An Ein Ayah Style Derasha on Sukkot

Sukkah 2a states:

סוכה שהיא גבוהה למעלה מעשרים אמה - פסולה, ורבי יהודה מכשיר.

מנא הני מילי?

אמר רבה: דאמר קרא (ויקרא כג) למען ידעו דרתיכם כי בסכות הושבתי את בני ישראל, עד עשרים אמה - אדם יודע שהוא דר בסוכה, למעלה מעשרים אמה - אין אדם יודע שדר בסוכה, משום דלא שלטא בה עינא.

רבי זירא אמר: מהכא (ישעיהו ד) וסכה תהיה לצל יומם מחרב, עד עשרים אמה - אדם יושב בצל סוכה, למעלה מעשרים אמה - אין אדם יושב בצל סוכה, אלא בצל דפנות.

...

ורבא אמר: מהכא (ויקרא כג) בסכת תשבו שבעת ימים.

אמרה תורה: כל שבעת הימים צא מדירת קבע ושב בדירת עראי.

עד עשרים אמה - אדם עושה דירתו דירת עראי, למעלה מעשרים אמה - אין אדם עושה דירתו דירת עראי, אלא דירת קבע.

An Ein Aya Style commentary on this (I spoke in between hakafot on the day of Simchat Torah):

I wrote previously about Pesach, that Pesach contains three main ways for man to find God. The first is Philosophical/Theological, the second is Experiential, the third is Historical. And I matched them up with the Avot (I have seen this somewhat also in Rav Kanotopsky's Leil Shimurim on Va'era).''

When you're a hammer, everything's a nail, and this machloket acharonim in Sukkah may fit as well.

On many beginnings of tractates of gemara, the rishonim will ask why the tractate starts the way it does. In Shabbat, Tosafot and many other commentators ask why the tractate begins with the problem of carrying into a public domain on Shabbat, and give answers such as "it is a weak melacha," meaning we might not have included it in the list and therefore it starts so that we make sure to talk about it, or alternatively that its lack of normal attributes of a melacha clarify what a melacha is all about. Indeed, the gemara itself asks this, for example in Makkot it begins in a way that is phrased strangely, and the answer is to be a continuation of the previous tractate. The gemara in Berachot asks why the Mishna begins with saying Shema at night when it could have started with the day, and other commentators give answers for why starting with any Shema at all.

But I have not seen any major commentator questioning why the gemara Sukkah begins with "20 Amot". But perhaps the gemara was really asking this with "Where do we know this?" For the answers of the amoraim might be telling us what they thought the very purpose of the Sukkah was.

The first position is Rabba. He says the reason why 20 amot and above is too high is because the Torah says about Sukkah "so that you shall know...", and higher than 20 you don't know you're in a Sukkah. This is clearly the historical idea, of knowing your history and being aware of the long history of our people. Sitting in a sukkah connects us to our historical emphasis.

The second position is Rabbi Zeira, that the reason why 20 amot is too high is because you need to feel the shade from the Sukkah schach, and not from the walls. This is clearly the experiential idea, that sitting in the Sukkah and feeling God's shade and protection, this connects us to God in that way.

The third position is Rava, who said it is too keva at 20 amot, and not temporary enough. This matches with the philosophical idea, that the Sukkah represents the temporary, and we need to be able to distinguish between that which is keva and that which is arai, and this is the emphasis of the Sukkah.

If so, Simchat Torah is a combination of all of these. Dancing with the Torah is experiential, but it emphasizes our historical connection to Torah, as well as its philosophical/theological content.