The Seven Day Cloud

Sukkot, the week-long Jewish holiday which begins at sundown this Friday, October 2, 2009, remembers how our ancestors lived in the clouds as they made the 40 year journey from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.

The cloud itself was in seven parts: the four sides of the box surrounding the people, floor, ceiling and one cloud in front that led the way through the wilderness. On each night of Sukkot we are visited by one of the Seven Shepherds called the Espisim: the Three Fathers, Avraham, Yitzchok and Yaakov (Yisrael), Yoseph, Moshe, Aaron and Dovid.

According to the Cabala, Dovid, the seventh of the Seven Shepherds represents the cloud which led because it is separated from the other six in the same way in which the six days of the week are separated from the seventh day of the week called the Shabbot/Rest. It is during the Shabbot that Royalty is revealed in the world through the Shakina, the feminine presence of the Creator that hovered over creation and gives us comfort.

It is significant when the Shabbot and a holiday happens on the same day because the two spiritual lights of the Shabbot and the holiday intertwine to make a new and more powerful light replacing the need for, in this case, the taking of the Lulav and Etrog as will be done in the subsequent six days of Sukkot.