In the cycle of the Jewish year, I love looking for the connections hidden from view. Not just the holidays themselves, but precisely the days in between. There is a special connection between how we behave during the four days between Yom Kippur and Sukkot and the historical event that took place during them. Today those four days are wonderful days, packed with activity. Hammer and nail, grab them quick. So many tasks. Build a sukkah. Cut s’chach. Choose an etrog. Pick willow branches. In the Haredi neighborhoods there is a bustle that is hard to put into words. Everyone is holding something, hauling something, running somewhere.
And it turns out that, interestingly, we are continuing exactly what the people of Israel did after the first Yom Kippur in our history.
On the first Yom Kippur after the Exodus from Egypt, Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the second set of tablets. It was a sign of forgiveness and atonement for the sin of the Golden Calf. But Moses announced something more: the people were to begin building the Mishkan, the place where the Clouds of Glory would dwell permanently.
When? asked the people.
Tomorrow! Moses replied.
Rashi tells us that Parashat Vayakhel and the start of the Mishkan’s construction came immediately after Yom Kippur:
“And Moses assembled — on the day after Yom Kippur, when he came down from the mountain” (Rashi, Exodus 35:1).
And so, a moment after the good news of forgiveness and the receiving of the tablets, the people of Israel were up to their necks in the work of building the Mishkan. Hammer and nail, cutting wood, spinning fabrics, casting vessels and crafting ornaments. Not for Sukkot; for the Mishkan.
It was the best possible sign that the people of Israel were coming back to themselves after the breakdown of the sin of the Golden Calf. That was it. Rising up from mourning and starting to work with joy, in a burst of creativity and with tremendous energy.
You can start building a sukkah whenever you like. But the custom of Israel is to begin building it only after Yom Kippur, even though it is stressful to cram everything into four days. And so, immediately after 40 days of prayers and confessions that parallel the days Moses spent on Mount Sinai receiving the second tablets, we stop talking and get down to business — simply working with delight and creativity.
Rabbi Eliezer says that the sukkot in the desert were in fact the Clouds of Glory that accompanied Israel in their wanderings. The very clouds that dwelled permanently above the Mishkan, as written in the Torah.
The Mishkan, then, was the great sukkah of the people of Israel in the desert.
So it turns out that we work energetically and decorate our sukkah during exactly the same days when the entire people of Israel began working energetically, building the great sukkah in the desert. This also explains why we celebrate Sukkot precisely in this season. We are carrying on the energy and creativity of building the great sukkah, the Mishkan, the place where the Clouds of Glory dwelled permanently in the desert.
