Rabbi Gavriel Klatzko ztl - 1998 Hoshana Rabbah Lecture in Johannesburg

I never know how to take his introductions cuz they always sound like eulogies. But uh Uh he's I I almost like thinking last year when we had uh the third annual sitting in the sukkah uh Hoshana Rabbah evening learning and uh there were five of us. Myself, Rabbi Furman, Shiel Furman, and Yossi. Who else was sitting in there in So I I must say that uh as usual Or Sameach Sukkah always growing and it's uh it's really a pleasure to be back here. It It tells us the Torah tells us "Basukos tayshvu shivas yamim." That we're supposed to sit in the sukkah for seven days. And it gives us a reason. And the reason it says is "Kibasukos ashavti es Bnei Yisrael." Ashavti tells us that we have to sit in the sukkah for seven days because he placed us he placed the Jewish nation "L'maan yeidu dorosaychem" so that all of your generations should know "Kibasukos ashavti es Bnei Yisrael." All the generations should know that at one point in history Hashem took us out of Egypt and he put us in sukkahs. Therefore, we have a mitzvah of sukkah. That's what it's That's the reason. Yet if we examine this, it seems strange because God did a lot of miracles for us. And we don't have a holiday for every miracle. God took us out of Egypt and God split the sea and God gave us the manna he gave us the manna and he and we had the water the well. And it seems strange that why pick specifically on the one this one thing that he took us out and so it's a machlokes it's a question what does it mean that he put us in the sukkah itself that literally we have to live in shacks or it means that he surrounded us by the clouds of glory by the Ananei Hakavod. And that's a question. But even if we it means shacks, obviously the the Ananei Hakavod the clouds of glory were included in this. But the question that the Nisevo Shalom asks, and uh I bother all of us, why specifically this? Why not Why don't we have a holiday for every miracle that happened to us? You imagine, this is something that happened took us out in the in Egypt from Egypt. Here we are sitting in the desert, surrounded by the clouds of glory. It was a fantastic thing. But so was the mun. Every day you wake up, you go out, and you get your your mun from the field. You eat it, no problem. No water in the middle of the desert, no problem, we'll take care of that. Here's a little water for you. Why do we have a mitzvah like this? If we understand why we have mitzvahs, to really understand what they are, and the Torah tells us that l'ma'an yeidu dor acharon, so that all your generations should know. It tells us that the same way that it was 100% applicable 3,300 years ago, that they had no question that they had a certain amount of gratitude to Hashem because of this tremendous miracle that he did for them. That has to be the exact same feeling that we have now. It means that the mitzvah that we're relating to has to be something that we feel in the same intensity as they felt back then. Because otherwise there'd be no reason for it. When we say we remember the things that Hashem did for us, we remember the miracles that he did for us. We don't remember them in the same way that, you know, you go to Kruger National Park and you take a you take pictures of what you see, and you bring back an elephant head, and you have all these souvenirs. What a souvenir does, what an what a what a what a picture does, a photograph does, is it helps you remember that nice feeling that you had before, and it makes that feeling a little bit more tangible. But that was the past, and this is the present. And at any point that I I want to go back to the past, I could just look at this I could just look at this picture. That's why we have souvenirs, that's what they do for us. The mitzvahs, when Hashem tells us we have a because we're supposed to remember it. And over here, even more than remember it, so that we should know it. We should understand it. It's not telling us so that you should try to think what it felt like. You should have like a nice memory of leaving out Egypt. Here you are, we had this nice lifestyle in Egypt and all of a sudden we come out and we're having a jar out in the desert, right, with all the snakes and the scorpions and we have nothing to eat and we have nothing to drink. All these pleasant memories. Right, these are the things that we're supposed to be remembering. It's not that we're supposed to bring ourselves back to the past, but rather the emphasis is on the present. In order to understand in order to understand that every generation has the same feeling because every generation is capable of experiencing that exact same feeling and capable of experiencing and does experience the exact same miracle that had happened to the people when they left 3,300 years ago. This doesn't only apply to the mitzvahs in in of Sukkah. It applies to all the mitzvahs. All the mitzvahs when we have, for example, Pesach, it says it's a time of freedom. It's not talking about that we were taken out of Egypt. This is very far away from us. You're talking about generations and generations 3,300 years ago. We're living in a Western society. We're living in society. We have everything wonderful. What's the point of remembering what what it was like back then? Not only what's the point, but it seems like it's a very difficult thing for us to do. To actually try to concentrate and visualize what it's like to be a slave. You know, we have clothing, we have food, we have a house. It's it's very far fetched from us. And yet we see what the Torah, we see what our tell us is that on the one hand, yes, it's remembering that tremendous miracle that happened when took us out of Egypt. But on the other hand, it's telling us something that's very relevant to our lives. It's telling us something that's very personal to ourselves. That every single one of us have our own personal Egypts. Every single one of us have our own personal constraints, our borders, our boundaries, the things that we're not able to get out of. And Pesach is a special time that not just we remember it, but cabalistically it tells that there is a special energy, there's an influence of flow from from heaven that comes down and helps us tap into that and take advantage of it. Take advantage of that of that miracle that helps us step outside of our lives, step outside of our complacency, out of our out of our out of our constraints, out of our yetzer hara, and have simcha and osher, have a time of freedom. The same thing applies for Shavuot. The same thing applies for Matan Torah, for the giving of the Torah. We say every day, "Thank you, Hashem, shelo asanu k'motar ha'aretz." That you gave it to us. Baruch atah Hashem, nosein ha'Torah. Thank you, Hashem, nosein ha'Torah, you the one who gives us the Torah. It should have said, "Baruch atah Hashem, nosein ha'Torah." Thank you again, Hashem, for the fact that you gave us the Torah. How come it says nosein ha'Torah? So, the Sfas Emes explains that nosein ha'Torah means that Hashem is constantly giving us his Torah. Every single person has the ability of having their own Matan Torah, their own kabbalas ha'Torah, their own acceptance of the Torah. There are certain times during the year that we have to tap into these things. Certain times that that energy is is just waiting for us to grab onto it. Because of that, why specifically the mitzvah of Sukkah has to do with Matan Torah? How come it has to do with something that happened so long ago? And how come it has to do with that thing that doesn't that as opposed to any other miracle, like the manna, like the water, like the well? Answers in the Shev is that there's two types of of miracles that happen. There's miracles that happen that need to happen at this point in time based on our circumstances. For For they were in the desert, they didn't have anything to eat. Right? They weren't capable of getting anything to eat because there was no animals in the desert. So, what did they do? Hashem made a special miracle that applied at that time. And that miracle was that they were able to have money. They were able to go out every day and get something to eat. But that was for that generation. That was based on their needs. The water was the same thing. The splitting of the sea was the same thing. It was based on their needs in those times. And when they are covered, the clouds of glory, this sitting in the sukkah is something that is not wasn't just based on their needs. It's based on their needs and it has to do with our needs also. The the emphasis of it, the idea that we learn from it, and the everyday thought and the everyday interaction that we have with Hashem is very very much relevant to us in terms of what these clouds of glory were. What did they do for us? We went into the desert. It's a dangerous place. Hashem looks back on us and he says, I remember Hashem said Hashem says, "Look at that. I remember this this kindness that in your youth that you did for me, that the Jewish nation did to me." The love of my of my color, the love of my bride. Left What was that? The greatest love this this tremendous compliment that he pays to us. The greatest compliment that you followed me into a desert into a place that had There was nothing planting. There was nothing that you could eat over there. That we followed Hashem. It was a certain amount of a certain amount of faith that we had in Hashem. And we followed Hashem into that. That's what the Bnei Yisrael did. It's true that Hashem protected us. And it's true that he took us out of Egypt. But you see that four-fifths of the Jewish nation died out in Egypt. Four-fifths of the Jewish nation weren't on the level of really putting their emunah into action, making that trust in Hashem something that they going to be able to live by. And they remained within those borders, within boundaries. They weren't able to leave that. The rest of the Jewish nation came out and they followed Hashem into a desert. You had a man Nachshon ben Aminadav. When they're standing here, you had the sea, over here you had the Egyptians on the other side coming to get them, coming to kill them. What did he do? He started walking. He says Hashem says it's going to be okay. No problem. I trust you. It's going to be okay. And he starts walking and he's walking and he's walking and it gets up to his knees, to his waist, to his chest, gets up to his neck, up to here. He's about to drown. Can't go any further without drowning. All of a sudden the sea splits. Took a certain amount of courage. Took a certain amount of saying, "I'm not just paying lip service to my feelings. I'm showing what I You know, I walk the I talk the talk and I walk the walk." We're feeling it. That's what That's what the emotions that we have. That's what the emunah that we have over here is. That Ananei Hakavod, the clouds of glory, was something that is very, very much relevant to our days in the same way that it taught us emunah back then. It taught us that no matter who tries to attack us, no matter whether it's it's nature that tries to attack us, no matter it's the fact that we're not able we don't have food, no matter if it's if it's the the the at the mercy of the elements or at the mercy of everybody else who tries to attack us, we know that I have the clouds of glory and the pillar of fire that's going to protect us. Hashem literally came down himself and protected us. He He said, "You're my child. You're my loved one. I'm going to protect you. That's my responsibility." And that's what he did for us. For us today, this happens so many times. Our entire lives, we we view them we try we kind of defeat them in very small instances of our primitive pettiness, that the way that we lead our lives. Uh we have God over there and we have our our business over here. We have God over there and we have our little lives over here. Yet in reality, that what the what the Ananei Hakavod, what Sukkah is trying to teach us, is that there's so much more to it. This Hashem is involved in our everyday lives to the tremendous amount and we don't even know it happens to us. I'll tell you two stories. One of them is familiar I think it was 4 years ago on Hanukkah came out is that there was these Arabs who were driving and they got in a car accident. Somebody called the police and the police came and they they found in the car the car was in was full of explosives and weapons and they found an entire layout of the Itri Yeshiva which is which is in which is it's in the Shatahim. It's right next to Talpiot but it's in Arab surrounded neighborhood. It's and it's Yeshiva with the Yeshiva Ketana it's a primary school. And these these Arabs were were going and they were trying to they were going to attack the school and wipe out the whole school. What happened? They got in a car accident. Now how many we happened because of the media we happened to find out about it. How many times do these things happen that we don't know when it's about to happen? The it says that it says that Hashem that all the nations of the world will understand the power of Hashem. How will they understand the power of Hashem? Because every time they try to do something something happens and it doesn't work out. So they understand in a sense better than we understand it. Last year while living in Savoy we we in the middle of the night I get a phone call from the the the armed response. They want to know is everything okay? So I'm like I guess everything is okay and it's 2:00 in the morning. Everything should be okay. I didn't hear I didn't hear a siren nothing. We have an alarm system of course. So so so but I look out the window and the house that we were at had a had a sensor light. Which in order for it to go on somebody has to walk in front of it. Here it is 3:00 in the morning and I look out the window and the sensor light is on. So that means that there must have been somebody there. So I say you know it's better come and check it out. Turns out they come they were half of people there that tried to get into the house they couldn't get into the house, they got into the garage, they jumped over the fence. Unfortunately, at that time I didn't have my fortress like I have now with barbed wire and electric and this and that, but they got away. They got scared away by this armed response. But I couldn't figure out why was it that that they called me at this time cuz alarm didn't go off. So turns out that 3 days beforehand somebody had unplugged the alarm system to to plug in a vacuum cleaner and they forgot to plug it back in. And has a backup battery. 3 days later, the backup battery at 3:00 in the morning at the exact time that there were people who were trying to break into the house runs out and sets off the alarm. I mean it's it's you don't have to look any farther. I mean it's it's all right there before us. That's what the covered up. That's what the that's what these clouds of glory they teach us a certain amount of the moon. They teach us that everything that we have is based is based on our sham whether we understand it or not. On the one hand we have our houses, we have our comfortable lives, but then we move out of our houses and we put ourselves to the mercy of the elements. We put ourselves saying that you know, life isn't as it seems. It's not as stable as it seems. It could disappear in a flash. And here we are and we're putting all our trust in our sham hoping that for example, on the first night of Sukkot not the entire Sukkot just blows away instead of just half of it. And this is this is what we're doing on the Sukkot. And that's why it says the man yay do the say him that your generation should know. No matter who the generation is. You could say okay look, you know, these people when they left Egypt they were on a very high level. I mean they had left you know, 210 years of slavery, but they said we're willing to follow follow you. They experienced all these miracles. All right, I mean and not only that, but like what type of choice did they have? You know, you could stay in Egypt sure, you know, what a life get killed, that's another option. You know, so but they they were at a very high level. Maybe we're not at such a high level. Maybe we're not on the level of a moon right in order to experience these things. Maybe we don't trust in Hashem as much as we should. So again says the Sfas Emes that if you look at the way that the word "l'man yeidu doros acheirim" the word "doros acheirim" is missing a vav. It should be spelled dalet vav reish vav samech which is called in balashon kodesh considered a complete word. But you could spell it without it. In the Torah it writes it without it. To tell you "l'man yeidu doros acheirim" so that every generation should know. The generations that are full but even the generations that are missing something. Whoever you are, this is a promise that Hashem gives us. Right? "L'man yeidu" understand I took care of you once I'm going to take care of you again. That's what the Sukkah's about. That's what the Ananei Hakavod is about. It's Hashem coming down to us, taking care of us, and it's us saying Hashem we put our faith inside of you. The Gemara tells us that Sukkah is equal to all other mitzvos. Why is it equal to all other mitzvos? Because what are all the other mitzvos? What's the basis for every mitzvah? We know the famous story, the famous midrash that says that Hashem went to each nation of the world and they said He said, "Do you want to accept the Torah?" So he came to the first nation he says they say, "Well, what's written in it?" He says it says, "Don't kill." So I'm sorry but you know, that's what we that's what we do. We kill. So we can't accept the Torah. Came to the next one he says, "Do you want to accept the Torah?" He says, "What's written in the What's written in it?" He says, "Well, it says don't steal." I'm sorry but this way we you know, somebody's got to make a living somehow. Right? So that must have been Africans I think. But they So um so you know, we we don't want to accept it. And he went through each each nation like this. Then he comes to the Jewish nation and he says "Do you want to accept the Torah?" They said, "No problem. Na'aseh v'nishmah." We'll do it and we'll hear. It seems to be irresponsible. You know, the other people they knew where they knew what they were lacking. They asked what's written inside of it. How could the Jewish nation, we claim to be so smart, right? You want to you know, check out of it whether it's going to be the best deal we could possibly get, right? And what did they say? No problem. Na'aseh v'nishmah, we'll do it. Where where was the responsibility? I think that the answer is is the fact that based on the past they understood where they were. They understood that, you know, they just came out there were a nation of slaves. They understood that, you know, there's a lot to do in their lives. But they had the faith that they could do it. They had the faith in themselves that they could do it. And they had the faith if Hashem is offering it to them, it means that it's something that's possible for them to keep. The other nations that came to Hashem said, "Do you want to do it?" They said, "What's written in it?" They said, "This is me. I can't change." Right? They didn't have the faith in themselves and they didn't have the faith that Hashem had in them. So if you don't have the faith, you don't have and I don't have you don't have this trust in Hashem, the creator of the world, the one who had shown outright miracles. If you don't have that If you don't have that much trust, so then you don't have any place for mitzvahs. The mitzvahs, as much as we have understanding of them, as much as some of them we understand and the other ones we don't understand, as much as maybe some of them benefit us and the other ones we don't see how they benefit us, we do them cuz we understand that Hashem gave it them to us. That's what the meaning that's what the feeling of of all the mitzvahs is is is That's why we do that. For for to to strengthen our emunah, that's a basis for it. On the other hand, it also says like this is that remember we started off saying that there was a question, was it just clouds of glory or was it just huts? So ask the Sfas Emes, he says, "Why was it why would they have to build huts? If anyway they were going to be having uh clouds of glory, why would they have to build huts at all?" And he says that it's one thing to to experience a miracle. It's one thing to go out into the desert and and all of the sudden Hashem protects you. To reach a high level like that is not such a big deal. To understand that is not such a big deal. To go out to build something yourself, to be involved in the miracle, for a way of putting it down saying, you know, Hashem, I know that you have the ability to do it, but I'm going to put in my effort also. I'm going to become part of this miracle. He says that's why they have to build huts. When we come out, when we go into the sukkah, we put our entire energy in there. We put our entire life into it. We say that Hashem, we understand that there's something not right in our lives and we want to perfect it. We want to push all this other stuff aside and focus on you now. Focus on the relationship, whatever the relationship might be. Okay? But let's focus on it for now. And that's what we do. We are involved in it, not just waiting for it to come to us. But we're going to say, Hashem, we're so invested in this that we're going to put into it. So the Sfas Emes, that's why according to that to that commentator, it says that that they also built huts within that Ananei Hakavod. He says that's the reason why we have to why we have to build the the sukkah. It's because that we should be involved within this mitzvah. Why that Ananei Hakavod? Another reason why that why why these clouds of glory as opposed to any other mitzvah was because and this is uh what Rabbi Goldstein alluded to was that the clouds of glory came in the merit of Aaron Hakavod, of Aaron. And what was what what was a Aaron was referred to as a Cohen as an Ohev Shalom VeRodeph Shalom. When we talk about a priest, they we should be a nation of priests, it means that what does a priest do? The priest is a one that makes shalom. He makes peace between man and God. He builds that relationship. He bridges the gap that there is between us and God. And here you have Aaron Hakavod and in his merit, right, we have these clouds of glory. The glory. Now, what happened was he was involved in the sin of the golden calf. He was the one who didn't instigate it, but he in a sense led it. According to one of the commentaries in the Talmud, it says that he led it in order to teach people the power of teshuvah. Everybody was involved was in was putting their lives on the line in order to show that you can no matter how bad you do it, how bad how far away you go, how much you commit adultery, that ultimately you could come back and Hashem will accept you back. That's a tremendous thing. That Gemara obviously needs to be understood. How could they put themselves in that situation? Doesn't mean it was a conscious thing. That's not for now. But ultimately, what the idea of of uh of the clouds of glory were, and the idea of the sukkah, was here they are in the merit of Aaron HaCohen. He's a supposed to be the one that is bringing us closer to Hashem. And yet, on the other hand, he was partly responsible for the sin of the golden calf, which was a terrible sin. And still you see afterwards that that Hashem accepted the teshuvah of the entire Jewish nation. He accepted it. We have the faith when we go outside. We just finished the Yom Kippur. We finished the Rosh Hashanah. And we're showing Hashem that we understand totally, no matter what, we have this faith in you. We have this faith in Hashem that we'll be able he'll accept our teshuvah. And we're showing him how much we have this faith. Tonight is Hoshana Rabbah. Hoshana Rabbah, as Rabbi Freeman pointed out, is the last stamp. It's the last, you know, it's true that it's we're judged on the water, but it says that the water is the essence of man. Right? If we didn't have water, we wouldn't be able to live. So, therefore, in a sense, we're being judged also. And we are being judged. The books are closed tonight. The water, as he as Rabbi Goldstein also referred to, is mayim chayim, is Torah. Torah is our entire lives. Torah brings us closer to Hashem. I I heard it uh from a certain Lubavitcher Rabbi today. I don't remember his name, that's why I said a certain one. He just moved to town and I just met him. But he he brought down from the Rebbe that that we the the Torah says that each one of the four minim relate to different type of Jew. One of the esrog is a Jew that has that it cuz it has ta'am v'reiach, it has smell and it has taste, so it refers to the refers to the Jew that has Torah and and good deeds, Torah and mitzvahs. He said to each one is different, I'm sure other people have spoken about it here. But he says that the lulav refers to the person that it refers to the person that has Torah and doesn't have the ma'asim tovim, he doesn't have the good deeds. And he explains that that person we tend to look at as a negative thing in terms of here's this here's this guy that you know you're learning and you don't have good deeds, what could it be? But explains the Rebbe is that if you look at the lulav, the lulav is the largest of all the four minim. It's the tallest one, it's the one that sticks out. Ultimately the Torah is going to affect everything else. We say anilat lulav that we take the lulav. We should have said the most complete one would be the esrog. Should have said anilat um I'll we should have said that we're taking the esrog. Instead we say we take the lulav. Torah is the basis of life. Torah is the connection to Hashem. Torah is reading Hashem's blueprint to creation. And on Hoshana Rabbah we're judged on our water, we're judged on our Torah, we're judged on our inspiration. Says that Hoshana Rabbah is on the 21st day of Tishrei. And it's it's marumash, it's hinted to in Hashem's name where it says when Moshe Rabbenu came Hashem Hashem said you have to go tell the Jewish nation I'm going to take them out. He says what am I going to tell them? Who who's like speaking? He says my name is Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh. I will be what I what I will be. The word Ehyeh is a gematria, it comes out to the numerical value of 21. On Hoshana Rabbah what we concentrate on is the future. We again we concentrate on the chuva. We concentrate on the feeling of of A year I will be I will become something. We do this every year. We keep trying every year to do it and sometimes we don't do it. And he says that's why the the the song says this is a A year I share year that you're you're an A year you'll be but you won't be I share year so you will be. You have to keep on looking at it you have to keep on concentrating on it. If you add the two together A year I share A year by itself it comes out to the word MS it comes out to the word of truth. What you want to be what you really want to be is dependent on how much you really want to be. The truthfulness of how you come to it. The amuna that we have the faith in Hashem how far does that extend? And so we have our traditions and we go out into the sukkah but does it extend to the point that we're going to lead our whole lives by it? That we're going to have our faith in business in the same way that we have our faith to go outside and sit in the wind? That we understand that everything in Hashem everything that Hashem tells us is going to be something is is really it we we really have faith in that? That's what Hashanah Rabbah is about. It's a time that we're judged on our feeling. It's a time that we're judged on our amuna. It's a time that after 7 days of sitting in the sukkah of taking the four things the the the four species together and putting our entire essence into them of shaking them with all our might of inviting our forefathers into our sukkah in order to help us relate to who they are. After doing all of these different things we come to Hashanah Rabbah it's our last chance before the books are closed. Where are we holding? Where do we really want to be holding? Looking at the sukkah looking at the ananei hakavod looking at the clouds of glory and their relation to us we see that they're not something that was just back long time ago 3,300 years ago. It's something that is leman yaidu lehasachem it's something that is totally appropriate and applicable for every generation from now from back then until now and until all of the future. We're going to have next year rather firm in rather party should be in Jerusalem and it should be with everybody truly underneath Hashem Sukkah Yom Kippur.