Here are 3 items you’re probably familiar with, that can shed some light on the inner meaning and desired impact of a Sukkah, that outdoor hut or booth we cover with cut vegetation (like evergreen branches, bamboo mats etc) and eat out in on the holiday of Sukkot.
How so? What do these three things symbolize about the Sukkah?
THE TARDIS FROM DR. WHO
The TARDIS from “Dr. Who” is a time and space travel machine that outwardly resembles a British police booth (or phone booth). You can think of a Sukkah that way, too. Step inside to step back in time, across the centuries and the span of the earth back to the days of our ancestors during the Exodus. And you can stop along the generations, in every land where Jews lived. If you pop in at this time of the year during the Sukkot festival, you will find Jews eating outdoors in some type of Sukkah. Stepping into a Sukkah in much more than just eating out! Like a TARDIS whose inside is bigger than its outside, entering a Sukkah is to embark on a journey.
SHREK’S ONION ANALOGY
Ogres are like onions, says Shrek. Onions have layers! A Sukkah is an experience that helps us peel away at the external layers of our home and of our lives to reveal the hidden core layers within. A Sukkah peels away at fancy big screen TV’s and wall-to-wall carpeting, plaster and sheetrock and whole-house A/C, it peels away at many of the modern creature comforts we take for granted, to reveal those basic baseline things we ought to cherish and appreciate in life. We can get so caught up and enamored with external superficial layers, a Sukkah plays an important annual role in that it helps us peel away at all that, and remind us of what is most important, deep within. Back to the simple basics, the core essentials.
VR GLASSES (OR AUGMENTED REALITY)
The goal of a Sukkah ought to extend far beyond Sukkot. The goal is for this acquired perspective, of an inside that’s bigger than our outside, of a timeless perspective that spans history, and a view that penetrates into our innermost layers – becomes a pair of virtual (or spiritual) reality glasses that help us view the rest of our lives this way, not only over the Sukkot holiday. In fact, better than Virtual Reality glasses would be Augmented Reality, one that enhances and enriches our view of everyday life instead of escaping from it.