Jewish Journal   October 4, 2012  The Clouds of Glory and Human
Responsibility!    Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz  After the spiritual
intimacy of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we subversively break
from the walls of institutions and the comforts of home into our
modest sukkot (outdoor huts). It is in these huts that we
rediscover the religious foundation of our human responsibility.
The Torah teaches that the purpose of sitting in the sukkah is
so that later generations should know that the Jewish People
were placed in Sukkot when they left Egypt (Leviticus 23:42-43).
The rabbis argue about the meaning of this ritual (Sukkah 11b).
Rabbi Eliezer suggests that we dwell in the sukkot to
commemorate the miracle of the ananei hakavod (clouds of glory)
that sheltered the Israelites from the hot sun in the desert.
Rabbi Akiva, on the other hand, argues that we sit in sukkot to
commemorate the actual sukkot the Israelites were miraculously
provided (in the city of Sukkot) while in the desert.  The great
19th-century rabbi