There is a teaching from the Mystics that the Sukkah is a Divine Embrace. After the solemnity and intensity of the High Holidays, we need some love. The Sukkah walls, representing Hashem, hug us.

Hugs are complicated. My kids joke about the kind of hug where you go in for a light hug and give a gentle tap on the back—it feels very superficial. Then there’s the intense hug, the bear hug, that can be a bit too much. There are hugs between parents and children, friends, the hello and goodbye hug, hugs between lovers, cultural hugs, and so on.

How do you feel when someone who truly loves you hugs you? A good, healthy, expressive hug—not too tight, not too loose—just a hug that says, “I love you as you are.” How do you lean into that hug?

How does it feel to truly let yourself be hugged by G-d? To feel that you are accepted as you are, not just because you are fresh and clean after the High Holiday season, but because Hashem loves you as you are, regardless of whether you are on or off, high or low, clean or not so.

As I think about this for myself, it doesn’t feel so easy. I realize that to really let myself be hugged, I need to accept myself. To melt into the embrace, I need to know that I’m whole and that all of my parts are truly a part of me—the happy ones and the ones I’m still trying to get to know.

In other words, if I can fully embrace all of my parts, knowing that they are truly a part of me and the plan Hashem has for me, and if I can let my parts be embraced, knowing that I, my soul, truly accept them as they are, then I can let Hashem hug me fully as well.

This is my journey this Sukkot, and I hope you get to feel the real embrace of the Divine this Sukkot.

Chag Sameach!

P.S. I hope you’ll feel the hug in my Sukkah tonight or at the Sukkot festival this Sunday.