The Eleven Sukkot of Yom Kippur

What elements of Yom Kippur teach us something about what the sukkah could be?

I have to confess that Sukkot is not my favourite festival. Lots of the details feel tricky and technical and physical. Putting together the different branches of the Arba’a Minim, remembering which thing to hold in which hand and the order of the directions to shake, building the Sukkah. Everyone’s allowed to have a favourite festival, and some of you might know that I’m much more of a Yom Kippur person than a Sukkot one. I’m still processing the crescendo of Neila, and suddenly I need to prepare for Sukkot.

With your permission, I would like to stay with Yom Kippur for just a moment, and look at Sukkot from a Yom Kippur perspective. In any case, we know that there’s an ambiguity around how to view Sukkot - is it the third pilgrimage festival in the series of Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot, or the third celebration of judgment in the Tishrei series of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot? I want to consider this second possibility.

If you were concentrating, you might have noticed a subtle reference to a sukkah on the afternoon of Yom Kippur as we were reading the book of Jonah. In the final chapter, after the people and animals of Nineveh repent and are saved, we have the bizarre story of Jonah and the tree. Jonah says to God:

הֲלוֹא־זֶה דְבָרִי עַד־הֱיוֹתִי עַל־אַדְמָתִי עַל־כֵּן קִדַּמְתִּי לִבְרֹחַ תַּרְשִׁישָׁה כִּי יָדַעְתִּי כִּי אַתָּה אֵל־חַנּוּן וְרַחוּם אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם וְרַב־חֶסֶד וְנִחָם עַל־הָרָעָה׃

‘Please LORD, isn't this this what I said, when I was in my own country? So, I quickly fled to Tarshish; because I knew that You are a gracious God, and compassionate, long-suffering, and abundant in mercy, and You repent of evil.

We have the feeling that he’s upset by God being so kind and forgiving, and thinks that those who sin should just be punished. (This is one of the ways of understanding his name Jonah ben Amitai, Amitai here is truth and strict justice, and Jonah can’t stand the notion of teshuvah which seems to him unjust.) In any case, the first thing he does after complaining about God’s kindness is build a sukkah:

וַיֵּצֵא יוֹנָה מִן־הָעִיר וַיֵּשֶׁב מִקֶּדֶם לָעִיר וַיַּעַשׂ לוֹ שָׁם סֻכָּה וַיֵּשֶׁב תַּחְתֶּיהָ בַּצֵּל עַד אֲשֶׁר יִרְאֶה מַה־יִּהְיֶה בָּעִיר׃

Then Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and made a booth there, and sat under it in the shadow, until he saw what would happen to the city.

The sukkah at this point is a place to sulk, but also to calm down, contemplate and to watch the developments in the world. It’s only when God creates the kikayon, the gourd or however you translate it [Ibn Ezra says “It doesn’t matter what it means”], that Jonah is happy because of its shade. Finally, he is being rewarded for being a good person, and not the sinners of Nineveh who just did teshuvah and still deserve their punishment. He presumably abandons the sukkah and sits under the more shady kikayon-tree. There is a feeling that Jonah has the opportunity to leave behind the Yom-Kippur-style day of judgement and transition to Sukkot, and although it gives him temporary comfort, he rejects it by returning to what he feels Yom Kippur should be: a justice where the wicked are punished and the good are rewarded. I’ve always felt that the message of reading the book of Jonah is not to become like Jonah. But let’s look at another Sukkah that we encounter on Yom Kippur.

You might remember the long Avoda service on Yom Kippur, a detailed description of the tasks of the high priest in the Temple on this unique day. You’ll also remember the strange ceremony of the two goats, one destined as a sacrifice before God, and the other sent into the desert to Azazel, whatever that means. In some versions of the Avoda service, even longer than ours, there’s a description of what happens to the person, the ish iti, who was designated accompany the goat into the desert. On their way, there are ten sukkot along the way in which they can rest. Rashi explains:

סוכות עשו לו בדרך ובני אדם הולכין לגור שם לפני יום הכפורים שמלוין אותו מסוכה לסוכה:

They built booths along the way, and people would go to stay there before Yom Kippur, in order to accompany the escort from sukkah to sukkah.

The sukkah functions as a place of encouragement and of safety. In each sukkah there would be food and drink - the Talmud points out that nobody ever ate that food on Yom Kippur, but nonetheless, the knowledge that it was there reassured them. After pushing the goat off a cliff, the person would return to the last sukkah and wait until the next day to return to Jerusalem - the desert is cold and scary at night, and again, the sukkah is a place of safety and relief. The next day they would go and inform the high priest that the job had been successfully completed. The Talmud describes this encounter:

אָתֵי מְשַׁלֵּחַ, מְצָאוֹ בַּשּׁוּק לְכֹהֵן גָּדוֹל, אוֹמֵר לוֹ: אִישִׁי כֹּהֵן גָּדוֹל! עָשִׂינוּ שְׁלִיחוּתְךָ. מְצָאוֹ בְּבֵיתוֹ, אוֹמֵר לוֹ: מְחַיֵּה חַיִּים, עָשִׂינוּ שְׁלִיחוּתוֹ.

If the escort, having returned, found him in the marketplace, he would say: My Lord, High Priest! We have performed your mission. If they would find him in his home, however, they would say: He who gives life to the living, we have performed His mission.

There’s a lot to analyse in this short description, but I will just mention the absolutely unique name for God employed here - Mechayeh Chaim - reviver of the living. As far as I know, this name is not used anywhere else. We sometimes struggle to understand what we mean with the term Mechayeh Hametim - reviver of the dead - but there’s something about bringing the living to life which is maybe even more miraculous. It’s possible that the sense of renewal and excitement that comes from a successful Yom Kippur and a night in the Sukkah brings the escort to this realisation.

That then is my blessing for us as we enter this festival of Sukkot. Yom Kippur freed us from our tired promises and vows and opened up all the possibilities in the world. Mechayeh Chaim, may this week be one of life that feels alive, may the sukkah be a place of safety, contemplation, and encouragement for us all.

Chag Sameach and Shabbat shalom!