The sentence "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo," while grammatically correct, looks nonsensical at first glance. In it, Buffalo refers to the city in New York, buffalo refers to the animal, and to buffalo means "to bully." Thus, the sentence means: buffalo from Buffalo bully other buffalo from Buffalo, who in turn bully still more buffalo from Buffalo. It's an example of how language can reuse a single word in multiple senses to create layers of meaning.
A similar phenomenon appears in the Tanach, specifically with the word sukkah. The word appears in three different but related ways:
- סכה — a temporary shelter (e.g. Yonah 4:5)
- סוכות — the name of a city (e.g. Bereishit 33:17)
- סככ — the root verb meaning "to cover" or "to protect" (e.g. Tehillim 5:12)
These shared sounds link distinct meanings into a unified theme: Protection, shelter, and relationship.
After escaping from Lavan, reconciling with Eisav, and surviving a night-long wrestling match, Yaakov reached a moment of safety and blessing—wounded but alive. Rather than heading straight to his parents, or to Beit El to fulfill his vow to give a korbon of thanks, Yaakov paused at a place he named Sukkot, after the structures he built there in gratitude to G-d.
The Malbim (Bereishit 33:17) explains that Yaakov built a permanent house for divine service, and temporary huts for himself and his flocks. In doing so without direct command from Hashem, Yaakov inaugurated the sukkah as a symbol of gratitude (hakarat hatov) and unfettered happiness (simcha). His voluntary act set the pattern: The sukkah as a space of joy, of the protected turning to the protector, of the nurtured thanking the source of all sustenance.
This symbolism recurs throughout the Tanach:
- When Israel left Egypt, they first stopped in a city named Sukkot (Shemot 12:37), paralleling Yaakov's own pause after escaping danger and expressing hakarat hatov.
- The wings of the keruvim in the Mishkansokhikhim (Shemot 25:20) sheltered the aron, representing God's shielding presence for the Jews who continue his Torah.
- The festival of Sukkot celebrates this theme directly: G-d's protective care during Israel's forty years in fragile huts, and fulfillment of the promises of abundance in the Land of Israel.
Dwelling in the sukkah allows us to relive Yaakov's thanksgiving, Bnei Yisrael's wilderness dependence, and the Land of Israel shifting from the insecurity before the harvest to the eternal promise of G-d's protection and sustenance. The schach, the roof woven from raw produce, becomes the lens through which we look upward, as Avraham once did at Hashem's request, at the stars as symbols of G-d's assurance.
Rabbi Shimshon Refael Hirsch deepens this theme: The sukkah stands not only as a historical memory, but also as a vehicle of transformation. By living in huts, Bnei Yisrael learned that life's securities are temporary, but G-d's care is constant. The centrality of the schach – unfinished, natural, unshaped by human technology – reminds us of our dependence on G-d's gifts of creation, which we shape. Looking upward through it, our perspective redirects from ego-driven human fortresses to the true source of life and the happiness that accompanies it.
Hirsch, as headmaster of a Jewish high school in Frankfort, saw the sukkah as a classroom of the spirit. The awe of the High Holidays may spark repentance, but lasting transformation and a renewed connection with the divine require more than fear or regret. They demand a shift in one's deepest assumptions and beliefs. The path to lasting change requires more: Joy, meaning, and gratitude. This renewal is built through repetition, steady small steps, and personal experimentation supported by emotional engagement.
Happiness on Sukkot gives this meaning and purpose a chance to deepen. Within the sukkah, celebration and shared memory allow a new story to take root, displacing destructive narratives in our heads and anchoring our transformation in trust and purpose. Happiness and meaning create new habits, shift us away from the behaviors that led us astray, and allow us to embrace deepening our relationship with the author of humanity.
Like Buffalo buffalo, the surface meaning of sukkah conceals deeper resonance. Sukkah, sukkot, and schach tell a story that begins with Yaakov, echoes through the Exodus, is enshrined in the Mishkan, and is renewed every year in the Land of Israel. Once annually, G-d commands us to step into this fragile dwelling and to rekindle our relationship with Him through trust, joy, and gratitude.
Chag sameach!
