Leviticus 23:42
In sukkot shall you reside seven days.
Sukkah 2a
Rava said … For the entire seven days, emerge from the permanent residence in which you reside year round and reside in a temporary residence.
Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe
A mere five days after Yom Kippur, we are instructed to abandon our permanent home and move into a makeshift hut and live there for seven days. The question can be raised: On Yom Kippur we … have been cleansed from all traces of sin and imperfection. What about our character is yet imperfect that we must fix with the mitzvah of the Sukkah?
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There is one element of our lives that is not fixed by Yom Kippur: The world with its obfuscation of the Almighty (the word “Olam” — world — is etymologically linked to “Heelem” meaning obscuring), that acts as a barrier between us and Him, and is liable to evoke the Yetzer Hara and sin. … Certainly we recognize that the Sukkah is a temporary residence, but as we are sitting in it and exposed to the elements, perhaps it is worthwhile to glance over at our “permanent” house and ask ourselves if there is truly any difference between the two. … Both are just different degrees of temporality, but neither are truly permanent. In doing so, we can successfully, dismantle the last of the barriers that separate use from our creator.
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we did achieve forgiveness, but we still live in the same world, and it is this world that blurs our perception and prevents us from having a proper connection to Hashem. Feelings of permanence in this world, an attraction to the culture and glamour of the other nations, and an erroneous belief that nature is separate from the Creator, all come together to comprise this spiritual wall.
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The Vilna Gaon said that the mitzvah of the succah is unique in that it totally envelopes a person.
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A story is told about a wealthy businessman who was travelling through Radin, and he came to visit the Chofetz Chaim in his home. He was shocked at the impoverished conditions that the Chofetz Chaim lived in. It was very sparsely furnished and everything was simple and bare. He asked the Chofetz Chaim where his furniture was. The Chofetz Chaim countered, “where is your furniture?”
“My furniture? What do you mean? It’s in my mansion in Vienna.”
“So why don’t you have it here?”
“I’m travelling! Who brings their furniture when they’re travelling?”
So the Chofetz Chaim said, “I’m also travelling. My ‘furniture’ is waiting for me in my ultimate home. This is my temporary home.”
When we sit in our temporary home on Sukkos let us remember that our “permanent” home, and indeed us as we are currently constituted with a body sheathing our neshama, are really only temporary as well.