Step Into the Cloud - Sukkot

Step Into the Cloud What exactly are we entering when we walk into the sukkah? The Torah tells us to remember the Ananei HaKavod, the Clouds of Glory—but why commemorate the clouds rather than the manna that fed us or the miraculous water that sustained us? Perhaps because the manna said, “HaShem feeds us,” and the well said, “HaShem sustains us,” but the cloud said something entirely different: HaShem is here. And according to the Vilna Gaon, Sukkot does not merely celebrate the cloud that protected us in the desert. After the sin of the Golden Calf, the clouds disappeared—and after Yom Kippur, they came back. Yom Kippur tells us, “We are forgiven.” Sukkot tells us something even more intimate: HaShem still wants us close. In this Erev Sukkot Breakfast & a Class, we explore the remarkable secret of the sukkah: Sukkah equals 91—the combined numerical value of Havayah and Adnut, and the numerical value of Amen. The Ben Ish Ḥai describes the sukkah as an Or Makif, a Divine light that surrounds us. We don’t merely perform this mitzvah; we walk completely inside it. And perhaps that changes the way we understand the Ushpizin as well. Avraham, Yitzḥak, Yaakov, Moshe, Aharon, Yosef and David aren’t simply coming to visit our sukkah. We have stepped into the cloud, into the shade of the Shekhinah—and they are coming there too. For seven days, HaShem invites us to bring our families, our meals, our laughter, our worries and our lives beneath His cloud and simply experience: HaShem is here.