WE MET INSIDE A SUKKAH

We Met Inside a Sukkah

Bracha Goetz

We met inside a sukkah,
In Eretz Yisrael.
Were we right for each other?
It was too soon to tell.

We didn’t have that much to say.
We didn’t feel at ease.
The sunshine lightly filtered through.
There was a nice, cool breeze.

We walked around the neighborhood.
We watched some children play.
I wondered if I too would have,
Children like that someday.

He saw the way I looked at them.
I laughed. We smiled together.
Then we began to talk about,
Deeper things than the weather.

We discovered we were born
Blocks apart in New York – Queens.
And now we met for the first time.
Both wondered what that means.

We walked back to the sukkah.
We lingered there some more,
Where we felt Hashem protecting us,
And guiding us, for sure.

Without His hand resting over us,
Like a blessing on each head,
How else could we have dared to move?
There’s doubt. There’s even dread.

But the sukkah turned into a chuppah.
The Shechinah stayed poised above.
Through our years wandering in the desert,
And years since, leading us toward love.

Bracha Goetz is the author of 41 books that help children’s souls shine. Her books can be found in Jewish bookstores and online here: www.goetzbookshop.com