The USHPIZIN board
Ushpizin is an Aramaic word that means “guests.” Translated into English, the word loses some of its mystery and otherworldliness. Yet these “guests” are indeed quite mysterious (at least until we learn more about them) and otherworldly (at least until we make them part of ours). We use the Aramaic term because our source of information about these mystical guests is from the Zohar, the fundamental Kabbalistic work written in that mystical language. There are seven supernal guests who come to visit us in the sukkah one for each of the seven days of the festival.
As we fill our sukkah with earthly guests, we merit to host seven supernal guests, the seven “founding fathers” of the Jewish people: Avraham, Yitzack, Yaacov, Moshè, Aaron, Yossef and David. While all seven ushpizin visit our sukkah on each of the seven nights and days of Sukkot, each supernal “guest” is specifically associated with one of the festival’s seven days, and is the “leading” or dominant ushpiza for that night and day.
