Why is the mitzvah to enter the sukkah with the whole body?
Some mitzvot are done with the hand, others with the mouth or ear. A sukkah is different: we enter it. We eat, drink, learn, talk and live inside it. The Mishnah says that during the seven days a person makes the sukkah his permanent dwelling and his house temporary (Mishnah Sukkah 2:9).
That carries a powerful message after Yom Kippur. Holiness is not meant to remain only in the head. We often divide life into “spiritual” and “ordinary”: synagogue is spiritual, dinner is ordinary; prayer is holy, a conversation with a child is mundane.
Then the sukkah says: bring the plate inside too. Sleep, conversation and family life can also enter the space of a mitzvah. God does not ask only for the hours in which we pray to Him. He seeks entry into life itself.
After Yom Kippur we are not asked to flee the world in order to preserve holiness. We are asked to do something harder: to bring holiness into the place where we eat, speak, laugh and simply live.