Sukkos: A Fallen Sukkah

By Zachary Fish

A year.

It’s hard to believe. In some ways, it feels like just yesterday, with the pain still fresh; in others, it feels like much longer, as if the weight of everything that’s happened makes it hard to believe it’s only been a year since Simchas Torah.

This year of tragedy has weighed heavily, but I believe there’s a meaningful message we can take from Sukkos as we approach our first one since.

In the Sukkos bentching, we reference the pasuk from Amos, אקים את־סכת דויד הנפלת – that Hashem will set up the fallen Sukkah of David. This clearly alludes to the restoration of malchus Beis David. But look at how I just described it: Beis David. We usually refer to malchus as a bayis, a house—sturdy, solid, permanent. A Sukkah, on the other hand, must be, arai, temporary by definition. So why refer to the Davidic dynasty as a Sukkah?

The Maharal (Netzach Yisrael 35) explains that the temporary nature of the Sukkah is not a flaw but a feature. A permanent house, once destroyed, loses its identity; even if rebuilt, it is a new house. When reduced to rubble, no one would call it the same house. But a Sukkah is different. Its design is intentionally temporary, so even when dismantled , it’s still known as a Sukkah. When we rebuild it each year, it’s not a new Sukkah; it’s the same Sukkah from previous years we return to.

So too with the Jewish people. We may fall, but we are designed to get back up. And our resilience is not just in our ability to rise again, but in our continuity. We don’t see ourselves as the first generation of Jews to face hardship. We are a continuation of all those who came before us, enduring hardships and experiencing revivals, one generation flowing into the next.

As we sit in our Sukkahs this year, we can draw strength from knowing that our story stretches back through centuries of resilience. After the Churban HaBayis, we rebuilt our Sukkah. After the Crusades, we rebuilt our Sukkah. After the Holocaust, we rebuilt our Sukkah. And today, we’re still here, celebrating Sukkos once more. And we know that after us, there will still be a Sukkos. We’re part of an unbroken chain, not because we never fall, but because we always rise again. May we soon feel the ultimate joy, celebrating in the fully restored Sukkas Beis David, together as one.