R. Yakov Nagen’s prolific output includes books on the Mishna, spirituality, attitudes to other faiths, and a volume profiled here by Yitzchak Blau. Nagen combines academic tools with a search for religious meaning and he successfully integrates the worlds of mysticism and rationalism. This volume, beyond the specific thesis concerning the holiday of Sukkot, is methodologically interesting, arguing that philosophical explanations of mitzvot may seem like an overly speculative endeavor but demonstrating that we can utilize halakhic details to more rigorously establish a hashkafic interpretation.