Yizkor Thought - Feeling the Presence of What is Missing (Shemini Atzeres 5781/2020)

[Music] the great wrath of sihershberliner was once asked why is it that on pesach we encourage our children to question manish tanna why is this night different than all others and yet on sukkos they have no such question isn't sukkas just as bizarre for them to leave the permanent to leave the comfortable structure and to go outside to a temporary vulnerable fragile one it's just as bizarre it's just as peculiar so why do they ask on pesach why that night is different and yet go a whole week of sukis without asking the very same question ravsiris berliner's answer is both insightful and the same time truly tragically said he says to the jewish child our behavior on pesach is an aberration it's unusual for that child to see their parents reclining like royalty free and carefree safe and secure a limb no threat no challenge royalty and regal reclining and free that's unusual to the jewish child as an aberration it's bizarre but to see the parents living vulnerable and fragile to be outside under a sukkah without knowing safety and security sadly that's all too normal for the jewish child and so they're not moved to ask that question and here we are once again where in many ways we have safety and security in ways we never did before but in others this sukis has been bizarre it's been historical it's been unprecedented sitting in the vulnerability and fragility of the sukkah has not just been about the structure but as much it's about the time in which we live unpredictable we have no comfort or confidence in what is happening and what will be happening the guests whom we long to be with but who are absent family and friends we couldn't share this yantif that we ordinarily do together this sukkas were reminded yet yet again of our vulnerability and fragility and while the haggadah gives clear answers to the manastana on pesach night what is the answer to where we find the happiness this man the joy in sukis and the last days of sukis shimini at sarah simcha's torah the last days of this holiday are really very unusual there's no mitzvah there's no theme there's no historical event that we are commemorating the lulula vanessa have been put away and the sukkah one does not need to sit in of course we do as a customer on shminyatsaris but technically we don't sit in any longer we learn this from the words of the past that the ah is la it comes to include that we have to have simcha we have to have joy on the eighth day the last day of sukkos now it's peculiar that the word ah is coming la rabbos to add something the growth of only going points out that the word ah always comes to be mima'it to limit and to eliminate something so what is the word ah here eliminating what is it minimizing and listen to this insight of the vilnigon what he says is it's excluding it's minimizing it's eliminating you see every other holiday has a theme a historical event there's a particular mitzvah we observe that we do but this eighth day of sukis we've put that all away we've passed the historical theme there is nothing other than the sanctity of the day there is no mitzvah there's no theme there's no historical event and yet it's a yantif it's a yantav that mandates and that brings a responsibility for simcha for joy in fact our rabbis called this eighth day these last days of success a regel bifne atmo they are a holiday in their own right independent and that's why we make a shechyanu the night of sheminitzeras unlike the last days of pesach because this is a new and independent holiday and here's my question on the one hand we say regular befo it's a holiday on its own on the other we call it shmini atseres the eighth if something is an independent holiday on its own then it should be the first of that new holiday the moment that we call it the eighth we are suggesting that it is not the beginning it's not the first it's not independent or on its own rather it's predicated it's built it follows up on that which comes before so which is it is it irregular atsumo or is it shmini the eighth of something that comes before and there are many answers to this question we've shared some of them before but i want to share with you in the escrow thought as we go into the last days of sukis i want to share with you my own suggestion the ramban the maharal and others all talk about the significance of the number eight the number eight is one more than seven it represents not the natural but a step above that which transcends it represents the supernatural there are seven days of the week and seven notes on a musical scale and seven directions if you include the center seven represents the natural world and the natural order and that's what we were focused on for the week of sukkahs we sat in the sukkah who has to be come from gedulikarka that which grows naturally we took the four species which all grow from the ground that they're part of the natural order but when the holiday of nature is over when sukkas passes we stay for one more day because after the holiday of nature sukis the seven comes the holiday of eight not because it's built on what comes before it's its own holiday it's a brand new dough we say but the theme the essence of this new day that has no historical event and no theme and no mitzvah its essence is the number eight it is about the supernatural that which transcends the natural order abris is on the eighth day because jewish men are empowered to overcome their natural impulse and drive and to achieve holiness is on is for eight days because the oil defied what's naturally programmed to do and supernaturally it lasted for eight days and the gemara tells us among other things the jewish people ain't masoli israel we are not subjected to nature our very existence is indescribable mark twain in harper's magazine famously once wrote all things remain mortal but the jew all of the forces pass but he remains what is the secret of his immortality and we know the secret of our immortality it's our relationship with hashem it's our relationship with his sacred torah it's simcha's torah it's the joy that comes from a torah life the source of our eternity the basis of our stubborn existence is our commitment to torah to its values and to its vision for this world so the simcha that comes on this new independent holiday that yes follows the holiday that comes before called sukis and yet is a regular bifne atmo it's a holiday in its own right and it's a holiday that's brought to us by the theme of the number eight to remind us that we indeed are supernatural that even in a world of unpredictability even in this unprecedented time even as we remain in a period of fragility and confronting our mortality a masoli is we're not part of the natural order and we're not subject to the rules of nature and if mark twain can observe all the more so we should know with confidence that the jewish people have an eternality that we are here to stay that we achieve immortality when we tap into that sacred sacred torah and that's why we recite yiskar on this eighth day on this holiday in its own right because this is what the grace said we have the capacity to feel simcha even with when something is missing no mitzvah no historical event no theme there's no component to the day even with all that's missing we know what's there we still feel its indelible impression we still draw from its inspiration and influence we know it's present even if we can't grab it even if there's no formal ritual ceremony mitzvah component to it even when there's nothing physically there we know that it can inform and inspire our sense of joy and our happiness our confidence and our identity it completes us it makes us know who we are and what our lives are about and that's what has inspired jewish children through the ages they may ask questions but they know despite the sukkah which may not be unusual for the jewish child to confront and face that fragility and those challenging times but we know that we survive that we pass and we tap into those who are no longer here our parents our mothers and fathers our bubbies and our ladies our aunts and uncles our neighbors and friends who are they're not physically here they're not tangibly present but we can be joyful we can be fulfilled and happy we can be informed and inspired by the the continued inspiration and influence that we draw and that we take from them you know many of our bubbies and zadie's they sing a song on sukkas maybe you remember in your own sukkah they're singing maybe you sang along with them a song called asukala aklayna it was written by the yiddish writer avraham ryzen i'm not going to sing it for you not in the yiddish or not in the english but i do want to read it to you in conclusion because it really captures what we're feeling this particular year and what they faced and they felt in the conference confronting the challenges of their lives asukala akana sukkala quite small wooden planks for each wall lovingly i stood them upright i laid that thatch as a ceiling and now filled with deep feeling i sit in my sukkah at night a chill wind attacks blowing through the cracks the candles they flicker and urine it's so strange a thing that as the kiddush i sing the flames come to now quietly burn it comes my daughter bearing her food and water worry on her face like a pole she just stands there shaking and her voice nearly breaking says tatanyu the sukka is going to fall dear daughter don't fret it hasn't fallen yet the circle will be fine understand there have been many such fears for an eye 2 thousand years yet the sukhola continues to stand this year our sukkah faced not hurricane force winds but it faced challenges of who wasn't there and the challenges that we're going through of who is there it hasn't fallen yet and it never will fall if we grab onto those who come before and so as we say yusuke this year and we think about our heroes our loved ones our friends those who sacrificed in order to create and to build in order to hold up the sukkah to pass it on for us to hold up for the next generation despite the winds that it faces they've blown for two thousand years and yet the sukkah has remained upright it's our job to keep it sturdy and firm and to pass it on to the next generation and when we look for that courage and faith for that strength to do it we draw from those who aren't here but continue to be felt in our lives each and every day we love them and we miss them and we feel their hand on our shoulder we feel their loving embrace we hear their words and we still smell the aroma of their recipes and we can taste the foods they made and that we ate in our sukkah the sukkah of two thousand years the sukkah that keeps us that keeps us going we ask you in memory of those who came before he spoke about in sha bashuva that what you do is who you are words are empty but actions speak so much louder so i ask you to please contribute to the community in order for us to be able to continue to provide the inspiration the learning the davening the sense of community that we also desperately need at this time and in that way pay the greatest tribute to our loved ones who come before that not only do we give them lip service but rather what we do is who they were what we do is who we are with an extension of them may the sukkah and may our lives stand upright they please god with whatever is missing or whatever is lacking with however hard a time it is may we feel simcha may we feel the joy of knowing what we've confronted and overcome before and the confidence and faith that we will yet do it again that gamza yavor this too will pass and we will be together we'll be together with our loved ones who came before and we'll be together with one another [Music] you