Episode Details

 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.