The Sukkah, by contrast, is where we are commanded to enjoy our meals fully clothed. This includes all senses of the word “clothed.” Our individual personalities are intact and are even highlighted. True, in the Sukkah we are all united as one, but it is not at the expense of our own individual identities. Rather it is a sense that the other’s identity does not conflict with my own. A Sukkah is a source of peace and unity.

However, within the constraints of life we cannot be in the Mikveh and Sukkah at the same time. In the Messianic Age, we will be able to experience both total immersion and nullification even as we retain our individual character. This will be possible because in the Messianic Age, we will be exposed to the infinite light of G-d in relation to which there are no limits. Infinite G-dly energy will fit comfortably within the parameters of the finite physical world.

The Sukkah that we dwell in today and the Mikveh that we immerse ourselves in presently are thus portents of the future Messianic Age at which time all the dichotomies will disappear. We will then enjoy both the benefit of experiencing what Maimonides describes as the “waters of pure knowledge,” even as we—and our clothing, literally and figuratively—are all entered into the Divine embrace.

From the book Light from the Future: Sukkos by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.