The Talmudic sages enumerate three great miracles in the desert. First was the manna, which fed the wandering Israelites. Second was Miriam’s well that provided water. Third was the covering of clouds that offered shade in the scorching days. Although we usually think of the sukkah as the booths of harvest, one interpretation of the sukkah is that it commemorates the cloud covering in the desert. The Steipler Gaon (Rabbi and Scholar Yaakov Kanievsky) (1899-1985) asks an intriguing question and gives a beautiful answer.

Why of all three desert miracles does only the cloud covering deserve a holiday? There is no festival of the manna or the water, only Sukkot remembering the clouds. His answer is that the manna and the water were necessary; without them, Israel could not survive. But the cloud covering was an act of love. Festivals — the liberation of Pesach, the gift of Torah on Shavuot — are tokens of God’s love.

Sustenance alone is not enough; love finds its expression in offering more than the beloved needs. Love is lavish; parents are not satisfied to give children just what they need. Love overspills boundaries, whether spreading a blanket on a sleeping child or covering the desert with clouds.

As we sit in the sukkah we are surrounded by the wonders of nature. We invite in great figures of our past (“Ushpizin”) to recall the glories of history and the continuity of the Jewish people. Sukkot is called “zman simchateinu” – the time of our joy. There are many reasons for that, but I would like to offer an additional one. It is joyous to actually build something with one’s own hands. We live in structures that others made, drive cars assembled far from us, and only on Sukkot do we actually construct our dwellings. As we do, we realize that to build something too is an act of love. Coverings, from a chuppah to a sukkah, express the protection and care in our hearts.

From clouds to booths, we stand in a beautiful circle where antiquity meets the modern day, and all of it is animated by God’s love for humanity and our love for one another. May this new year reflect those ideals, and may we guard one another as the Israelites were guarded and protected in the desert thousands of years ago.