In your Corner: A blanket fort sukkah / Maxine Lee Ewaschuk
Mitzvah of Peah:
Leaving corners of your field uncut; to be harvested by the poor
Boundaries and permeability
Points of meeting and intersection
Corners, joints, stability
Background
How can I make myself at home in something new?
Where do we draw boundaries and where do we let people in?
Are joints, or points of meeting, sources of vulnerability or stability? Both? When?
Who is this mitzvah, ritual, object, for?
How do I ‘find my corner’ wherever I am?
Sukkah:
Architecture: 2-4 corners
Open roof
Shelter
Temporary, portable
Harvest, abundance
Hospitality
Intimacy
Process
(3D representation of Jewish time)
Architecture
Points of meeting
Intersections
Four corners vs three
Stability of the right triangle
Other Jewish corners ie. payos, tzitzit
Gleaning from what’s already around me
Rava said” צא מדירת קבע ושב בדירת עראי” . On Sukkot one must exit the known world of security of קבע and enter a world of insecurity. And yet a shocking paradox awaits us at the end of chapter two of the Mishnah. Having established unequivocally the importance of impermanence an audacious demand is issued. That which is quintessentially קבע — home — must be rendered עראי on Sukkot. And that which is quintessentially עראי — the sukkah — must be rendered קבע !That very structure that embodies and engenders the ephemeral is somehow to be given roots. That meek place of exposure is to be embraced as a reliable shelter. One must find a way to transform impermanence into permanence.
-Rabbi Erin Leib Smokler