Sukkot 5782 - Shabbat Chol HaMoed

Torah reading: Exodus 33:12 - 34:26

The word sakoti, similar to sukkah, means cover or covering, and is found in the following verse: “And it shall come to pass, while My glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover [sakoti] thee with My hand* until I have passed by” (Exodus 33:22, JPS 1917 Tanach). This is one connection found to Sukkot in the parashas chosen as the reading for Shabbat Chol HaMoed.

*According to Ibn Ezra, some commentators translate kappi (hand) as clouds. Thus the rendering is that the cloud covered Moses, in like manner as the Cloud of Glory, also symbolized by a sukkah.