This poem describes the welcoming personal spiritual homecoming of the festival of Sukkot, following the intensity of the Days of Awe. Devon Spier, a writer, rabbinical student and spiritual entrepreneur, shared her poem on Ritualwell, a project of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College that provides a platform for creating new Jewish practices and observances.
When You are the Ushpiza: Inviting Your Authentic Self Into The Sukkah
For in this place, any one of us can be.
Though the Awesome Days have ended.
Crown us with Keter
Back to the Source like roots of a tree.
Let us move beyond prostration
Our People’s great lamenting cry.
Find the one who found us in the desert.
And crowned us with the promise of freer lives.
Again.
Prepare our bodies as offerings.
Again.
Pluck out our souls from the sand.
Again.
Remake our hearts as maps.
And by sheltering each of us.
Anoint us to our highest selves.
That we may finally become who we are meant to be and at long last, enter the land.