Does Hashem still want me after I failed all year?
By Rabbi Shalom Landau.
Rabbi Landau answers that this is exactly what Sukkos is for. Sukkos is when the King says, “You failed Me all year, but you kept showing up. So now, come eat with Me. Let's make dinner together.”
Everyone shows up for the coronation, he says, and on Yom Kippur everyone gets pardoned. “But the real test is afterwards. Are you still there when the noise dies down?” The invitation goes to the one who stumbled and still kept coming back.
So the sukkah is the answer to the question. “The crown proves He's King, and the Sukkah proves He still wants you.” In A Soul at Peace, he writes that you walk into the sukkah not like a guest who apologizes for coming, but like someone the King Himself sent for.
Watch Rabbi Landau's teaching · Also taught in: teaching 2
Related concepts: The sukkah and Who protects · Giving up is not peace
In A Soul at Peace: The King’s Meal: The Festival Hut
Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level
Fear, vulnerability, or tension
A person who failed all year may feel he has no place near the King.
Underlying need or longing
To know he is wanted, not only forgiven.
Deepest human truth
The sukkah proves He still wants you. The invitation goes to the one who kept showing up.
More questions from this teaching
More answers: The Cycle of Renewal: Elul, Holidays, and Light · All questions · Questions about Rabbi Landau and Rivnitz