USHPIZIN
The practice of inviting revered ancestors to the Sukkah is called Ushpizin. Ushpizin is Aramaic (a cognate language of Hebrew) for guests. The custom originated with the Kabbalists in Safed in the circle of Isaac Luria. It began as inviting seven revered male (of course) ancestors per night. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph and David. They were each associated with a particular sephirah in the Kabbalistic system, and a certain spiritual lesson.
Of course, there have developed ideas of honoring female ancestors as well and there are different lists of seven, including Sarah, Miriam, Devorah, Channah, Abigal, Hulda, Esther, Ruth, Rebecca, Rachel and Tamar.
I learned the idea, I think from Vanessa Ochs, to invite revered teachers. It’s different than the Kabbalistic tradition. I don’t restrict it to Jewish ancestors, I don't restrict it to dead people, I don't restrict it to males and I don’t tie it into the Kabbalistic Sefirot, because I don’t use the sephirot in my practice in any way.
I invite you to come up with the seven revered teachers you want to invite into your Sukkah this year and why. Here’s my list and why.
Wendell Berry because I learned the idea of stewarding the land in the context of a community from his work. He manifests this in both his writing and his farming. I regard him as a shining example.
AD Gordon because I learned from him the idea of redeeming the exiled Jewish soul through working the Holy land. I believe all land is holy, and working it in some way is an essential part of my personal transformation.
Bill Plotkin because he provides a ton of the context of my thinking about becoming a spiritual adult. He was the push for me in his developmental model, in his medicine wheel model, in his idea of soul initiation.
Wes Jackson because he captures how we should learn to farm from the more than human world when he describes his project as “farming in nature’s image.” Jackson also has promoted the idea of no growth economics which is a very different way to think about economics.
Starhawk. My first and only woman; one thing I have learned in doing this is that I don’t have enough female teachers. I invite Starhawk because she marries a social critique and the need for stewardship of the earth with a voice for the more than human world, particularly in her book the Fifth Sacred Thing.
Hans-Georg Gadamer because he is the most influential philosopher for me, and I am a philosopher, if inconsistently. His preaching of being open to the truth claim of the other is hugely important for me, as his view that there is no method to follow to develop the questions we need. These two lessons are decisive in my sitting, letting my mind wander and tapping into the unconscious and the more than human world in my writing.
Paul Ricoeur. Another philosopher and a genuinely nice man. He exposed me to Gadamer in a course I took from him. I also have found his work on symbolism and interpretation theory to be very important in how I approach myths and symbols.
Who would be on your list and why?
