Rabbi Alan Lew, "This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared."
So now 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. According to Jewish law, this booth we must dwell in for seven days need only have closed walls on two and a half sides, and we must be able to see the stars through the organic material—the leaves and branches—that constitutes its roof. This is not a house; it is the bare outline of a house. It is like that architectural feature called the broken pediment, the notch in the roofline of the façade of a house which leaves the mind to complete the line, and thus implants the idea of a line in the mind even more forcefully than an unbroken line would. 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.
Rabbi Alan Lew, "This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared."
...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.
You shall rejoice in your festival, with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow in your communities.
(1) And ADONAI spoke unto Moses, saying: (2) "Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them: You shall be holy; for I, ADONAI, your God am holy.
(9) And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corner of your field, neither shall you gather the gleaning of your harvest. (10) And you shall not glean your vineyard, neither shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am ADONAI your God.
(ו) הֲלוֹא זֶה צוֹם אֶבְחָרֵהוּ פַּתֵּחַ חַרְצֻבּוֹת רֶשַׁע הַתֵּר אֲגֻדּוֹת מוֹטָה וְשַׁלַּח רְצוּצִים חָפְשִׁים וְכָל מוֹטָה תְּנַתֵּקוּ. (ז) הֲלוֹא פָרֹס לָרָעֵב לַחְמֶךָ וַעֲנִיִּים מְרוּדִים תָּבִיא בָיִת כִּי תִרְאֶה עָרֹם וְכִסִּיתוֹ וּמִבְּשָׂרְךָ לֹא תִתְעַלָּם.
(6) No, this is the fast I desire: to loosen the fetters of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? (7) It is to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the poor that are cast out to your house; When you see the naked, that thou cover him, and that you do not ignore your brethren.
Babylonian Talmud (8a)
A person must reside in a town for thirty days, then they are required to contribute to the soup kitchen; after three months to the charity fund; after six months; the clothing fund; after nine months the burial fund; after twelve months to repairing the town walls.