Cultural Judaism and Avraham's Non-Kosher Sukkah

so there's a famous success anecdote which i have heard told in many different forms and permutations as a joke and what i want to tell you is that it's not a joke it's a real story and i know someone who is there he was not the lawyer but he was a lawyer and he was in the courtroom when this happened and that lawyer is my grandfather oliver shalom who actually his first case was he passed the bar in 1929 when he was only 20 years old and the state of illinois had a rule he had to be 21 to practice law so his first case was he sued the state of illinois to allow them to allow to get them to allow him to practice law um at the age of 20. so he practiced law in the starting from 1929 and a lot of his cases were during the great depression in chicago and one of the cases that occurred one time he said it was out of success and he was in the courtroom and there was another case before him there was a complaint from a landlord to a tenant the landlord said that the tenant had put up an obstruction a fire hazard what was it the tenant built a sukkah on the fire escape so uh the judge who was a jewish judge his name was fisher this is what my grandfather told me the judges and he told me the judge's name and everything he hears the case and he see he understands this guy has a sukkah on the fire escape technically he's not allowed to have it there it's ed of yamcha so the judge says i'm siding with the plaintiff right with the with the landlord and i'm ordering you the tenant the defendant to remove the obstruction i'm giving you ten days to comply okay so people tell that as a joke says something cute it's not a it is cute but it's not a joke it's a real story that happened giving you 10 days to comply ed of yomtif right basically you're saying enjoy it enjoy your yomtif and then uh ishag the day after is even because right you have serious is the eighth day which means the ninth day it's on the tenth day meaning i guess that would be just go ahead and uh take your take your sukkah down okay so i want to share with you an idea from something called the rishi mice the labacher wrote notes personal scholarly notes in a journal or a series of journals and they were discovered after gimultamas after the devil's passing and these journals go back to the rebecca's youth some of them include notes for fabregans for gatherings this particular gathering was sukis simcha space ashoeva okay that's exactly 80 years ago and for those who know a little bit the history you know that the rabbit came to america on the 28th day of the month of seven that's in the summer of 1941 tough shin aleph so we're talking about a few months later that have his first tishrei that had his first high holiday season and first sukis in america and the rabbit wrote notes for a fabregan that he would deliver cinco special there in in america in brooklyn one of the points that's discussed is based on a madras from bresius rabba which retells the story of avramovino on the third day of his bris this is a story which we read about in parshas vallero three days after his brismilla avramovino was already desperate for guests for visitors and he's sitting outside of his tent and he's looking for passersby and hashem finally has pity on him and sends him guests no ordinary guests they're angels avram doesn't know that they're angels but he goes to gather them and he offers the he offers them hospitality so the madrid goes through the different aspects of rahm's gracious offers of hospitality and explains how each aspect of what he offers them he tells them to stop and take a rest under the tree take a rest under the tree is the one that we're going to uh we're going to focus on the most here or exclusively really take some water you know have a drink wash your feet so he offers them all these different ways of getting comfortable and the medusa goes through and explains how each aspect of avram's offer for hospitality invoked a merit which later was paid to avraham's children to us to the jewish people so particularly one of the things avraham tells the three travelers the three angels who he thinks are travelers he tells them recline rest lean under the tree get some shade you're in the middle of a desert right the sun's beating down so recline under the tree so the master says that in repayment to avram for telling his guests rest recline lean back under the shade of the tree avram's descendants the jewish people were given the mitzvah of sukkah where we take shelter under the shade of the sukkah that was the measure for measure recompense the payment for avrom's hospitality or that aspect of avraham's hospitality okay so thereby asks a question and it's a it's a really obvious question if you're taking these midrashim seriously and that is we understand that avraham sukkah is not a real sucker obviously it's it's before mountain it's before the revelation at sinai so we understand that he is observing sukkus in a spiritual way or a symbolic way okay fine still it seems strange that avraham's proto sucker if we could call it that is precisely the kind of shade that is explicitly forbidden and invalid as a sukkah in its form as a mitzvah given to avraham's children the mishnah tells us that her if somebody makes his sukkah under a tree meaning even if the the sukkah itself is perfectly kosher but he built it under a tree it's like he made it babayas in the house and it's invalid apostle invalid so how much more so when the when the sukkah itself is a tree it's something that's growing out of the ground attached to the ground so this is an absolutely invalid sukkah so we're we're trying to understand i understand that avraham sukkah is not a real sukkah it's not the mitzvah proper the mitzvahs weren't given until sinai seven generations after avraham and it's it's more of like a a symbolic connection that this recline under the shade of the tree sit under the shade of the tree is sort of like the same motif as we sit under the shade of the sukkah still avraham sukkah is supposed to foreshadow no pun intended the foreshadow the shade that avraham's sucker was offering is supposed to foreshadow the shade that the sukkah provides for his children who are doing a mitzvah of of sitting in the sukkah in the shade of the sukkah so why is the the uh proto sucker the uh paradigmatic sukkah the original sukkah something that if it were to be used today would be absolutely unquestionably invalid okay so to understand this we need to understand really the very nature of judaism as a as a practice as a set of of rituals as a code as rules laws that we live according to and that we follow a way of life and to ask ourselves what is the nature of our connection to these rituals and these acts and these laws why do we keep them why is it important for us to uphold and there are different perspectives there's different ways of looking at it i'll tell you that i cannot pretend to know that this is what the rabbit was addressing in 1941 or at that point uh yeah it was it was tough and base it was still the last few months of 1941. so i don't know this is what the rebbe was addressing i don't know if this was cultural commentary or social criticism but certainly at that time in the 40s in america there were definitely traditionalists meaning people who are not trying to go away from observance maybe they're trying to modify or in some ways dilute observance but they were not throwing away observance they considered themselves traditionalists they were explicitly attempting to conserve jewish tradition but the motive was decidedly cultural meaning why are we trying to preserve our culture or why are we trying to preserve judaism because it's our culture you know like the romans made great architecture right the romans aren't around anymore but their their buildings are right they're famous for it the greeks made great plays they wrote great dramas right different civilizations excel in different things so the jewish people the hebrews our civilization our culture we excelled in creating moral codes and laws and religion right think about how much of the world has a religion based on judaism there's not that many jews but if you look at all the abrahamic faiths the religions that are spin-offs of judaism look how popular the jews are at introducing the idea of monotheism and and uh the the the idea of the perfectability of the world the idea of a messianic era all these ideas are from from judaism uh protecting the weak uh curbing the the the strength of of of those in power um that mike does not make right all these ideas are our jewish contributions to the world and so maybe you would say if i come from a people whose ancestors were were good at these types of things so then it's sort of like that's our heritage that's our culture so we preserve it because it's culturally important this is what our fathers did and what their fathers did and what their fathers did and that's what makes it valuable that's what gives it worth that's certainly an approach here's what i'm going to tell you that is not why we sit in a sukkah or bench lula van asrug or keep shabbos or put on phil in or for that matter the social justice mitzvah's like giving to dhaka that's not why we do any of this it's not because we have a culture that we're trying to preserve it's not why we do it it's not because one person did something that another person imitated it is because we stood at sinai and god spoke to us and revealed to us his will and told us all types of things some intuitive things like honor your mother and father and other things we would never figure out on our own like don't take wool and linen and weave them into a single fabric right we keep mitzvahs because it comes from hashem because there was a revelation at sinai so there's a mish colon is a tractate that discusses it's interesting by the way if you're learning three chapters of rambam right now we're learning which is all from the tractate of khulen khulin talks about uh hulen literally means mundane as opposed to uh animal sacrifices who which animal sacrifices are sacred are uh consecrated meat but then there's mundane meat you know regular meat that you just eat uh not as a sacrifice i shouldn't say god for that you just eat because if you eat meat you're supposed to do it mindfully and do it uh respectfully to the life of the animal so i don't mean that you just eat god forbid but i mean as opposed to sacred meat which is which is a temple sacrifice which we don't have right now because uh the temple needs to be rebuilt by mashiach but anyway hulen is talking about non-consecrated meat regular meat as opposed to sacred and one of the discussions there is the prohibition of the gidhanashi the giranosh is the sciatic nerve and you know there's a story in parshas vaishlach where yankevino jacob our father is wrestling with the angel of of esau of asavarosa his brother twin brother and uh he gets his sciatic nerve uh wounded when his the hip socket is displaced and it says there that that's why we don't eat uh get anosha we don't eat the uh the sciatic nerve from an animal so there's a mach like it's a little bit of a dispute in the in the mishnah and holland between rabbi yohoda the taner of yehuda and the other home it's interesting rabbi yohoda says what if you eat the sciatic nerve of a non-kosher animal is it two prohibitions like i know you're not allowed to eat a non-kosher animal but now you eat the sciatic nerve of the non-kosher animal is it is it a double whammy so the hakam say no it's it's it's one prohibition you're not allowed to eat a non-kosher animal it doesn't matter what part you're not going to get an extra uh punishment because it because what part you ate and rabbi hoda says no i think you do and i'll tell you why because at the time when jacob was given the prohibition of not eating the sciatic nerve we had not yet been given the prohibition of not eating non-kosher animals it was before sinai before the revelation at sinai so the whole concept of prohibiting certain animals would be anachronistic would be out of place out of time if you're if you if you're dating the origin of the prohibition of the sciatic nerve the gitanosa to the times of yankim to the times of jacob well then it predates the prohibition of eating non-kosher animals so therefore at that time they could have in theory eaten a non-kosher animal but they still would have been forbidden from eating the sciatic nerve of that same non-kosher animal so the hakam say no that's not how it works yes you're right there's a story about the sciatic nerve that goes back to the times of jacob but that's not why we don't eat the sciatic nerve we don't eat it because it's one of the 613 commandments that we're given at sinai so and that's the halacha by the way you follow the home it's not two prohibitions it's not like rabbi yohoda's opinion so you know that the rambam maimonides wrote a pirish la mishnais he wrote a commentary to the mishnah and on this mishna that rama writes something very interesting he says that he uses a term i think if we can find it here he calls it an eaker goddale he says pay attention pay good attention to this great principle which is to be found which is included in this mishna and he explains like this that this mishna is not just talking about the sciatic nerve it's talking about a general principle that the mitzvahs that we do that which we distance ourselves from or conversely that which we do either omission or commission negative prohibitions or the positive mitzvahs that which we do today we only do it because hashem commanded it a day may should have been all of a shallow through moses peace be upon him not because hashem said it to prophets which predate the revelation at sinai and he goes through and he gives examples he says look noah he didn't eat every minute he didn't eat the limb of a living animal why because hashem told them after the flood before the flood they couldn't eat animals at all because noah saved all the animals so they were given permission to eat animals but provided they didn't eat the limb of a living animal so noah had the prohibition against eating a limb of a living animal we also have that prohibition the rambam says though but our prohibition is not the same as noah's prohibition the reason that we don't do it is not because noah didn't do it the reason we don't do it is because it was stated at sinai not to do it and then i'm going to the next example says the fact that avraham avino did a bresmila that abraham did a circumcision that's not why we do the circumcision we do the circumcision because it was one of the 613 commandments given at sinai not because it was something that our ancestor abraham did and the example that's in the mishnah the fact that jacob was told not to eat the sciatic nerve that's not why we don't eat the sciatic nerve we don't eat the sciatic nerve because again it was one of the 613 commandments given at sinai so it's a very interesting concept here our judaism is not a cultural heritage or our obligation to preserve judaism is not because it's a cultural heritage it is a cultural heritage but that's not the source of our obligation to uphold judaism as individuals it's not because our fathers did it and their fathers did it and their fathers did it and their fathers did it it's because god told us to do it and this brings out something rather stunning the obvious the patriarchs and the matriarchs were incredibly spiritually intuitive people why do i say they were incredibly spiritually intuitive because they like the the missionary condition says that they kept the entire torah before it was given so you have to be pretty spiritually intuitive to be sensitive enough to be able to know what will bother hashem before he tells you it bothers him and what will please hashem before he tells you it pleases him so they were incredibly spiritually intuitive spiritually sensitive and and and because of that they felt that there was something like comes the time of success and avram wanted to sit under asuka came the time of pesach we know that avraham made matzos what to commemorate an event to exodus which wouldn't happen for another 400 years obviously it was a different type of thing when big mates on pesach it wasn't because he was commemorating anything but he he was tuned into the energy that was at that time even before the historical event of the exodus occurred at that time which is another discussion for another time how jewish time works that it's not that we celebrate pesach and freedom because that's when the exodus happened but rather the exodus happened then because that's when there's an energy of freedom in the world that's a that's a discussion for another time but the point is the obvious the emojis our patriarchs our matrix were incredibly spiritually sensitive so they could feel what hashem's will would be and that's an incredible human achievement we have to be blown away by such a human achievement human beings who are that sensitive and we should be honored to be descended from such human beings who are that sensitive and yet it's still just a human achievement it's human sensitivity yeah it's profound human sensitivity but it's still human sensitivity and therefore it's finite when we do a mitzvah it's not because we're so profoundly sensitive who says we're sensitive at all i don't know if we're sensitive at all when we do a mitzvah it's not because we're spiritually sensitive or intuitive we do a mitzvah it's because it says in kitsu we look up the the bridge code of jewish law and it tells us how to go through our day and how go through the week and how to go through the year and we follow what it says it's not because we're sensitive and yet when we do our mitzvahs we're reaching a level that the patriarchs in the matrix could never reach precisely because their mitzvahs were an expression of human sensitivity and because it's human it's limited it's finite like a human when we do it we're doing it because god commanded and therefore it's infinite like god so if you think about it the tree that's rooted to the ground the tree that is attached to the earth is the exact fitting metaphor and living image icon of avram's entire spirituality a tree is tall it's very tall right trees tallest living things in the world are trees you go to the redwood national forest you find a sequoia there that's you know taller than a lot of buildings and yet as tall as a tree is a tree cannot be taller than itself i'm gonna say what are you what are you talking here talking poems talking riddles a tree cannot be taller than itself however tall the top part of the tree is that's as tall as the tree is it can only reach as high as it can reach that was like avraham's spirituality it can only reach as high as a person can reach okay so he was the tallest tree avram was the most spiritually sensitive person but he could only be a spiritually sensitive person so it's like that tree that is attached to the ground and can't outgrow itself can't be taller than itself our mitzvahs are like a detached tree imagine you take a tree that's the tallest tree in the world and then you detach it from the ground and you lift it up off the ground and now it's taller than the tallest tree because it's not stuck to the ground you know about the guy from helm told his friend he said you know khayim if i would be rothschild i'd be richer than rothschild his friend said yeah how so he says because i'd also do a little tutoring on the side right five-year-old child be richer than raw child do some tutoring on the side okay imagine i'd have all rothschilds money and plus you know imagine the tallest tree in the world it's only as tall as the tallest tree in the world but now imagine that tree is not connected to the ground and you can lift it up and you can put it on a space shuttle i don't know you could fly to the moon all in theory this is a thought experiment the point is avraham sukkah was the perfect sukkah to represent his entire spirituality and our sukkah is the perfect sukkah to represent our entire spirituality avram sukkah was a tree connected to the ground and that was his his whole spirituality it was great and it was tall but it was tethered it was anchored it could not be taller than itself it was human achievement and it was limited our sukkah what's our success has to be stuff that grows from the ground foliage but it has to be cut off so you take like a bush that's only this tall and you cut it off and then you lift it up higher than the higher than when it what it was when it was growing which is symbolic of our entire spirituality that you take something however tall it is already and then you detach it from its human limitations and you lift it up and make it even higher why because it's ultimately connected to hashem's will it's not an expression of human sensitivity of human spiritual intuition no it's a manifestation of the infinite will of the creator and therefore it is much greater and can achieve much more than anything that that a human desire even the most sensitive human desire could accomplish i'll tell you a quick story there was a there was a hasset in poland a hosted of the uh the guerrilla the imraemus and uh he was going on a trip to france this back in the 1920s he was going on a trip to france a business trip so he asked the guerrilla foreign he went to france oh this is the key of the story so the imminent tells him when you're in paris though pick up a certain brand of cigars for me certain fancy rare brand of cigars they only sell in paris buy it there for me and bring it back so the closet goes on the business trip to paris and he does well and he makes a lot of money and as he's coming back from the trip he's on the train and he says oh i forgot the cigars i didn't buy the cigars in paris so he gets off the train to the next stop he's in belgium already so in belgium he buys cigars that are even nicer than the ones they have in paris and he brings those back to poland so he goes straight to the imminent asks him did you get my cigars for me he says you know rabbit i got better cigars than the one that ever asked where i got the ones not the paris cigars i got the belgian cigars and the imramus said you think that i wanted cigars i wanted that you should be in paris on a business deal and think that you have a rabbit back in poland who's thinking of you that's why i told you to get the cigars in paris when you ask somebody to do you a favor run an errand for me can you get this for me can you help me out it creates a relationship it creates a connection it's not just the item itself it's the fact that you're on a mission you've been sent on a mission by the one who asked you to do that particular task so when we sit in a sukkah or light shabbos candles or put on fill-in or gifts of dhaka or any mitzvah that we do it's not just the action itself that has value it's that someone with a capital s someone he hashem asked us to do that thing and therefore the value of that action is far greater than the action itself this is what we have to remember that the value of our mitzvahs of our way of life as jews the rituals that we keep and even the social justice mitzvahs that we would do just out of decency but the value is not just the value of the act itself yes there is a certain value that it has that it refines a person that it makes the world a better place that's all true but there's more than that the value of these actions is that they were divinely commanded and therefore they have infinite power which far outreaches human power and this is the whole symbol of our sukkah compared to avraham's sukkah we were given the ability to do physical actions which reach infinitely infinitely to the greatest heights of of spiritual accomplishment and it's not limited by our sensitivity it's not limited by what we appreciate about it sometimes to the contrary the less we appreciate the less we know what's going on the better you know the less we get in the way that's what we have to remember we were given an infinite reach like a tree that's as tall as the tree and then some because it's not stuck with its roots in the ground you know alex haley wrote a book back in the 70s called roots and it was a mini-series on tv it was all about an african-american scholar himself it was autobiographical looking for his tradition his heritage he went and researched it was very difficult obviously because of the way that african americans were brought to this country was under very inhuman uh conditions where they were specifically separated from their histories and from their traditions and their their culture and alex haley did a did a whole uh search genetics and in history and documents trying to find his roots and there's something there's something very uh universal to that about wanting to know your roots and there's something tempting about viewing judaism from that lens as as these are our cultural roots and this is why it has value this is why we have to keep it up this is why we can't just let it go and maybe that has a certain emotional appeal and i wouldn't i wouldn't disparage it but i would say if you let me talk to you for more than five minutes i would want to get past the emotional appeal of just connecting to judaism because there are they are our roots and to say to the country actually you want to know something judaism is the opposite of roots it's root less which by the way was one of the charges against the jewish people at all times right the rootless cosmopolitans they don't have a land of course you know we're thrown out of our land but they don't have a land they're not attached to the ground and they're never farmers and they just go from one city to another and they hold multiple passports when they drift around right that was always one of the charges against the jews but let's speak about being rootless from the metaphysical perspective there are roots meaning cultural roots nationalistic roots genetic roots and all those things are part of the human experience and then there's this metaphysical condition of the jewish people which transcends roots and to the contrary is like imagine this tree which is as tall as however the world's tallest tree is and then it can sort of take its roots out of the ground and be higher be higher than itself if i were a raw child i'd be richer than rothschild if i'd be the tallest tree i could release my roots from the ground and jump out of the ground imagine a big sequoia in the redwood forest jumping up in the air and being taller than itself right that's judaism that's our mitzvahs that however spiritually sensitive you are okay so it's that and then plus infinity plus the infinity that comes from the fact that it's not my idea i didn't come up with this and it's not my father's idea and it's not my father's father's idea it's not even a vrama venus idea it's hashem's will and like hashem it's infinite okay thanks for joining me and have a very happy rest of your circus