Why Is Sukkot the Time of Our Joy? | Rabbi Yosef Benyaminov

Chag sameach. Moadim l'simcha. Hope everyone's enjoying their holiday. You know, this is the only holiday that the Torah says man simchatenu, the time of our happiness and joy. Why is that? And the commentators explain, really if you think about it, we're celebrating Sukkot in the wrong time. What does that mean? Sukkot represents the ananei hakavod, the seven clouds of glory that surround the Jewish people when they came out of Egypt, right? The They were protecting them from sun, from the scorpions and snakes on the bottom, from the winds surrounding them. And the one in front, those are six directions, and one in front was uh showing where to go. And at night that seventh one turned into pillar of fire. And that's why we celebrate Sukkot. But however, when did those clouds appear? As soon as Jewish people came out of Egypt, which was together with Passover. So really we're supposed to be celebrating Sukkot together with Passover. So why are we celebrating now, 6 months later? The answer Vilna Gaon writes is the following. You see, Jewish people had >> [music] >> those seven clouds. However, we lost them, unfortunately, when we did the most horrible thing, >> [music] >> the sin of the golden calf. Egel hazahav. The clouds left us and they saw that we don't deserve to be close to Hashem, to be protected by [music] him. However, when Moshe Rabbeinu went up for the third time to pray for the Jewish people on Rosh Hashanah he came down on Yom Kippur and Hashem told him, "Salachti k'dvarecha, I forgive you like you asked." And that's when the seewoo, the commandment to build the temporary uh temple, the Mishkan, >> [music] >> began. Moshe Rabbeinu told the Jewish people, "Okay, bring the material, bring whatever you want, whatever you can to build the Mishkan for Hashem." People started bringing, bringing, bringing, >> [music] >> and finally told them, "Okay, it's enough." Hashem was so happy that Jewish people brought so much for for him. He brought the clouds back. That was the 15th of Tishrei. So this is not just a holiday >> [music] >> the clouds is a holiday of chuva came back to show me show how much we love him. That's why this month is holiday of our happiness because we are on the higher level. Now we came through through Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur we're spiritually >> [music] >> high. We're still clean bigger from the sins. So this is a time to enjoy ourselves and family together on Israel high.