What does the sukkah know about happiness that our house has forgotten?
At home there is more: more space, more comfort, more privacy and more protection. Yet Sukkot is specifically called a season of joy. Perhaps happiness does not always rise in direct proportion to the amount of things we have.
The more we own, the more there can be to maintain, compare, upgrade and fear losing. In the sukkah things suddenly become simple: a table, chairs, food, people and s’chach. And joy is still possible.
Not because poverty is an ideal, but because simplicity reveals what a good moment actually needs. Many things we work hard to obtain improve the conditions of life. Not all of them improve life itself.
The sukkah may not be asking us to live with less. It may be asking us to discover how little is actually necessary in order to feel that we have a great deal.