Sukkot’s Secret: A Mitzvah You Can Step Inside - Rabbi Dr Yitzchak Greenblatt

[music] >> All of the Hagim have an element [music] of Simcha to them, element of joy, festivity. But Sukkos is special. We even refer to Sukkos as man Simcha Seinu. As opposed to all the other festivals which of course have Simcha in them, it seems that a principal component, maybe the principal component of Sukkos is Simcha. In fact, that's where the Torah teaches us about Simcha on Yom Tov "Vesamachta BeChagecha". You should be happy on your festival. The question is, what is it about Sukkos that is so connected to Simcha? How does it engender the idea of Simcha? The Vilna Gaon asks a question. And his question really will help us to understand where the Simcha comes from. He asks, "What Mitzvahs, which Mitzvahs, are done with your entire body?" And he responds, he answers his his own question, saying that it's there only two. One is the Mitzvah of living, being in Eretz Yisrael, and the other is the Mitzvah of Sukkah. Both of those you can be inside with your entire body and fulfill the Mitzvah with your whole body. Now, sometimes people say, "What about Mikvah?" The truth is, unlike what it seems like some people believe, there's no extra Mitzvah to stay in the Mikvah for longer. You really become pure, purified when you come out of the Mikvah. So, the idea of being inside, being a Mitzvah, really only applies to these these two. And he bases it on a verse. The verse is actually in Tehillim, uh in uh Tehillah, one of the Psalms uh that we recite actually here in Israel, uh where we follow the custom of the Vilna Gaon. We recite this Psalm on the first day of Sukkot, and the Psalm says, "Vaihi b'shalem Sukkot." It connects shalem, which is the name of Jerusalem, Yerushalayim, and Sukkot. And uh he he says that this is an allusion, a remez, to this idea. Now, the Baal Shem Tov says something similar, and you know, if the Vilna Gaon and the Baal Shem Tov both say something that you're onto something. And he goes a step further, he connects it to this idea of simcha. And he says that since you do Sukkot, you do Sukkot with your whole body, every element, everything you do, you eat, you drink, you sleep, you schmooze inside the Sukkah, that creates an extra sense of simcha, which pervades the whole experience, because it's immersive. And when you're part of this great whole, where mitzvah um is part of everything that you're doing, that creates the greatest level of simcha. There's an Osem Ayach, >> [snorts] >> the Meshech Hochma, after whom our venerable yeshiva is named, in Parshas Nitzavim, who points out something about the verses. The verses over there in Nitzavim say, they're talking about how uh terrible things befall will befall the Jewish people, and it says that uh at a certain point, Hashem will have mercy when you do teshuvah. And it says, "V'shavta ad Hashem Elokecha v'shamata b'koli." When you when you listen to his words, and then it says, "V'shav Hashem Elokecha shvuscha v'richamecha." Hashem will return your captivity, and he'll have mercy upon you, he'll love you. Says the the Meshech Hochma, that's referring to a first stage, when people do teshuvah, when they're on a certain level. So, there's a first stage of the returning of the exile. And then, the next verse continues the uh the verse continues the shove the kibasa mikol ami. There's a second stage Hashem will ingather you. He says something quite powerful. And he says that the first stage is when Hashem is returning your captivity. He says that in the returning of the exile there will be two stages. The first group will be Jews who view exile as a type of captivity. They view themselves as needing to flee, wanting to flee, wanting to come back home. And those will first come back to Eretz Yisrael. And he says there are those who don't view it like that, who even though of course in the depths of their souls they for sure know that they want to come back to Eretz Yisrael and that outside of Eretz Yisrael is not truly their ultimate home. Nonetheless, they're let's call it comfortable in their gilded cage. And those people, of course, they'll be brought back as well. But that'll be a a secondary stage. Now, of course, this is to be taken literally. We know that every Jew has to feel a tinge of pain in his heart if he's not here living in Eretz Yisrael. Albeit for good reasons, he may have good reasons to be in Chutz La'aretz, but he should still feel it in his heart. As the uh the the poet, the Rishon puts it, libi bamizrach. My heart is in the east. V'anokhi b'sof ma'arav, but I'm completely in the west. He was uh of course uh in Spain. And uh he says, v'eikh et'amennah, how could I possibly even taste es asher okhal, what I'm what I'm eating? V'eikh v'eikh ye'erav, and how could it be sweet to me? How could I enjoy life completely when I know this tremendous thing is missing? So for sure, there's a literal element to what the Meshech Chochmah is saying, but perhaps we could take it a little further. And we could say that living Eretz Yisrael'dik, living like you're in the Sukkah, living like you're in Eretz Yisrael means to have mitzvot pervade your existence. That means for everything do, to be to be infused with the flavor of food that you eat, but also your actions to be infused with the flavor of Eretz Yisrael. If a person lives like that and they yearn and they pine for Eretz Yisrael in the in the measure of words that that that they mistake it, but that's how they want to live, so then they're part of the ideal group, the people who are living life the right way. With this idea that the idea of a sukkah and the idea of Eretz Yisrael are linked because everything is connected to mitzvah, maybe we could understand why it is that on sukkas we have the chutzpah, we have the temerity to invite Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov and the others into our sukkah. The ushpizin. In fact, some people on Shabbos Chol HaMoed don't even sing Shalom Aleichem because they're not inviting the malachim in because this is not a place of malachim, we already have the avos. Why is it specifically now? So I I once heard I I believe from uh Reb Betzalel Rudinsky, I once heard him explain that the idea, the concept here is that when the avos who lived their life completely lived their lives completely dedicated to Torah, to mitzvahs, everything that they did was was pervaded by mitzvahs, they feel quite at home in our sukkah because that's what the sukkah represents. That's what Eretz Yisrael is supposed to represent. Finally, the Midrash Tehillim. The Midrash says on the same uh Tehillim, on the same psalm actually, "Behi b'Shalom Sukki", that in Yerushalayim there'll be a sukkah. So there's a different idea of sukkah. We refer to the Beis HaMikdash as a sukkah, as a protection. And the Midrash says that there's a place in Yerushalayim, b'Shalom, there's a place there where Hakadosh Baruch Hu as it were, k'viyachol, davens. And he says, "Yehi ratzon milfanai", whatever that means, "May be my will shebana yasu teshuvah, that my children should do chuvah. For a career of Binyan Baisi, so that I can speedily build my house so that I can rebuild the base of mikdash. As we say, "Harachaman Yakeem Lanu Es Sukkas Dovid Hanefeles." Hashem should rebuild should should reestablish the the Davidic line, the kingdom of of Dovid Hamelech Mashiach Tzidkeinu and rebuild the base of mikdash and that will be a chag sameach. From here in Ohr Sameach, we wish you a chag sameach. Hi. >> This is Peretz Morhaim, a proud alumnus of Ohr Sameach. 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