Succoth Cycle Two

Succoth Cycle Two Vayikra 22:26-23:44


Growth is not easy. Any change, in the earth or in our beings, needs gentleness, sensitivity and an awareness of boundaries and openings.

In this week’s reading for Succoth (Leviticus 22:26 to 23:44) that which creates must remain with the creation for eight days before it is offered to God. And even then, the action of birthing must be present in our actions, pure and eternal.

The eternal is also found within the shape of the holiday. The first and eighth (final) days are of rest (23:39). No doubt, they represent the radiance before creation and…beyond our human form The seven fire offerings (from the second to the eighth day) show the cleansing cycle of transmission and reception leading up to and including that moment of absolute consciousness. Therefore, the holiday of Succoth could easily be seen as a metaphor for the very evolution of our relationship with our creator. But there’s more here than simply metaphor.

What’s clear in this reading is that the biggest shift possible is not human or earthly. It’s divine… balanced by the us in God and the God in us.

In Exodus (33:12 to 34:26) Moses seals such a shift.

But let’s back up a bit. It’s not easy re-constituting a known and comfortable way of being in order to jump-start consciousness. We know something has to change though when we feel too tied to the body to see, when we can’t let go of the material world, of the emotions that help form it, of the pain, the past or anything that points to our thing-ness.

My guess is that we’ve been born into a certain continuum and pulling away from it takes (among other actions) the experience of eight days framed by two days of rest, seven fire offerings. We’re born into a continuum in which the body builds upon itself layer after layer…thickening…even making excuses for itself…creating residue…until the soul becomes so thin and tiny it can hardly breathe or be seen.

We can make an effort to strip the layers. This is what we do on Yom Kippur. We can make the conscious decision to evolve into the being that God created when He breathed the neshama into Adam.

Sfas Emes says of this….man was…to be a vehicle through which the life of the soul could penetrate the entire body…Every limb of his body was infused with the spiritual life of the soul.

So the question is (and has been) how do we make that conscious decision? How do we re-constitute a used cycle of transmission and reception? One that needs a bit more neshama?

Looking closely at Exodus, chapter 33, we understand the yearning of Moses. He knows that he must see God (reah). First though, his has to be seen. He needs to transmit his physical and emotional place so that the body can make space for the infusion of soul…so that it can be nothing more than a vessel for the radiance.

So, Moses, prophet that he is, re-constitutes the cycle of seeing, being seen, transference and reception. He creates a situation in which we receive a catalyst to get us moving into the arms of the Shechinah.

How does he do this? Through persistent action, the expression of the need for vision and the courage to manifest it. Through love. The intimacy between God and Moses in this passage is spell binding. The shift is finally sealed with the thirteen attributes and then…we go straight to commandments regarding the same holidays expanded upon in this week’s parasha.

The question is…after such a powerful shift, why the holidays? Why not the Ten Commandments, the Sh’ma?

Look at it this way. Perhaps, given the growth, there needs to be a grasp on the earth. Perhaps that grasp is necessary all the time as we continually focus on the coming eighth day of Succoth.
And perhaps, now that Moses has reconstituted the cycle of transmission and reception to make more space for the soul, there’s an emptiness to be filled. Perhaps the contraction of the physical leaves space for more light. Perhaps the light acts as a boundary to keep out the infringing darkness.


Therefore, it is my opinion that the harvest festivals are nothing less than the action of God God-ing into our bodies to infuse them with finer vibrations now that we all as one have received, with the help of Moses, a divine shift.

For me, what’s wonderful is seeing that not only is change and transformation wanted by God, it is Torah. Resist as we might (how comfortable it is to sink into prayers or ways that are hundreds of years old) it is the action of Torah to remember our first step out of Mitzrayim…all the steps…and also to accept and build upon fire after fire, offering after offering until we are one wholeness made of the first fruits, love and compassion.

So, may we use the palm frond, the willows and the myrtle branches to sweeten and clean out the openings created by transformation. May we respect our connection with each other and our steps towards consciousness. May we breathe out and flow into the shift of reception and transmission being created by Moses. May we, like Adam in Eden, have a body that is nothing more than a vessel for the soul. And may we celebrate the rebirth of seasons and the harvest with generosity, warmth, compassion and the fire-love of God in our eyes.