When the Sukkah Comes Down

Carrying the Presence of G-d Into the Ordinary

For seven days during Sukkot, as often as we can we intentionally leave the permanence of our homes and dwell beneath branches. We eat there, pray there, rejoice there, welcome others there, and look upward through a roof that was never intended to make us feel completely secure. The sukkah is deliberately fragile. Its walls cannot offer the security of a house, and its covering cannot fully separate us from the world outside. That is part of its message. For a brief season, we step away from the illusion that the things we build can ultimately protect us, and we remember that G-d Himself has always been our covering.

But then Sukkot ends. The decorations are taken downand and we leave the sukkah to walk back through the doors of our homes. The days of Tishrei begin to fade into Cheshvan, a month noticeably absent of the great biblical festivals that have filled the weeks before it. The shofar is no longer sounded. Yom Kippur has passed. The sukkah comes down. Simchat Torah concludes and we return to work, schedules, bills, school, responsibilities, and the ordinary concerns of life.

What I want you to capture is that with this return we are introduced to the deeper lesson.

The purpose of dwelling in the sukkah isn't to escape ordinary life. It is to teach us how to return to ordinary life differently. For seven days we are reminded that security does not ultimately come from walls, possessions, bank accounts, careers, or our intended plans. G-d sends us back into a world filled with all those things and asks us to remember what we learned beneath the Sukkah. The comfort and security of our homes can easily make us forget what the sukkah was intended to teach us. Inside the sukkah, we recognize our dependence, while inside our homes, we can imagine ourselves as self-sufficient. Beneath the s'chach, we look toward heaven, yet beneath the permanent roof of the homes we build it becomes surprisingly easy to look only at what is around us. The sukkah therefore teaches us that the presence of G-d was never confined to the sukkah.

After the spiritual intensity of Tishrei, there is no major biblical festival waiting for us. There is simply life. And that is precisely where covenant faithfulness must become realized.

• Can the repentance of the High Holy Days change the way we speak to our spouse?

• Can the dependence we experienced in the sukkah change the way we approach our finances?

• Can the joy of the festival enter our parenting?

• Can our celebration of Torah become obedience when no one is watching?

• Can the awareness of G-d's presence remain when there is no special service, no festival meal, and no appointed time telling us to pay attention?

Yeshua spoke of this kind of life when He told His disciples,

“Abide in me, and I in you” (John 15:4, ESV).

Abiding is different from visiting. A visitor comes for a moment, yet someone who abides remains permanently. This is what the journey from Tishrei into Cheshvan asks of us. We have encountered G-d in sacred time; now we must learn to remain with Him in ordinary time.

And this is where the sukkah ultimately points beyond itself. Scripture's has always been moving toward the desire of G-d to dwell with His people. From Eden to the Tabernacle, from the Temple to Messiah dwelling among us, and ultimately toward the coming Kingdom, the movement of redemption is toward restored fellowship between heaven and earth. The final vision of John announces,

“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man” (Revelation 21:3, ESV).

So when the sukkah comes down, its message should remain standing. Carry it into your marriage. Carry it into your workplace. Carry it into the way you raise your children and welcome people into your home. Carry it into financial decisions, difficult conversations, quiet mornings, and ordinary evenings. Let the temporary dwelling teach you how to build a permanent way of life around the presence of G-d.

The sukkah comes down. But we do not leave the presence of G-d behind. We take the lesson home.