By Marco Del Monte
From the Sukkah to the Light of Bereshit The circle of Or Makif: the light that envelops and recreates the world Every year, with Simchat Torah, we close and reopen the Torah at the very same instant. The people dance in circles, with the Sifrei Torah clasped to their chests, and without realising it we are already reading Bereshit.
There is no interruption between the end and the beginning: it is a continuous movement, a circle, an eternal Hakafah. The Masters of Kabbalah teach that this circular dance is not merely a symbol of joy, but represents a profound spiritual reality: the return to the Or Makif — the "surrounding light", the light that envelops the soul from every side and protects it. If the Or Pnimiy is the light that enters and becomes internalized, the Or Makif is that which we cannot yet contain, but which surrounds us like an aura of holiness. It is the light that does not let itself be possessed, but guards us. During Sukkot, we live immersed in the Or Makif: the Sukkah itself is its material symbol. The Zohar calls it "Tzeilah de-me'emunuta" — "the shadow of faith". Every day, says the Arizal, an "Ushpizin – Patriarch-Guest" brings us a new light that envelops us from the outside, until it makes up the seven circles of holiness that culminate in Shemini Atzeret – The Eighth of closing, of tightening, of the Divine embrace that does not want one to leave that dimension. On that day, G-d says to us: "Stay with Me one more day", so that all the light gathered during the seven days of Sukkot may penetrate inside us. On Simchat Torah, that Or Makif becomes dance: the light not only surrounds us, but moves with us. The seven Hakafot are not simple circuits: they are the seven dimensions of creation, the seven branches of the Menorah, the six days of creation plus Shabbat, as Rav David Menashe taught — the very structure of the universe. For this reason, the perfect image of this moment is a Magen David inscribed within a circle: its six points plus the centre recall the six days and Shabbat, the six branches of the Menorah and its central light, the six sides of space plus the point of the soul. And the circle that envelops them — the Hakafah — is the Or Makif, the light that embraces everything and restores unity to multiplicity. Like the end and the beginning of the Torah, which touch one another: le'eyne kol Israel… Bereshit bara Elokim — the Torah rolls up on itself like a circle of light. This very light — teaches the Ben Ish Chai (Bereshit, shana rishona, Hakdamah) — is that which clothed Adam and Eve before the sin. Their garments were not of skin, but of Or, of light. When they sinned, that light withdrew and there remained only "ketonet 'or" (with an ayin) — garments of skin, of the body. Every Tishri festival restores to us a part of that lost luminosity, but it is at Bereshit that Hashem hands back to us the garments of light. And how do we wear them? Through the mitzvot that envelop us. Man wears them in the Tzitzit, which the Ben Ish Chai defines as "Or Makif shel Kedushah": the light that surrounds and defends the body like a shield of faith. Woman wears them in the light of the Shabbat candles, which the Arizal calls "Or Makif ha-mashpiah shalom bayit" — the light that envelops the home and fills it with peace. Thus, every Erev Shabbat, the woman relights the very light that illuminated the Sukkah and the garments of Adam: it is the Shechinah entering the home like a new Hakafah of light. Even on a psychological level, the Or Makif is what surrounds us: the environment, the people, the emotional atmosphere that contains us. A human being does not grow in a vacuum: they transform according to the light that envelops them. If they are immersed in a context of trust, of Torah and of goodness, their soul expands; if they are enveloped by judgment and fear, it contracts. For this reason Hashem commands us to build spaces of kedushah — a sukkah, a home, a community — that become positive Or Makifs, environments that guard the light instead of suffocating it. The secret of Bereshit is then this: it is not enough to kindle the light within oneself, one must create a world that reflects it all around. When we build a context in which every gesture, word and face become part of a circle of light, then we no longer live "inside the world": we live in an Or Makif, a world that embraces us and transforms us. And there, truly, creation begins anew.
Shabbat Shalom Umevorach
Translated from the Italian with Google Gemini. The Italian text is the original.