It’s all about the Schach

Rabbi David Paskin

The High Holidays and Sukkot are in the same month of Tishrei, just about back to back, and seem to be connected. But what's the connection between the solemn Days of Awe and the joy of Sukkot?

The primary symbol of Rosh Hashanah is the shofar. Traditionally, the procedure of blowing the shofar consists of 100 blasts: 60 tekiah blasts, 20 shevarim blasts, and 20 teruah blasts. Gematria is the study of Hebrew letters and their numerical values. According to gematria the Hebrew letter for 60, the number of tekiah blasts, is samech and the Hebrew letter for 20, the number of both shevarim and teruah blasts, is chaf. These letters: Samech, chaf, chaf spell the word - S’chach, which is the Hebrew word for the covering we place on our sukkah.

In our Rosh Hashanah shofar blasts we have a hint of the upcoming harvest festival of Sukkot. But what about Yom Kippur?

The primary service of Yom Kippur in the Tabernacle (and the Holy Temple) was the incense offering, which produced a cloud of smoke known as the “cloud of incense.”

He will take a pan-full of glowing charcoals of fire from the side of altar facing God, and two handfuls of incense of fine fragrant spices, and he will bring them into the curtained enclosure. And he shall put the incense upon the fire before Hashem, that the cloud of the incense may cover the kaporet that is upon the testimony, so that he should not die. (Leviticus 16:12-13)

According to some, this cloud of incense was the source for the “clouds of glory” that surrounded and protected the Jews in the desert.

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. (Exodus 40:34)

According to the Tosefta, Aaron, the High Priest who offered the cloud of incense on Yom Kippur, was also the source for the clouds of glory as it says, “As long as Aaron was alive, the pillar of cloud led Israel.” (Tosefta, Sota, 11:1)

These “clouds” are also pointing us toward Sukkot. In the book of Leviticus we learn:

You shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are home born in Israel shall dwell in booths: that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 23:42-43)

The sages of the Talmud discuss what these “booths” are meant to remind us of:

They were clouds of glory; these are the words of Rabbi Eliezer. Rabbi Akiva says: They made themselves actual booths. (Sukkah 11b)

When we build a sukkah and cover it with schach, we are remembering both the actual sukkot in which our ancestors actually lived and the clouds of glory that we merited because of Aaron and the cloud of incense that he offered on Yom Kippur.

Both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur have hints of Sukkot within them. The blasts on Rosh Hashanah and the cloud from the Yom Kippur offering both remind us of the sukkah and the schach that covers it.

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are ethereal, personal moments in the Jewish calendar. They are holidays of the soul and spirit; times for reflection, prayer and introspection. We look to the heavens for forgiveness and seek to understand and deepen our relationship with God.

Sukkot, on the other hand, is one of the most physical, interactive, earthly holidays. It is one of the three pilgrimage festivals when whole communities would travel together to Jerusalem. Today, we build a sukkah and invite all of our friends and family to join us in festive meals, sleepovers and celebration. We literally take up the harvest in our hands and shake them in every direction. We cover ourselves in nature under the schach and re-connect to our roots.

The schach, which has to give us enough protection to keep us dry during a light rain but also must be open enough so we can see the stars, links the earthly with the ethereal. From inside our sukkah, with the plenty of the harvest literally in our hands, we look up to the heavens and remember that we are more than physical beings. Our schach, that reminds us of the sanctity of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and the physicality of Sukkot, is the bridge between heaven and earth - between the Yamim Noraim and Sukkot. The schach is where heaven and earth touch.