Festival Prayers-Succot Kavanot-Psalm 136

“To Him Who alone performs great wonders, for His kindness endures forever (Psalms 136:4).” For God, there is no difference between nature and a change in nature. When we speak of “wonders,” it is only how we perceive it. If so, if the wonders described in this verse are “on loan,” without a human being experiencing them, why would they be described as wonders?

This verse is describing the wonders of Free Choice, when God will “alone,” nature change something in to allow a person to maximize his choices. There is a moment when a person realizes that his opportunities have come about only because of wonders quietly performed long ago (Arvei Nachal; Vayeira).

We sit in the sukkah to reconnect to the wonders that took place long ago when we were leaving Egypt, protected by God’s clouds. We certainly knew of the wonders  at the time they happened. However, as we sit in the sukkah, and connect to our deep seeded Bitachon that God protects and cares for us, we realize that even those very public wonders of long ago had the ingredient of “alone,” for it is only at the moment when we sit in our sukkah that we reap yet more benefit from that long ago wonder.