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Does Sukkos Spoil Yom Kippur?

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Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky avatar
Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky

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Hi, this is Rabbi Wolovsky with our question and answer series where we try to give short answers to long and complicated questions like this one, which is very long and my answer is going to be very short. Shmuel Jacobs, why does our calendar encourage resolutions to improve and then prevent them from taking hold? Imagine a principal held a meeting with a student in the fall to determine whether he should get another year to achieve something. The principal and student agree that the student will improve in specific areas and that he'll bear certain responsibilities, jobs, learning goals, community responsibility, or suffer some learning opportunities. And ultimately the student is granted another year. Now, imagine the principal tells the student to spend most of the next four weeks partying. That appears to be planning to fail. Why not spend a few weeks after Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur putting our ambition into effect so that it can actually take hold in our daily lives. I have a I have a problem with the underlying premise. I don't think after Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur we're supposed to be partying. The Gemara says that by Lulav and Esrog, "V'lakachtem lachem bayom harishon." You will take on the first day. And the Chazal are troubled by this because normally when we talk in parshas Emor, we say on the 15th day of this month, on the 10th day of this month. We we we give uh give a date. How come here it says on the first day? So, the Gemara says cuz the first day you have a chance to sin because you're spending the four days after Yom Kippur oisek in Torah and mitzvos. You're buying your dalet minim, you're getting ready for yom tov, you're building your sukkah, you're doing all these mitzvos. It's exactly what you're supposed to be doing after Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, putting all your effort into it. And then you go into Sukkot. Well, I guess to you Sukkot may appear as if it's a party, but in fact, as we know, uh the Sukkot is like a Mishkan. And we go into there in order to be filled with Kedusha. Such Kedusha that the Gemara says they were so busy over Sukkot in the voters Hashem they didn't have a chance to sleep. They used to put their head on their friends shoulder and have a little as they say, catch a little cat nap and then go back to all of the celebration, the the Kedusha and the and the Simcha that took place. Anyone who never saw the Simcha in Beit Hashoeva never saw a Simcha beforehand. And then when you come out of it, you go into Simchat Torah, Shemini Atzeret where the whole time is celebrating the Torah. And then you don't go right back. You continue in Tishrei, we don't say Tachanun because Tishrei is all about continuing that Kedusha of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot throughout the entire month. So, I have a problem with your underlying assumption and I hope this in some way answers the question.