For the source text click/tap here: Sukkah 23
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On our daf we see that Rabbi Akiva permits the construction of a sukkah on a boat, as long as it can withstand winds as strong as those that normally prevail on land.
In a dark metaphor, The Mekor Chaim, zt”l, explains that our sukkah represents our portion in the next world, and this sukkah is sometimes built on a “ship.”
This is when a person feels like a ship at sea in constant danger of being broken to bits by the raging seas of this world. The “wind” symbolizes the evil inclination since, “No one sins unless a spirit (ruach—wind) of folly enters him.” (Sotah 3a)
A “land wind” represents the pull toward the earth-bound sins of the body. If one cannot withstand this wind, one’s sukkah is invalid since it means that the accumulation of sin will cause one to lose the protection of the world to come.
I prefer the way the metaphor is used by the Blooms: "the mast of the ship in the dark night sea storm. There are no feelings that are more turbulent than those that occur while fighting with someone we love. When we fight, it can feel like we are adrift in a violent, dark night sea storm."
We explore R. Akiva's distinction between sea and land wind in Longfellow and Dikenson.