Why does the Torah tell us to leave the beautiful house we built?
A person works for years to build a home: another room, a better kitchen, furniture, renovations and a mortgage. Then once a year the Torah says: leave it. Not because the house is bad, but because there is a danger that what we own will begin to define who we are.
“You shall dwell in sukkot for seven days” (Leviticus 23:42). For one week we discover that a festive meal can still be eaten under s’chach, that a family can talk, rejoice and host guests without everything we have trained ourselves to think we need.
The sukkah does not preach poverty. It teaches freedom. If I absolutely require certain conditions in order to be happy, those conditions have begun to hold me. Yom Kippur asked who I am without food and physical comfort; Sukkot asks who I am without part of the scenery.
We spend years building the things around life. Once a year the sukkah asks us to check that, while building all those things, we did not forget to build life itself.