Lessons from the Worst Sukkah in the Bible - Tehila Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

I hope you're all having a wonderful Sukkot I know I am I love Sukkot I don't know why I love it so much but I just love it and I don't want to critique it but I have a question about Sukkot is it not a little bit of a strange scheduling choice I mean all of our holidays have a historical thing that they're commemorating pesach Passover remembering the Exodus and Chef what we're remembering the day of getting the Torah on Rosh Hashanah it's the creation Hanukkah you know the Maccabees beating the the Greeks what is it in Sukkot that makes us celebrate it now I mean yes we know that Hashem took us out of Egypt and had us dwell in booths whether they were physical booths or spiritual booths in the clouds okay but like if I was hashem's calendar coordinator when would I put that wouldn't it be most sensible to let's say commemorate that National experience in its chronological order like you leave Egypt there's PESA and then sukode when Hashem put us in the booth and then you received the Torah that would make sense but even without chronological order we for 40 years in these booths okay so then it could be anytime why put it right up Clio and I mean think a second about young people I don't know anyone even the most cynical person that does not you know at last moment of Yom Kippur when you say Hashem Hashem is gone Hashem is one and I don't know anyone who after that full day of praying and fasting and putting aside all of our physical needs and here's that chauffeur at the enemy MP4 and doesn't just feel like I want to be a good person I want Hashem To Rule The World To Rule my life like we just feel it and so if I'm like the Divine calendar scheduler I would want people to start the year that way wouldn't that be a great way to launch into the new year with all of that hopefulness for becoming better and leaving our mistakes behind starting with a clean slate of forgiveness and goodness but instead we go on to Absolute code Sukkot I mean we already had Elle we were doing two up for a month and then Rosh Hashanah we make Hashem King then 10 days of real repentance now we really mean it and then Yom Kippur final repentance but then Sukkot and when you think about Sukkot it's really about our basic physical needs food Water Shelter right we make like this makeshift shelter and we wave around raw uh you know ingredients raw produce and we pray on the Altar for rain it's like things that symbolize our most basic human experiences like in our physical body after Yom Kippur where we put aside our physical body what could be the Thematic connection between these things it's a weird like sort of Planning and Development what I want to argue is that the halacha is actually teaching us something here and it's interesting because Allah says it right after right after Yom Kippur we're supposed to immediately start building the sukkah really like after young people you don't get to just bask a little bit in the Holiness no you immediately start banging away I want to suggest that that Allah is trying to teach us that there's a direct connection and a process that we are being led through on these days there's an internal development happening step by step and I think that maybe the key to actually understanding it is by reading what the sages told us to read from the books of the prophets on Yom Kippur and that is the Book of Jonah okay I know it doesn't seem connected but you have to bear with me Jonah in a nutshell I'm sure you all know it Hashem sends Jonah to tell ninbe to repent he doesn't like the mission he runs away and then there's a storm on the boat they reluctantly throw him off when they realize that it's him he gets saved by a fish goes to preach an inve becomes the world's most successful Prophet everyone repents the people of ninvee they don't need to go to a year of Yeshiva they don't have a seminary they're just like yes we're repenting now and then when I say everyone repents I mean everyone one of my favorite stories in John is when they said they all fasted and they made their farm animals fast the people were sackcloth and the Animals wore sackcloth the people faster than the animals faster it makes me laugh because our daughter Emma if you ask her what she wants to do when she grows up she is dead set on being get this a professional ballet teacher for kittens and puppies which means that she spends most of the day chasing around our dog dreidel and our cat star with little handmade tutus and tiaras that she designs for them it's like a slow going process but that line always makes me laugh because they take their repentance so seriously down to dressing up their sheep and goats in sackcloth and then Hashem decides not to destroy ninfa but Jonah is angry and at the Injustice and then there's this weird back and forth with Hashem with an unanswered question and a gourd and he's angry wants to die Hashem gives him a parable comparing nimba to his gourd and he doesn't really give an answer or concede his point and then the book finishes and you're sitting there saying your Yom Kippur prayers and you're wondering why are we reading this I mean the seeming answer is like well they repented so I guess we learned to repent also but like really like yeah they repented I guess we don't really hear much about their thoughts their process it's like one line out of the entire four chapters of the book and if you look at the main character he doesn't really seem to do any repentance at all Jonah starts out mad at Hashem disagreeing with him disobeying him running away he gets eaten by a fish and he still doesn't say sorry in all of his prayer and even at the end of the book he doesn't say sorry and he we don't even know at the end of the book if he conceded hashem's point and you know think about the Bible there's so many amazing uh repentance stories I think about Judah and Tamar says Tamara was right and I was wrong or David when he hears Nathan the prophet and he says oh I've sent Hashem like this was the story that won the repentance story contest and so I want to suggest that maybe just maybe the question of how this book serves to convey the ideas of Yom Kippur might actually be the wrong question think about it if our sages were looking to teach us something a scriptural passage that would Inspire us to do repentance wouldn't the right time to learn that scriptural passage be I don't know a little Rosh Hashanah okay you want to push it off to the last minute the beginning of Yom Kippur Inspire us to do chuva but the last part of the end of Yom Kippur that were the last message that we're supposed to read from the prophets the end of Yom Kippur is this like even if it was teaching us something about repentance isn't it like a bit late in the game to be doing that so maybe it's the wrong question maybe this is not teaching us about poor I know this is a little bit radical but it's actually the last chance to give us a message from the prophets before launching into Sukkot so we read it at the end of Yom Kippur to actually teach us something about the bridge and the connection that Yoda can give us between Yom Kippur and Sukkot so maybe the book's eyes are not on enhancing are Yom Kippur but the book is brought to us the Book of John has brought to us to teach us about Sukkot why do I think this is here's the thing can it be a coincidence that the Book of Jonah actually ends up talking about Asuka right before we start to quote I know you're probably looking at me a little crooked like what does she mean that Jonah what does that have to do with this quote I tell this to people and they're like what but actually if you look closely the story of Jonah ends with Jonah being mad and Hashem giving him this whole lesson but if you look carefully he's actually not sitting under the plant if you look at artistic representations they're always presenting him as sitting under this gourd plant don't notice something really interesting actually the verse one now it displays Jonah exceedingly he was grieved so he's upset that the people repented he's really upset you know what is this about how do you forgive such bad people look at verse two and he prayed to the Lord and said please O Lord was this not my contention when I was still in my land for this reason I hasten to flee to tarshish because I know because I know that you are a gracious and merciful god slow to anger with much kindness relenting of evil this is why I was so upset because I knew you would forgive them these are horrible people they've done horrible things they fast for a few days they dress up their cow in a sack and now you forgive them this is ridiculous this is absurd the way you are ruling the world Hashem makes no sense and he's actually using the words that we would say on your Kip are using some of the attributes that we read of hashem's mercy and he's so frustrated that Hashem is running the world this way he looks to him like a sick game he says forget it I don't want to live and then let's look at verse 4 Ashton answers this is so interesting because are you really upset Jonah uh yeah I'd say he's pretty upset Hashem I think the dead will give away with him asking uh to not live anymore okay uh so far very inspiring for chuva now let's look at verse five and now this is what I want to show you because once you see it you can't unsee it he says Jonah had gone out of the city and stationed himself at the east of the city and there he made himself Asuka it literally says the word sukkah and he sat under it in the shade until he would see what would happen in the city so just to do a Midway summary here what is going on we had repentance the people of ninbeh fasted we have hashem's forgiveness and then of all the things that could have happened like Yoda going home instead he sits and builds a sukkah and we read this at the Crossroad point between Yom Kippur and Suka there's been like a fasting or repentance and now somebody built a sucker where exactly at that point what is he actually doing here let's try to get into his mind for a second he's looking at the city he's not like Lot's wife looking back at the city right he's like actually like for a second like a glance he's actually setting up shop he builds a shelter what is he watching the city for to me it's pretty obvious like what is there to see in the city he had an argument with Hashem he said I knew this would happen you would forgive people that are so bad you would show them this kindness and what do you think he's hoping to see when he's sitting in natsuka try to put yourself in his shoes so I see it as one of two options when I break it down option one is saying maybe I convinced Hashem I gave him my point of view avrah have argued with Hashem and convinced him to reconsider destroying Stone maybe I convinced Hashem to reconsider not destroying ninvee maybe Hashem will compromise and make a little destruction like a garden variety famine or like a fire or something where just the bad guys die what's the other option maybe Hashem didn't destroy them because they did shuva but Jonah thinks they're going to go bad again maybe they'll be bad and then Hashem will destroy them they'll surely slip back into evil that wasn't like such a serious repentance who wants to be there to see it Jonah to say look Hashem who was right and who was wrong so he Parks himself in Asuka to look at an infant verse six what happens says now the Lord God appointed a gourd plant it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to shade him from his discomfort and Jonah was overjoyed with the kikayon so Hashem made this plant here to give him shade but that's weird because he was already in Asuka Asuka is made give you Shades we have like extra shade honest shade now I want to pause here for a second because maybe you're not convinced yet that this story of someone leaving the city place you know like the city a place of permanent dwellings to go sit in a sukkah coming right on the heels of a big repentant fast maybe you don't think that this is a giant neon sign flashing Sukkot Sukkot right like maybe you're thinking in the olden days people always made like little shady structures look at the words it says here when he says he was overjoyed it says in Hebrews which is the exact word of simha that Hashem uses when talking about how we should feel on Sukkot it could have said he felt relieved from the heat he felt pleased by the shade it says exactly the feeling you shall be happy on your Festival but here's the kicker it's not that hard to make a sukha the mishta tells us the rules don't make it too tall don't make it too short but like seriously you don't even need four walls to make a kosher so got two walls and a bit of a third wall and you're good to go right but what is the main thing you need plant material that is not attached to the ground to serve as shade now there are two main criteria the shade needs to be more than the light meaning it's not enough to put up a few sticks your sukkah is unkosher if there's more sunlight shining in your Suka than shade the second main condition is that you're not allowed to have living plants on top of your shade so the mission in chapter one attracted says You must not put your sukkah under a tree could there have been a worse than yonasuka I mean he literally built it to make shade because he's sweltering hot and he gets effective shade from the tree that means that Asuka was not effective so like if you weren't sure that what he's doing is wrong and then if you're not sure what he was doing is wrong Hashem grows something over his house I mean he has bad covering of a sukkah and then he makes it even worse by having a tree go over so like to me this is a neon sign but if you still don't believe me look in track dates took of the Jerusalem talmud on the fifth page it says that Jonah the son of amitai was a pilgrim to the temple and went to the celebration of the water on the Altar and received divine inspiration meaning in case you miss all that this book is made to prepare you for Sukkot the talmud also tells us that Jonah's original prophecy took place on Sukkot why does all this matter to me if anyone ever talks with me about their marital problems I always say listen I'm not a therapist I'm a divorce lawyer I have no clue what the right thing is to do is but I can tell you what the wrong thing to do is because I've seen a lot of people do the wrong thing I can tell you what not to do you know there's a lawyer in New York just wrote a marriage advice book called if you're in my office it's too late advice about what not to do so this is that here's this day of repentance followed by this experience being done in the most glaringly obvious wrong way what are we supposed to learn well maybe it's showing us what not to do it's like here look at this really not Kosher sukkah don't make the wrong transition from Yom Kippur to Sukkot here's how to do it right Jonah messed it up you shouldn't mess it up why do we need this so now let's go back to the question that I started with let's imagine for a second that the holiday season ended with Yom Kippur suko would be properly scheduled in some other time of the year and we start the year with a bang with a chauffeur being blown at the end of Yom Kippur and we go into a year of piety and righteousness right well think back to your Yom Kippur finishing off I always finish off and leave the synagogue and my last thought being this year will be different I will be amazing I have a clean slate I am so pure right now I'm going to be so good and literally by the time I've gotten home most times I've lost patience with one of my kids I've said something not nice about somebody else maybe I forgot to say a blessing on the food that I'm so hungry to eat I'm like that was so fast how did I manage to mess myself up so quickly wow and then what do I think to myself maybe all this repentance is just superficial maybe it's just fake people don't really change I get so down on myself so cynical I had good intentions but what is that even worth maybe ninve is like an exaggerated character of that thing we all go through look how quickly they did they want to be good but we know the end of the story we know that they're not really going to be good eventually they're going to destroy the tribes of Israel and do serious damage to Judah like just a few years later so even though they seem sincere Yona is calling the whole thing into questions saying they're not really going to change what is this all worth is this some big show this repentance does it really mean anything Jonah thinks that and he goes and makes a sukkah to go haha look let's watch and see how meaninglessly this unfolds and by showing us that hisoko is not made properly maybe it's teaching us how to have the proper sukkah as the antidote for that cynicism that can stem out of Yom Kippur because the we could get bogged out and the mysteriousness and the absurdity of The Human Condition but maybe there's something here to teach us and and so I think that we need to look at the parable that Hashem gives at the end because if we're learning from you don't know what not to do then hashem's lesson to him deserves a closer look at what we should do so now I want to go back to the verses and look at verse 8 and 9. it says Hashem made a worm that ate the roots of the plant and then Hashem shown the son on Jonah intensely and he's schmitzing he's sweating to the point that he wants to die again and now for the first time there's an actual meaningful dialogue between Hashem and you and Hashem says are you very grieved about the kikayon and he says yes I'm very aggrieved to the point that I actually want to die I'm so upset and now Hashem gets to the actual lesson well we're so excited to hear the lesson and then we get this really strange Parable it says intent the Lord said you took pity on the kikayon it says for which you did not toil you did not make it grow which one that came into being and the next night perished now should I not take pity on Nineveh the great City in which there are many more than 120 000 people who do not know their right hand from their left and many beasts as well and that's the end we have no idea what happens to Yona did he die of heat stroke did he concede hashem's Point all we have is this Parable and the book is like aha there you go that's the lesson and you're like well do I get it I mean the parable looks kind of sensible at first but not really you had pity on the plant that was here today and gone tomorrow so shouldn't I have pity on the big city of ninvet you're like yeah but is that true did Jonah even have pity on the plant that's not like even true as a comparison so maybe we're not understanding it right the word used for pity in any level would it translate in English as pity is hasta let's see what that actually means since we don't really know what it means because it doesn't obviously mean having pity on something let's look at what Jonah was actually feeling and reverse back and figure out what Hashem is describing as emotion at ha as what was he feeling it's not that he was feeling pity for the plant he actually really wanted the plant to keep on being because he was interested in it was helping him it was good for him so maybe if we change the mercy prayer we'll make more sense you had this interest and concern for this fleeting thing that you were hardly attached to because it was really good you really cared about it I have concern I Hashem have concern for the people it's a significant difference it's a small thing Jon is saying Hashem you're too merciful he's imagining Hashem as a sort of a softy judge a judge who doesn't take crime seriously imagine that a criminal comes to court and says oh I'm so sorry your honor I had a bad childhood and it just feels bad for all the bad guys and lets them go frustrating imagine you're the prosecutor you're the police and you went to all the trouble of catching these bad guys right or in Jonah's case you're a prophet who spends their whole life telling everyone to be good and they just end up with like this super softy judges and I was like okay you know I'm letting you off the hook but I should have saying no no no no you're not understanding it's not that you had mercy on planets that you were at a vested interest in this plant you were you were perhaps a little bit self-oriented but I have a real interest it's not that I'm just being merciful I'm actually concerned for the personal growth of each person it's actually good for me I care when Hashem when the world gets better Hashem is saying it's like a parent instead of a judge when you uh you know when you punish your child or decide to let them off the hook it's not because you're having Mercy or not having Mercy is it your interest in the growth of your child so the question you ask yourself in a case like that is what will further their development sometimes we need to be tough sometimes we need to be soft but the factor is not like oh I like my I like them I'm having Mercy on them I'm kind to them or I'm not kind to them either way we're being kind to them but we know what makes our child tick and so we're interested and concernedly watching them grow to make sure they're becoming upright people and then you do what is right for them to grow and so you for this tree had a vested interest just because it was giving you some comfort think about Hashem who is actively concerned in us as our creator and perhaps this is the antidote for our Yom Kippur crisis Hashem sees your heart and your good intentions he knows you're gonna stumble but he isn't watching you and keeping track and Counting you know just to catch you so he can punish you he sees your foibles he sees you dressing up your pets making mistakes not knowing the difference between your right and left but he wants to have that moment of connection with you and even if he knows that the moment after that you're gonna fall apart and not be the same so what do we do on Sukkot we build this little rickety Playhouse we said Hashem look what we did isn't it beautiful we decorate it and we ask Hashem for our basic needs just like a child asks their parents and we basically relive that time in the desert that represents Hashem taking us on this journey a journey that had ups and downs it had Sinai in the golden calf highs and lows but eventually through that process we were able to come to the land of Israel and no point does Hashem kick us out of the sukkah or out of his Clouds Of Glory saying uh you know whatever you know you you made a mistake Hashem says I'm with you I'm concerned with you I'm concerned with your growth and so with that state of mind not a perfect piety but of Good Intentions knowing our vulnerability but at the same time that Hashem loves us and he values even those small faint moments where we feel that connection where we want to be connected in where we're yearning for him even those moments are of Limitless value to Hashem just the way that Jonah had that moment of great joy being with his with his you know the shade of his plan Hashem has So Much Greater Joy from even that moment of just pure wanting to be good but Hashem is not just going to toss us away when that moment finishes Hashem foresees our ups and downs and the sukkah is like hashem's enveloping us it's like a hug where we sit and we say look how simple we are we're just these Flesh and Bones we had that moment of Yom Kippur of being above all physical needs but in the end we come down and we just have physical needs and we have we need food we need water we need shelter we're so we're so fragile Hashem we make so many mistakes and Hashem says okay but I'm still going to dwell with you in that sukkah and that is the spirit that launches us into a good year having the high of Yom Kippur to look back to and to remember but that Embrace an envelopment by Hashem in the sukkah to finish off that season saying even if you've Fallen you will fall but it's okay because I see your heart and I value those moments that you were trying so hard and I know that you're going to keep on trying and keep on growing and that is what propels us into a true growth mindset of becoming closer to Hashem throughout the year and in the following year setting our hopes even higher and please God with our whole life just you know dedicating ourselves to becoming better and becoming closer to Hashem so with that I wish you guys all a beautiful and happy Sukkot bye guys