The Holy Hug

 Just because I felt I wanted to add some further musings on Sukkot:

After all the "work" of cleaning out our garbage on a soul level and coming to a place where we are ok with who we are and in relation to our inner selves, our souls and with G-d....Sukkot offers us an amazing opportunity.... to be in a truly Holy Time and while sitting in the sukkah, to be in Holy Space....

If we view Sukkot as an opportunity to live the way we always wish we could;

being positive

accepting ourselves;

seeing the good in all that happens to us;

loving ourselves and loving G-d( cos we fixed all the bumps in the relationship right..)

loving others as true "sistas" and brothers...because we see their Divine spark

etc, etc,....then Sukkot becomes a little idyllic  Garden of Eden, and for just a week we practice being and staying in this ideal state.

What does living in Gan Eden feel like? It is feeling our dependence on G-d, feeling our true essence and feeling what's it's like to be nurtured and constantly in the embrace of G-d!  The holiday offers us a little time capsule, in the romantic analogy, it's the Honeymoon week ( with G-d as our Partner)  where we are free from our normal obligations to be able to focus on the goodness of everything,  and our ability to be "in flow"  as part of that picture... and all that can only happen after all the work that came before! ( No Honeymoon without a Wedding!)

Kaballah teaches us that the greenery used as a covering on top of the Sukkah is a manifestation of all our prayers and hard work of Yom Kippur... and being in the Sukkah, entering into the Divine Hug that we spoke about, is the experience of where all that hard work brought us!

It's my favorite holiday, and one of my peak experiences of it, is the Women's gathering in my Sukkah, which I do every year as I love it so! It's our chance to share, sing and learn and be together!

All of us coming together in a spirit of unity is also part of the ideal vision of how it should be all year round. On Sukkot we get this special opportunity to really create a template that hopefully can serve as an inspiration and guide  for the whole year that follows.

Our teachers compared the high holiday season and the month of Tishrei to the experience of going to the market place and stocking one's basket with all the necessities of spiritual service we will need in the year to come...

Rosh Hashanah we gather the Subservience and Commitment that will serve us for the whole year, on Yom Kippur we acquire  the experience of  intimacy and feel the ONEness with our Creator and on Sukkot we stock up on joy.  The Sukkot holiday  allows us to experience the pleasure of living and feeling what it's like to be in a perfected relationship.On Sukkot we get to feel the closeness of having dropped our  baggage, resentment or blocks that we may have experienced before the work of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. On Sukkot because we have worked to be in touch with our real true selves, we can authentically  experience the intimacy of feeling surrounded and "Hugged" by Hashem. The  sukkah is also an experience of feeling  nurtured and taken care of by Hashem as it is a  recreation of the clouds with which G-d protected us on our 40 year hike through the desert (while we were wandering towards the land of Israel).

So, before it's over, I encourage you to stock up your baskets and backpacks and really soak it all up, because there are only a few more days left  of this holy opportunity. The Sukkah itself is the ideal place to experience all of the above, but the time is auspicious too, so where ever you happen to be, connect to the holy opportunity of the moment and feel the joy, feel the harmony, be in sync with your higher selves and with G-d and just enjoy that sublime pleasure!!

Sending love and of course hugs... 

With blessings,
Bracha.