The best Schach is the inner Schach that we build out of “waste of barn and winery,” i.e. what our ego considers wasteful, ideas of love, unity, brotherhood and concern for others. We raise this Schach above our heads, making it the roof of our temporary dwelling, the Sukkah.
Meanwhile, our temporary Sukkah structure made with rickety materials becomes sturdy, safe and secure when we cover it with a common wrapping of love and unity.
Therefore, the best Schach is the one through which we penetrate our egoistic mental and emotional makeup, and discover the upper world.
In the language of Kabbalah, the Schach is the Masach (screen) that we build and that is granted to us: an ability to think toward others as nature itself thinks toward us—with absolute love and care.
The Schach thus represents the most significant boundary in our lives: the boundary between corporeal life and spiritual life, between egoism and altruism, human nature and nature itself, creation and Creator.
In the shade of the Shach are our egoistic desires. We’re grateful for the ego because it leads us to a realization of the need to rise above itself. Above the Schach, i.e. above our egoistic and corporeal reasoning, where we cannot picture any self-benefit, are the altruistic desires. In our altruistic desires, we can reach true harmony in balance with nature, united as a single entity.
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