Sukkot: A Message about Livelihood

There is only one holiday in the Torah for which we have an explicit reason as to its purpose, no other than Passover. Thus we are left to decipher the reason behind the other holidays.

For one, the entirety of Tishrei is referred to as a holiday in the Torah. The seventh month - or to be precise, in the words of the Torah, "the holiday of the 7th month,"  serves to convey a very important message about the dualities of the two starts of the year that we find in Judaism. Nissan, on the one hand, is the holiday of redemption - of the Jewish people. Unique to our amalgamation as a nation, it serves as a remembrance that we were brought out of captivity, and were we to not have received this divine mercy, we'd still be enslaved mentally, as a people. 

The holiday of Tishrei though has a much more universal message. As evidenced by its description in the Parsha of Re'eh, it serves to assimilate within us the idea that our very existence as people, starting from basic subsistence, hinges on God's providing for our agricultural needs. It is precisely when the Israelite goes out to collect his harvest that the holiday of Sukkot takes place, signifying the importance of s'chach being from organic material from the field. 

That notwithstanding, the two holidays are most certainly linked. The verse states that we shall sit in sukkot dwellings "because Hashem ensconsed the Jewish people in Sukkot when they left the land of Egypt," thus the Exodus has a purpose onto its own that reaches fruition when we make sukkot. We remember that the day to day affairs are guided by heavenly providence, exemplified by the thanksgiving we give as we quickly remove our harvest from the field before the first rains.