Thoughts & Teachings
Rabbi Deborah Wechsler
In setting forth the parameters for a Sukkah our rabbis taught that it should be not smaller than 10 amah, about the height of a small man, and not larger than 20 amah, about the height of one floor of a building. While the smallest possible size of a sukkah makes sense to us logically and halakhically, the upper size limit on the sukkah is surprising. Why put a maximum limit on it? Imagine the grandeur of a sukkah that reached the sky. A skyscraper sukkah with all the majesty of a grand cathedral. A stadium sukkah, where the retractable roof is replaced by bamboo mats so that 100,000 screaming fans could eat kosher hotdogs in a kosher sukkah while watching Ravens football on Hol Ha moed afternoon.
When we think of a sukkah what impresses us is the closeness. Sukkot is not a holiday with a luxurious amount of space. A sukkah feels cozy, you enjoy it with people who you like because you will likely be shoulder to shoulder, elbow to elbow for the duration of the meal. But I wonder if that’s not the point. In this way, Sukkot is the diametrical opposite of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
Where Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur celebrate the grand majesty of religious experience, Sukkot celebrates the casual intimacy of religious life. Sukkot is the antidote for those who might be overwhelmed with the High Holiday experience. There is something wonderful in the “bigness” of the Yamim Noraim, - it is an extraordinary experience to be in a community of many thousand Jews and all be single minded of purpose. The power of prayer is magnified in community and that lends to the awesomeness of the days. But it can also be overwhelming, and the intimacy of Sukkot restores prayer to a more normal scale, family meals to a more normal scale.
The Rabbis had to set an upper limit on the size of a sukkah to insure that it still felt small and comforting. A stadium sukkah would not provide an experience that would be a counterpoint to the Yamim Noraim. It would just be Rosh Hashanah in a hut. A sukkah smaller than 20 amah gives us the sense of God’s hovering presence, enveloping us in closeness.
Hag Sameyach!
