Rabbi Doniel Staum, LMSW
Rabbi, Kehillat New Hempstead
Rebbe/Guidance Counselor – ASHAR
Principal – Ohr Naftoli- New Windsor
STAM
TORAH
SUCCOS
5775
“TRANSCENDENT
JOY”
·
“Happiness is a Swedish sunset--it is there for all, but most
of us look the other way and lose it.” (Mark Twain)
·
“A person tends to be as happy as he makes himself” (Abe
Lincoln)
·
“Success is getting what you want; happiness is
wanting what you get." (Dave Gardner)
·
"Some cause happiness wherever
they go; others whenever they go." (Oscar Wilde)
·
“Real happiness
is what you experience when you are doing what you should be doing. When you
are moving clearly along your own road, your unique path to your unique
destination, you experience real happiness. When you are moving along the path
that leads to yourself, to the deep discovery of who you really are, when you
are building the essence of your own personality and creating yourself, a deep
happiness wells up within you. The journey does not cause happiness, the
journey is the happiness itself.” (Rabbi Akiva Tatz)
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The following
thoughts were adapted from a lecture I was privileged to hear from Harav Meir
Rogosnitzky shlita, on the second evening of Succos 5768 in Kehillas Kol Chaim,
Lakewood , NJ
“In succos (huts) you shall dwell for seven
days; every citizen in Yisroel shall dwell in succos. In order that your
generations shall know that I caused the Children of Israel to dwell in succos
when I took them out of the land
of Egypt
The gemara quotes
a disagreement between Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Eliezer as to why we live in
succos for the duration of the seven day festival. Rabbi Eliezer opines that it
is in commemoration of the Clouds of Glory which enveloped and protected our
forefathers during their forty year sojourns in the perilous desert. When we
sit in our succos we assert our belief that, just as G-d was the sole protector
of our ancestors in the desert, so too ultimately G-d is our only protector. Rabbi
Akiva argues that our succos commemorate the physical huts which our ancestors
constructed in the desert to serve as their temporary homes.
Rabbi Akiva’s
opinion begs explanation. Why should we dwell in huts just because they dwelled
in huts? What is the point of imitating their mode of lifestyle when they had
little else, if we have the ability to live in a far more comfortable manner?
Rashbam explains
that the desert is a vast wasteland, devoid of production or protection. During
their forty years in the desert the nation subsisted on manna and supernatural
miracles because there was nothing else available to them. However, as soon as
they entered the Promised Land they were able to build homes, have fields and
vineyards, and live more comfortable lifestyles. However, that lifestyle
presented a grave spiritual danger. When one supports himself from the
production that comes from his own efforts he can easily grow haughty and ‘forget
G-d’. Therefore, each year - right in the middle of the season of the harvest -
we leave our homes and move into huts.
As we sit in a
succah as our forefathers did, we remind ourselves of the complete faith that
they had in G-d when they were in the desert. This allows us to maintain a
proper perspective about our own successes. It reminds us that it is G-d who
grants blessing and bounty, all of our efforts not withstanding. According to
Rashbam the succah is no more than a physical reminder to help us maintain our
faith during this season.
Ramban offers a
similar explanation about the mitzvah of succah. However, he adds a key point: “And
G-d was with them; they lacked nothing.” In other words, the reason why we must
recall the fact that they lived in huts in the desert is to remind us that,
despite the fact that they were in the desert, G-d provided their basic needs
to the extent that they lacked nothing.
According to
Ramban, the purpose of living in the succah is to remind us that G-d provides
for our basic needs, and that those who trust in Him don’t feel deprived in any
way. The joy of Succos is not a joy of physical pleasures and enjoyments.
Rather, it is a joy that emanates from an inner realization that we are indeed
lacking nothing.
It is for this
reason that Megillas Koheles is read on Succos[3].
The overriding message of Koheles is that all of the physicality and pleasures
of this world are futile. One who pursues a hedonistic and pampered life will
find that he is unable to satiate his soul. In order to achieve real inner
happiness one must recognize where happiness does not come from. Once
one understands that this world “is futile of futilities” then he can seek happiness
where it truly lies, from inner spiritual quests.[4]
In order to
truly appreciate what happiness is one must understand the root of its opposite
- sadness and mourning. In our current exile, the symbol of our national
mourning is the destruction of the second Bais Hamikdash. The gemara[5]
explains that although during the second Temple
The commentaries
question how the Sages can assert that the Bais Hamikdash was destroyed because
of hatred and love of money, when in the tochacha[7]
in parshas Ki Savo[8]
the Torah states: “All these curses will come upon you and pursue you and
overtake you, until You are destroyed… because you did not serve Hashem, your
G-d, amid gladness and goodness of heart, when everything was abundant.”[9]
If the Torah itself states that retribution comes because of a lack of joy how
can the Sages offer ulterior explanations?
Inner joy and
happiness are rooted in feelings of purpose and direction. When one feels that
he plays a unique role and that he is a necessary piece of a bigger puzzle, then
he develops internal satisfaction, which breeds inner joy and contentment.
If a person
lacks constant impetus and motivation then he will, G-d forbid, lapse into
depression and despair. Therefore, one who lacks that internal sense of purpose
will be forced to seek validation and purpose from external forces in order to
maintain his motivation and drive. If he cannot find meaning within he
will seek it without. He will pursue superficial sources of joy, which offer
momentary instant gratification.
Thus develops
the pursuit of materialism, economic success, prestige, and the amassment of
wealth and assets. When one becomes involved in the relentless pursuit of
financial and lucrative endeavors, it leads to insatiable greed, desire, and
jealousy. Once one has become trapped in the throngs of those evil emotions
hatred and enmity are never far behind.[10]
One whose entire
identity and sense of purpose is invested in his material possessions and level
of prestige will feel threatened by anyone who challenges what he has attained.
His acrimony towards others stems from his unmitigated desire to preserve his self-identity,
which is enmeshed with his amassments and achievements. His lack of true joy is
essentially a result of his failure to appreciate his inner greatness
and beauty.[11]
The Torah is the
book of life; it teaches us the roots of all human behavior. The Oral Law is
the commentary which allows us to comprehend the deeper meaning behind the
actual words recorded in the Torah. The Oral law explains that the reason why
the second Bais Hamikdash was destroyed was because of greed, jealousy, enmity
and the relentless pursuit for money and self-aggrandizement. That was indeed
the bottom line and the reason why it was destroyed. However, those were merely
the symptoms of a deeper malady. The Torah itself delineates the root of the
problem. How did a holy nation such as Klal Yisroel who studied Torah and were
meticulous about its laws fall into such a lowly state of baseless hatred and
lack of harmony? “Because you did not serve Hashem, your G-d, amid gladness and
goodness of heart”.
Despite all of
their greatness in Torah and performance of mitzvos they did not comprehend their
own greatness, the importance of what they were engaged in, and how vital their
role was. They did not have an adequate sense of internal self-worth and
therefore they were forced to seek it in external endeavors. The downward
spiraling of the nation resulted from that subtle initial failure to recognize
their own value.
On Tisha B’av
when we mourn the destruction of the Bais Hamikdash, we also mourn the root of
the destruction - our lack of self-appreciation and self-worth.
After the
mourning process concludes we begin the process of consolation, i.e. the
recognition that despite all of our iniquities we are not lost and that we have
the capacity to rebuild ourselves and recapture what we forfeited when we
sinned. Gaining this confidence is the foundation for teshuva and the process
of re-creation, as it were, which commences at the beginning of the month of
Elul[12].
One of the most
important components of the repentance process is the recitation of the “יג' מדות – the thirteen Attributes (of G-d). The first two
are “ ה' ה'” (the Name of G-d repeated). The
gemara[13]
explains that the two names of G-d refer to two different Attributes of G-d,
“G-d before man sins, and G-d after man sins.”
Rabbi Yitzchok Hutner zt’l[14]
explains that when G-d created the world it did not have the ability to bear sin,
which counters the foundation of creation. As soon as man sinned the world
should have become obsolete and returned to its original state of nothingness.
In His infinite mercy, G-d enacted an immediate recreation of the world, as it
were, so that as soon as man sinned there was a second “emergence” of the
world, a world of “G-d after man sins”. All of the following eleven attributes
of G-d’s Mercy can only be effective if there is a world in existence. The
second mention of the name of G-d, which represents the recreation of the world
after man sins, is the foundation for all the other Attributes. Thus,
repentance is not merely the G-d given ability for one to erase his past, but
it is a recreation and a new existence of himself and the entire world.
On Yom Kippur we abstain from eating, drinking, and other basic physical
enjoyments and needs. In so doing, we demonstrate our understanding that
because we are sullied with sin we are undeserving to partake in the pleasures
of this world, and even to exist at all. However, through the service of the
day and through our painstaking efforts to repent and repair the damage our
sins have caused, we merit becoming new creations. We emerge from the awesome
day like a child with a tabula rasa. After undergoing that purification process
we are again worthy of enjoying the physical world.
When we have reached that level of rebirth after Yom Kippur we can begin to
reflect upon our value and importance. With the opportunity for “rebirth” that
Yom Kippur affords one can reach the internal level of inner joy and happiness
that was forfeited at the time of the destruction of the Bais Hamikdash.
Succos is called the “time of our joy” because the realization of our
internal greatness and our importance as members of Klal Yisroel leads to the
most sublime level of genuine joy.
When one has a true sense of inner joy he will not need to pursue it in
external superficial pursuits. Thus during the holiday of Succos we exit our
homes and leave behind the temporal pleasures of this world which falsely give
us a sense of meaning throughout the year. This allows us to focus on true joy,
relieved from the burden of material competitiveness, and internally content
that we lack nothing.
Rabbi Samson Rafael Hirsch zt’l explains similarly that the essence of the
mitzvah of succah is to demonstrate to its adherents that true joy results from
spiritual pursuits, not physical commodities or pleasures. He explains that
this concept is the root of many of the laws pertaining to the s’chach (the
covering of the succah).
“The products of earth cut off from nature and lacking the stamp of Man’s
power is exactly what the law prescribed for the s’chach which form our
succahs. It must be a product of the earth (gedulai karka) but it must
be neither joined to the earth (mechubar), so that he who places himself
under it would be committing himself to the protection of the powers of the
earth, nor may it be susceptible to halachic impurity (mekabel tumah),
such as fruits or vessels which bear the imprint of Man’s mastery.
“So that our succah-roofing has either the signs of the Clouds of Glory,
they too, have their origin in the ground – and still has neither the character
of the power of the earth nor that of Man; or it brings to mind literal huts (succos
mamash- the opinion of Rabbi Akiva mentioned earlier), it has the character
of the wilderness, the abandonment of the normal assistance of Nature and Man,
it may be neither from the threshing-floor nor the wine-press (goren v’yakav),
the normal means of food and enjoyment, but it is the refuse from the
threshing-floor and the wine-press (p’soles goren v’yakav), that which
people throw away as being empty of nourishment or enjoyment.”
In regards to the succah there is a unique exemption, metztaer patur min
hasuccah - one who is in extreme discomfort because of the succah is exempt
from it. Rabbi Hirsch explains that the objective of the succah is for one to
contemplate and realize the joy and bliss one can achieve without fleeting
temporal comforts. But one who is in distress will be unable to appreciate that
essential lesson and, therefore, is exempt from it.
The joy of Succos is the joy that stems from the recognition that every
person is invaluable, a vital asset to Klal Yisroel. When we sit in the succah
we focus on our personal worth, protected and loved by G-d. When we shake the
four species, which symbolize the binding of all of Klal Yisroel together in
harmony and peace, we focus on our importance as part of that binding. Thus,
these two central mitzvos of the holiday, the succcah and the Four Species,
symbolize the basis of our joy.
The holiday of Succos represents the true antidote for the mourning of
Tisha B’av. It is truly the conclusion and culmination of the consolation and
comfort process. We sinned because we failed to realize our greatness; now we
celebrate because we have arrived at an understanding of how individually great
and valuable we all are.
“You did not serve Hashem amid gladness and
goodness of heart”
“In succos
you shall dwell for seven days”
[1] Rabbi
Rogosnitzky was a Rabbi in England
and co-director of a kollel in Amsterdam before
coming to Lakewood
[2] Vayikra
23:42-43
[4] Based on
a thought from Harav Yaakov Neiman zt’l in Darkei Mussar
[5] Yoma 9b
[6] Menachos
chap. 13
[8] Ramban
writes that the rebuke of Ki Savo refers specifically to the calamities that
would befall the nation at the time of the destruction of the second Bais
Hamikdash.
[9] Devorim
28:45-47
[10] As
someone mentioned to me on Yom Kippur, “I pray that G-d should give prosperity
and blessing to all of Klal Yisroel, EXCEPT my competitor who should be blessed
with financial ruin speedily in my days.”
[12]
Although the “three weeks” end on the tenth of Av, during the following seven
weeks the haftoros (portion from the prophets read after the Torah reading on
Shabbos morning) contain words of consolation and comfort. They are aptly
termed the ‘shiva d’nichemta- the seven of comfort’. The final of the seven is read during the
final Shabbos of the year (i.e. the Shabbos prior to Rosh Hashnana). Thus the
process of mourning which began on Shvia Asar B’Tammuz and continued until
Tisha B’Av, does not truly end until we are well into our process of
repentance. It is clear that the mourning/comfort and repentance processes are
inextricable connected.
[13] Rosh Hashana 17b
[14] See
Pachad Yitzchak, Yom Kippur 1:5 where this concept is explained in detail.
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