(מב) בַּסֻּכֹּ֥ת תֵּשְׁב֖וּ שִׁבְעַ֣ת יָמִ֑ים כָּל־הָֽאֶזְרָח֙ בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל יֵשְׁב֖וּ בַּסֻּכֹּֽת׃ (מג) לְמַעַן֮ יֵדְע֣וּ דֹרֹֽתֵיכֶם֒ כִּ֣י בַסֻּכּ֗וֹת הוֹשַׁ֙בְתִּי֙ אֶת־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל בְּהוֹצִיאִ֥י אוֹתָ֖ם מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרָ֑יִם אֲנִ֖י יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃
(42) You shall live in booths seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in [sukkot] booths [?] (43) in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in Sukkot when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I the LORD your God.
הֶחָלִיל חֲמִשָּׁה וְשִׁשָּׁה. זֶהוּ הֶחָלִיל שֶׁל בֵּית הַשּׁוֹאֵבָה, שֶׁאֵינָה דּוֹחָה לֹא אֶת הַשַּׁבָּת וְלֹא אֶת יוֹם טוֹב. אָמְרוּ, כָּל מִי שֶׁלֹּא רָאָה שִׂמְחַת בֵּית הַשּׁוֹאֵבָה, לֹא רָאָה שִׂמְחָה מִיָּמָיו:
The flute [was played sometimes on] five [days], and [sometimes on] six. This was the flute of the place of [water] drawing, which does overrides neither Shabbat nor holidays. They [the Sages] said: Anyone who has never seen the rejoicing at the place of [water] drawing, has never seen rejoicing in all his days.
מִבְּלָאֵי מִכְנְסֵי כֹהֲנִים וּמֵהֶמְיָנֵיהֶן מֵהֶן הָיוּ מַפְקִיעִין, וּבָהֶן הָיוּ מַדְלִיקִין, וְלֹא הָיְתָה חָצֵר בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם שֶׁאֵינָהּ מְאִירָה מֵאוֹר בֵּית הַשּׁוֹאֵבָה:
From the worn out pants of the priests and from their [worn out] belts they would tear [pieces], and they would [use them as wicks to] light with them. And there was not a courtyard in Jerusalem that was not illuminated by the light of the place of [water] drawing.
חֲסִידִים וְאַנְשֵׁי מַעֲשֶׂה הָיוּ מְרַקְּדִים לִפְנֵיהֶם בַּאֲבוּקוֹת שֶׁל אוֹר שֶׁבִּידֵיהֶן, וְאוֹמְרִים לִפְנֵיהֶן דִּבְרֵי שִׁירוֹת וְתִשְׁבָּחוֹת. וְהַלְוִיִּם בְּכִנּוֹרוֹת וּבִנְבָלִים וּבִמְצִלְתַּיִם וּבַחֲצוֹצְרוֹת וּבִכְלֵי שִׁיר בְּלֹא מִסְפָּר, עַל חֲמֵשׁ עֶשְׂרֵה מַעֲלוֹת הַיּוֹרְדוֹת מֵעֶזְרַת יִשְׂרָאֵל לְעֶזְרַת נָשִׁים, כְּנֶגֶד חֲמִשָּׁה עָשָׂר שִׁיר הַמַּעֲלוֹת שֶׁבַּתְּהִלִּים, שֶׁעֲלֵיהֶן לְוִיִּים עוֹמְדִין בִּכְלֵי שִׁיר וְאוֹמְרִים שִׁירָה. וְעָמְדוּ שְׁנֵי כֹהֲנִים בַּשַּׁעַר הָעֶלְיוֹן שֶׁיּוֹרֵד מֵעֶזְרַת יִשְׂרָאֵל לְעֶזְרַת נָשִׁים, וּשְׁתֵּי חֲצוֹצְרוֹת בִּידֵיהֶן. קָרָא הַגֶּבֶר, תָּקְעוּ וְהֵרִיעוּ וְתָקָעוּ. הִגִּיעוּ לְמַעְלָה עֲשִׂירִית, תָּקְעוּ וְהֵרִיעוּ וְתָקָעוּ. הִגִּיעוּ לָעֲזָרָה, תָּקְעוּ וְהֵרִיעוּ וְתָקָעוּ. הָיוּ תוֹקְעִין וְהוֹלְכִין, עַד שֶׁמַּגִּיעִין לַשַּׁעַר הַיּוֹצֵא מִזְרָח. הִגִּיעוּ לַשַּׁעַר הַיּוֹצֵא מִמִּזְרָח, הָפְכוּ פְנֵיהֶן לַמַּעֲרָב, וְאָמְרוּ, אֲבוֹתֵינוּ שֶׁהָיוּ בַמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה אֲחוֹרֵיהֶם אֶל הֵיכַל ה' וּפְנֵיהֶם קֵדְמָה, וְהֵמָּה מִשְׁתַּחֲוִים קֵדְמָה לַשָּׁמֶשׁ, וְאָנוּ לְיָהּ עֵינֵינוּ. רַבִּי יְהוּדָה אוֹמֵר, הָיוּ שׁוֹנִין וְאוֹמְרִין, אָנוּ לְיָהּ, וּלְיָהּ עֵינֵינוּ:
Pious people and men of [great] deeds would dance before them with lit torches in their hands, and says before them words of song and praise. And the Levites [would play] with lutes, and harps, and cymbals, and trumpets, and countless musical instruments, upon the fifteen steps which descent into the women's court, corresponding with the fifteen songs of ascents in the Psalms, that upon them the Levites would stand with their musical instruments and sing. And two priests would stand at the upper gate, which descends from the court of the Israelites to the women's court, with two trumpets in their hands. When the rooster [first] crowed, they would blow a tekiyah [a steady blast], and a teruah [a broken blast], and [another] tekiyah. When they arrived at the tenth step, they would [again] blow a tekiyah, and a teruah, and a tekiyah. When they arrived at the court, they would [for a third time] blow a tekiyah, and a teruah, and a tekiyah. They went on, blowing and walking, until they arrived at the gate that goes out to the east. When they arrived at the gate that goes out to the east, they turned their faces westward [towards the Temple], and said, "Our ancestors, who were in this place, their backs were [turned] towards the Temple of Hashem, and their faces eastwards, and they would bow eastward to the sun; but we, our eyes are [raised] towards God." Rabbi Yehudah says: they would repeat and say, "We are for God, and our eyes are towards God."
Sefat Emet – Reabbi Yehudah Leib Alter of Ger, translated by Rabbi Arthur Green
“Take unto yourselves the fruit of the goodly tree.” (Lev. 23:40)
Scripture also says: “Tell me the ways to live, to be sated with joy in Your presence.” (Psalms 16:11). Lulav is numerically equal to hayyim (life), Israel desire the true life of their inner selves. This is what it means to be “sated with joy” – the more deeply you take life into your heart, the more you are sated. This happens through the lulav and the species that accompany it. Israel actually point to God, taking in the light of the Sukkah, which is given to them as a gift. When the King invites guests, he gives them what their heart desires. “Whoever invites someone does so with the intent that they eat and drink.”
That is why God says to us: “Take unto yourselves,” meaning that we should choose life for ourselves…Awareness for the whole year comes about on Sukkot, the last of the three “legs” on which the year stands. The mitzvah of Sukkah stands on its own, but the lulav/species represent the awareness that Israel receive and take into the depths of their hearts…5:181
Sefer Hatoda'ah (The Book of Consciousness) by Rabbi Eliyahu Ki Tov
We are not making them [the sukkot] in memory of the first set of clouds of glory that surrounded them when the y first left Egypt, since these clouds of glory left them afterwards with the sin of the golden calf. Rather, we make them in memory of the clouds of glory that returned for them afterwards and never left them for all forty years...
When Israel sinned with the calf, the clouds of glory left them...When Moses came down for the third time he also brought the commandment of building the tabernacle, as a sign that God had forgiven them...
[After Moses descends on Yom Kippur, the people of Israel begin to bring all of their gifts towards the tabernacle.]
Comes the fifteenth day of Tishrei....What do they see?...They see the clouds of glory that returned after leaving them from the sin of the calf until then. From then on, the people of Israel dwell in the shade of the clouds of glory that enveloped them like a Sukkah...
Rabbi Alan Lew, z''l, from This is Real and You are Completely Unprepared
...We sit flush with the world, in a ‘house’ that calls attention to the fact that it gives us no shelter. It is not really a house. It is the interrupted idea of a house, a parody of a house…So it is that the sukkah, with its broken lines, its open roof, its walls that don’t quite surround us, calls the idea of the house to mind more forcefully than a house itself might do.
And it exposes the idea of a house as an illusion. The idea of a house is that it gives us security, shelter, haven from the storm. But no house can really offer us this. No building of wood and stone can ever afford us protection from the disorder that is always lurking all around us. No shell we put between us and the world can ever really keep us secure from it. And we know this. We never really believed this illusion. That’s why we never felt truly secure in it [...]
In the sukkah, a house that is open to the world, a house that freely acknowledges that it cannot be the basis of our security, we let go of this need. The illusion of protection falls away, and suddenly we are flush with our life, feeling our life, following our life, doing its dance, one step after another.
Rabbi Alan Lew, z''l, from This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared
This is a commandment we fulfill not with a gesture or a word, but with our entire body. We sit in the sukkah with our entire body. Only our entire body is capable of knowing what it felt like to leave the burden of Egyptian oppression behind, to let go of it. Egypt in Hebrew is Mitzraim. The root of this word is tzar, a narrowness. Egypt was the narrow place. Only the entire body can know what it felt like to be pushed from a place of dire constriction and into a wilderness, a spacious, open world. Only the body can know what it felt like to be born. Only the body can know the fullness of joy, and this is a commandment that can only be fulfilled with joy.