Sukkot: A Time of Joy, with Rabbi Jonathan Kaplan

god willing this friday evening we uh will be celebrating the holiday of sukkot and uh with all three of our major holidays the shalom we have the idea of rejoice rejoicing we should rejoice in our holidays but when it comes to the holiday of sukkot there's an extra element of joy that seems to be required and so i'd like to look at that tonight as where do we find this idea that there is an extra element of of joy rejoicing that is associated with this holiday and then from there i want to look specifically at perhaps two different approaches to that joy that we can see in the talmud and then ultimately i like to see how we can tie it into our daily lives and how we can uh benefit from from this uh from these from this approach so first things first the torah in a number of places talks about these three holidays and also we obviously just came off of rosh hashanah yom kippur so there are certain places where we'll see that the torah talks about those holi those two holidays in the context of the charlottesville government the three legs of the three uh the charlottesville government and other times it's just the torah will just um refer to the three by themselves specifically i wanted to look at parshas amor so in leviticus chapter 23. there you have not only the three uh holidays or three major holidays but we also have rosh hashanah and yom kippur referenced as well now in this in this specific parasha of emor where it goes through it talks about it actually introduces to us the holidays and has reference to shabbos but then it starts out and it tells us about the the different holidays starts out with pesach with passover and then it goes into chevrot and the idea of counting the omer and the different carbonate the different sacrifices that are brought that are associated with each of these holidays and then it brings us to rosh hashanah the first of tirshrey the seventh month and then it tells us about the tenth of the month which is yom kippur which we just celebrated and then it tells us about sukkot and then it finishes it up finishes up so we have like a a a uh a full uh description of the holidays and then the torah kind of comes back to sukkot and and uh it actually lifts off for us the the different mitzvoth the idea of the esrogan ooh love and the idea of sitting in a sukkah but what's interesting about the way the torah reads it out in emor for us is that it doesn't you don't see by the other holidays any mention of the idea of simcha of of joy it's specifically when it comes to the holiday of sukkot that the torah then tells us that there's this idea of simcha of joy so the question is why what's what is unique about sukkot so the truth is that there are many different approaches or different explanations as to what it is about sukkot that stands out now going back to the times of the agricultural cycles sukkot was the final stage of the agricultural cycle and so everything was basically done and the storehouses were full so when you came to this holiday this was a holiday of of joy there was nothing to worry about the worries of what will be in terms of the cycle if i piss off the beginning the passover holiday was the beginning in the spring so you're starting out and even by shivoha did still we're still in the beginning or the beginning early early early early parts of the cycle it's only when we get to the end of the year by sukkot that we finally have completed everything we know okay everything is done and everything is good and so therefore that would elicit great joy this is tremendous satisfaction as to the fact that now things are done and and you you know you see that this has been a good year so the first thing is this idea of in gathering right that you've you finished up this this cycle additionally on the spiritual level you've gone through a rosh hashanah the 10 days of repentance you've gone through yom kippur you've you've been able to get through this at this incredible stage of the 10 days of repentance and the atonement of yom kippur so five days later when you come to sukkot again another reason for a tremendous symbol perhaps perhaps there are other ideas as well as to what it is but clearly and there are a number of other places that we see in the torah where simcha is associated with sukkot so there's something special about this holiday now in the uh there it it's it you know there are different approaches as to as when when the torah has this change of the way it references to to this holiday that perhaps it's the thing something different about this holiday and that the fact that we go out into sukkah that we change our place there are changes that are occurring things are different here that you don't find with the other holidays and so that also there's something different okay fine like for example this is the one holiday where the eighth day is holy by by pesach it's the seventh day that's holy not the eighth day here we have the eighth day that is holy shiva is a one day holiday and so when you're outside of israel it's two okay but the idea is that the eighth day being holy is something unique to sukkot which we don't find uh anywhere else um in the in terms of the torah uh uh prescribed holidays obviously this hanukkah which is something that is rabbinic in nature but going into this like the really delving deeply into this idea of simcha associated with sukkot is also this idea the last line in amor is the torah tells us we should know for our generation that god when he took us out of egypt he put us into sukkot behe otami aratus so now the gemaran sukkah on alabama base 11b it brings down in the discussion of what constitutes kosher for making the roof of the sukkah and in the discussion there of what makes a kosher a kosher roof what what's the material it needs to be made from so the gemara there references two opinions as to what exactly we're celebrating when we talk about the fact that god took us out of egypt and put us in the desert in sukkot now if we just have the backdrop of this holly as being a holiday of joy so the gemara there tells us two opinions rabbi leser says that what we're celebrating is the fact that god took us out of egypt and then he put us into sukkot not booths not physical dwellings but rather it's referencing the clouds of glory that when the jewish people came out of egypt into the desert god protected them miraculously with the clouds of glory so in the context of our discussion here when we are thinking about the fact that sukkot has this special element of joy and that god took us out of egypt and then put us into the clouds of glory we understand or at least it's easier to understand okay that's a reason to be happy right god showed his love for us and his care for us when he took us out of egypt he put us into these these clouds this incredible wondrous environment so that's that's that's the opinion of rabbi lazar but when it comes to the second opinion ravi akiva rabbi kiva in the gemara says that what we're celebrating is sukkas mamash literally god took us out of egypt and put us into booths he put us into tents and that were celebrated and that's the cause because when god because the great person we need to know we need to know for the generations so shaft yet beneath hashem put us into sukkot into physical tents booths temporary dwellings in the desert so the question you have to ask according to robbie kiva i don't get it i understand if you're telling me that we're celebrating this holiday to commemorate the fact that god put us into this miraculous clouds of glory covered i get that but the fact that he put us into temporary dwellings so the sheet of the the opinion of rabbi kiva is very difficult now just as a parenthetical there is another version of this gemara it's not a gemara but in in the medrash that actually flips the opinions that it's serbia lezza that says the opinion of circus mahmoud but either way the gemaran sukkah has it recorded for be leser tells us it's we're commemorating the clouds of glory but when it comes to the opinion of rabbi kievan and gemara we we need to explore this what does this mean that god literally put us into these temporary dwellings and somehow that's going to bring us back to the idea that there's a special element of joy associated with this holiday so we need to understand now there's a very difficult uh verse sentence in in that when you read it it's rather shocking and we need to understand what exactly this posture is telling us and perhaps by understanding how to understand how to read this passage properly it could reflect or could help us understand exactly what's going on with the sheikh with the opinion of ruby akiva here of sukis mamash literal booths so the pasek is in the in chapter 8 pasuk verse 17. it says like this video so it says that we're talking about when the jews came back after uh at the time of ezra they had been in uh they had been in exile and they were turning back to the land of israel it says that when they came back they made sukkot and they dwelt by yeshwa basuko kilo asu mimei yeshua bennun kane bin is and it had not been done since the time of joshua until today so from the time that the jews came into israel for the first time after they had been in the desert for 40 years they come into the land of israel the navi actually is telling us that now at this time of when the jews come back after the exile after the destruction they're coming back and it's telling us that they they put up sukkot and they had not done so since the time of joshua that's that we were talking through the times of king david king salman that they didn't put up sukkot that none for for hundreds and hundreds of years they didn't they didn't celebrate the holiday of sukkot it can't be but that's what it's telling us here so how do we understand this pasta it's a very difficult pasta but then the pasta ends like this and they had a tremendous amount of joy it was a tremendous joy so the reading of the pasake if it take it straight forward it's telling us that they had not put up sukkot since the time of joshua that seems to be the simple reading but if we look at it a little bit differently perhaps it's telling us something else says again that they they had not that okay that the those who returned from the exile they made sukkot and they dwelt in the sukkot they had not done so since the time of joshua and they had tremendous joy so now it again the way we read it and the way it seems to read is they had not made sukkot since the time of joshua or do we say that there's something unique to the time of ezra when the jews are returning from the exile and it's similar to the times of joshua but the question is in what way so if we think about it the jews at the time of joshua were coming from outside of the land that israel had been in quote unquote exile for 40 years in the desert and then they entered the land of israel so too at the time of ezra the jews had been in exile and they returned back to the land of israel and they too celebrate sukkot so what's the parallel obviously exile followed by return but then but then when they celebrate this holiday of sukkot what is the similarity is that there was a tremendous amount of joy question is why why why does exile then return sukkot equal joy the equation is exile return sukkot why is a tremendous sim card so if we go back to what ruby kiev is telling us rebecca is telling us which we looked at and we said what are we celebrating i understand the clouds of glory get it god did miraculous things the fireworks the tremendous miracles but just taking us out of the land of egypt putting us into the desert into tents in the desert that doesn't sound so special that's gonna make me happy that's going to want me to celebrate some kind of remembrance of this event but if we go and we take a look at what the torah records for us about what was the state of the jewish people when we left egypt and we were stuck in the desert even before this at the beginning as we come out of slavery we are going through very difficult period of time of transition and subjective or let's say like this objectively we know that you take a step back life is better when one's not a slave than one's a slave but if we look at the uh recounting we noticed that not just once but many times the jewish people complained to moshe to god and said we had a better knee just how how could that be how could i mean objectively we know that that's not the case they lived a horrible existence in egypt they were oppressed they suffered they suffered so much that they they yelled out to god and that's when god remembered them so what does it mean we remember the glory days of egypt it's crazy it just doesn't make any sense rather we understand it human nature is that even if we are in a better place objectively to go through a transition to go through that change is very difficult and so it's we suffered to the point of where we're not even rational about it i'd much rather go back to the to the to the to the painful thing that we know and have to go through a change in transition what's interesting is is that when we do go through that transition and we go through the growing pains when we get to the end point and then we look back there's no nothing that's more satisfying and so we look at the sheet of rabbi kiva he tells us we're celebrating on sukkot the fact that god housed us in temporary dwellings while we went through the the desert experience and that's a cause for celebration what we're celebrating there is the fact that we were able to come out of a place of darkness of slavery to get through the difficulties of the transition and then ultimately to get to a better place and so according to rabbi kiva when he says that we're celebrating sukkah's mamash what we're celebrating is the ability to go through that transit transition to go through the difficult painful growth that needs to be done to get from a place that's low and go higher we have to go through that transition and it's painful but when we get to that end point and we look back there's nothing greater in terms of joy and that's exactly what the pashami is telling us they hadn't made a circle like this at the time of your they had not made sugar since the time of yeshua bernard since the time of joshua not that they didn't make a sukkah during that whole interim period for hundreds of years they made sukkot but the fact that they were having this incredible joy there is nothing that can make up for having experienced it firsthand and so for the generation of ezra who celebrated that special sukkot it only was done in a similar way at the time of yoshua at the time of joshua because that's the joy of sukkos according to rabbi akiba the celebration of literal tabernacle of of temporal temporary huts is the idea of celebrating the idea of going through transition of going through that pain but then realizing in retrospect that that's the best thing that ever happened and if we think about it in life we all have gone through difficulties no one's ever supposed to die and hashem send me something difficult throw me the curveballs but that's the nature of life life throws us this curveballs the idea is that he's sending us those curveballs to help us get to a better place to grow to become and the truth is there's no one that experienced this then abraham hashem tested avram 10 times he didn't know that avraham was a superstar so what were the what was the what was the basis of those tests those tests were to be bring out the best to make to be able to actualize the greatness that abram became and the same thing is we say this idea of that what happened to our forefathers is a foreshadow or the the the rule book or the playbook for what should happen to the jewish people and so we see our history of difficulties so we think maybe that means that god doesn't like us and the answer is is that no he loves us we're his chosen people so what so why all the difficulties because we're on we're on a path we're on this this this journey and so we on the macro level as a people and as an individuals we go through this journey of life and the sickest holiday according to rabbi kiva sheeta of sukhos mamash is telling us that we have to look back at the difficulties and realize that they're for the best and that when we go out of this our permanent structure and we go into the temporary dwelling to recall to celebrate the time when we as a people went through this transitional stage of our existence that when we go out there we can reflect on that we can reflect on our own personal tribulations and we might be going through them now maybe that's circus is that is a time if you're going through those difficulties to realize we've been there and this is difficult but it's also for something to grow and to become better and to improve when we know that things are happening for a reason we feel better when we understand that and mean to it and we i mean are able to actually bring it home we realize and that there's nothing that brings us greater joy so the first aspect of the joy of sukkot the sukkah holiday according to rabbi is we're recalling remembering we're thinking back to the fact that we were we went through difficulties that we we as a people went through a desert in temporary dwellings but that it was for a purpose to get to a better place to help us kind of wean off the slave mentality to get past that stage and to then move to the place of where we could be a people of free people that could go into the land of israel and develop in the land of israel so again also if you think about it we're going from a rosh hashanah and a yom kippur a time of awakening a time of kind of clearing off the dust of a year where we get lost in certain things or the difficulties that we might have gone through over the course of the year and after come out of a yom kippur where we're clean we're white and we come to the sukkot holiday it's a time of tremendous joy everything in a sense we can look at it is done and we can look back and it's a time to reflect you know the idea of sukkah is to be able to see things with the clarity and so first we have the sheet of rabbi akiva where bikiva is telling us that we have to look at these transitional periods in our lives and say okay you know what i realize this is for the best it's for good it's we're able to grow and to become that much more and so that's tremendous that that when we look back and we realize and we're able to take take stock and realize of all the good that comes out of the difficulties there's no greater joy so that's that's number one when we think about literally have been housed in physical tense temporary dwellings it symbolizes the transition but the transition to something much better and that's why it's interesting this is the the uh the cherry on top is that if you look in the navi when the prophets talk about the end of days you can open it up and look in zechariah and it talks about the fact that we're going to celebrate the holiday of sukkot at the end of days and is that a coincidence the answer is no because sukkot is the holiday that expresses the idea that we're going to go through transitions difficulties but ultimately all of this is for a purpose we're doing this for a reason and we're in the process of becoming it started with avraham with abraham our father and he said hashem said to abram i want you to go i want you to go left to go for you to become hashem was looking and he was promising or directing avram i want you to go and i want you to not just go you're going because i want you to become because god has everything except one thing us he doesn't have what we can make of ourselves and god put us in this world there's a purpose each one of us has been put here for a reason to become and on the micro level each one of us and on a macro level the idea of the jewish people is a process of becoming of of constantly not just it's not like you get to a place and you retire it's like the american dream i'm going to work my 60 years i'm going to hang it up and then i'm just going to be there's no such thing in judaism we believe that this is about going somewhere constantly becoming till the day we die on at 120 we're supposed to every day get up and continue to want to grow and to become until the end and so this is what it's about and it's through transitions constant transitions so that's that's sukkas mamash so what about rabbi lazar habilizar said that what we're celebrating is the anane kavod the clouds of glory so we said it first it's easy right we're celebrating the fact that god put us in these in this miraculous miraculous setting wow it doesn't get any better than this the clouds are around us perfect god gave us the mana gave us money gave us the water we had the well of miriam so life is good no there are no worries it says that in the 40 years the jews were in the desert we didn't need a change of clothing basically everything was taken care of for us okay sounds good definitely goes counter to the robbie kiva circus mamash right i mean here if we've just developed this idea that there's nothing greater than the ability to go through transition and grow and then get to the end point and realize what it was for and that there was for a purpose and that's the reason to be to be uh to be full of joy so then if anything how does that work when we talk about the anemic the clouds of glory if anything right clouds of glory it doesn't seem to if anything now it's like it's it's almost like teaching us a completely opposite approach or maybe maybe not so the clouds of glory the gemaran thomas the tessa midalev 9a tells us that uh there were three things that the jewish people had in the desert that were miraculous we had the mana that was in the merit of moses moshe we had the well the water supply that was in the merit of miriam and then the anunnaka the clouds of glory were in the merit of aaron so now if we go back to the gemara in sukkah it starts out talking about what makes kosher and it throws out as a possum kind of like you you read the gemara you don't even notice it it's almost like didn't even notice that but if you go back and you say wait a second the talmud the gemara doesn't just throw verses everything is very exact we have to look back at that it says it says there that there was like a do this is going from back all the way to the beginning genesis 2. it says there was no shrub in the of the field and the no grass and had sprouted right so nothing's growing it's talking about in the time of creation it was almost like a pause something was waiting and then the flow would well up from the ground and water the whole surface of the earth it was a right before the creation of man there was like a a waiting period the rabbis explained that the world was waiting something was missing what was missing man there needed to be a being that had a conscience that had a conscience that was aware an awareness that appreciated and then could realize that there was something missing and that being would come and would pray and that that was what the world was waiting for and that's the next passage and then god formed man and creates man the spiritual man the way it describes it god blew into the man's nostrils a living soul so there's the conscious man that comes onto the scene so this is the passage the passage that introduces us the idea of kosher which ties into the clouds of glory is taking us back to a scene in ghanaian into the beginning i'm sorry in the beginning of creation so question is are we playing a game here is the torah teaching us a very deep idea i think would be the latter what is this idea the world is waiting for man to come and to have the awareness to appreciate that there's something lacking and that his prayer would be the key to unlock everything the creations waiting for man aid the state of the universe was in the place of a holding pattern until man arrives this is what's the reference of the of the the roof of our of our sukkah this is where we derive the properties so if we said that the annane cavo the clouds of glory were in the merits of aaron and somehow there's something about clouds that ties to prayer how so so if you think about it in the laws of nature there should be no clouds things coming together everything should be equally distributed and that's how things go the idea that things should not should go against that and should come together and form into clusters or to groups is something that's not the way things naturally go we have let's say you're off the floor a tire with air if you had your air coming into your tire into clumps you'd have a problem but it equally distributes in the space that's the natural thing the idea that things should come together into groupings would be the opposite of the natural flow so the idea of man's entry into the scene of the world of where he gives his prayer now we think of prayer almost like we think of ourselves being outside the system but the answer is the truth is that we're really inside the system we're part of the ecosystem and that the prayer makes an impact it actually is the key that makes everything work the mistake that people make is we think that everything is out of our control that we have no impact that the weather systems that the things that are going on in this world have that we have no impact whatsoever and the answer is that's not correct when we daven it makes an impact it has an impact we not necessarily see we're not sensitized we're not going to see how it impacts it directly but it does but the taurus telling us from the beginning of time that when man showed up on the scene that prayer was part of the system and made the system go so now the idea of a cloud is exactly that idea the fact that there's something that's going to come to a certain specific place and it's going to come together it's because it's being caused to do that different than the other than the parts of nature that should be naturally flowing in all and separating the cloud represents the idea of having an impact and causing these things to act differently than they're supposed to so now what does it have to do with aaron so now there are a couple of approaches to this aaron is representative of the cohen godless the priest the high priest that sits in the tabernacle in the base of mikdash in the temple he's at the center of that place he becomes adam in creation he is the one who sits as the representative of quote-unquote man to be the conscious being at the place of god's consequence concentrated placement in this world god's everywhere the basal mitthash the idea of a temple having god more present is the idea that there's a more of a concentrated experience of god in that place and then we have man a representative of man the conscious being to be in that place to appreciate to have interact with hashem in that concentrated place so where do we see this idea of appreciating or reacting because that's really what it is we're talking about a being that can react to that which is occurring outside and which is what our own what aaron represents and what is the model for us and so at the time of when moses and moshe had his discussion with god at the burning bush exodus gimmel like the third chapter of of exodus of most and then leading into chapter four moses and god they're going back and forth and moses is saying i'm not worthy i can't speak so god finally says he says to him aaron will be the mouthpiece and don't worry because when aaron sees you you're worried that aaron's going to be jealous of the fact that you're going to become the leader and god tells aaron you should know that when your brother aaron sees you he's actually going to be very happy the torah tells us that god says he'll see you this believer he'll be happy in his hearts now rashi says right look like you think that he's going to be jealous that you're going to becoming the going up to greatness and because of the reaction that he's happy in his heart meaning aaron zach he'll be happy in his heart so the idea of the heart it's the we think of the heart as the place of emotion the seed of emotion what the heart is it represents it reflects how we react right we get nervous our heart races when we're calm slower but when there's a thing that some kind of outside stimulus it's the heart that reacts so this the heart is the place of reaction the idea of aaron as the kohingol as representative of that initial creation of man going back to the beginning of time the samaj balibo he'll be happy in his heart he'll react the whole purpose is that we should be able to react we should be sensitive and have a reaction of simcha because when we see things that are supposed to be what what's why is aaron happy when he sees moses becoming great because what he's what he's witnessing is someone living up to their potential when we see a child walking for the first time we get happy when we see kids developing it gives us a source of joy this this is exactly the point aaron represents that idea of being able to react and to react with joy when we see the the potential being reached when we recognize the need for something the idea for prayer and in general just appreciating that's the that's the basis of prayer to be able to appreciate to be aware so when it comes to the anania kavod when we celebrate and success the clouds of glory we're not celebrating the fact that we sat in this you know resort where we're by the pool and we have our drinks being served with an open bar that's not what it's about rather what we're celebrating is the idea of what were they there for god houses there because of an errand because we were blessed to have again a a person in our history an aaron who had this power of believe shalom varodhi of shalom he ran after peace he sought peace he fought for peace why because he wanted to see things we want people to live up to the potential when we're not getting along with our family members with our friends when there's a lack of peace when people can't become what they're supposed to become we have to be aware the awareness of an error is the awareness of mankind of each of us we need to be aware of what's going on and to pray for things to be correct to turn to hashem and to appreciate to be aware of what we have been given and then to pray for things where we see that there's a need that's the cover when we see that when we can appreciate when we can have an awareness and an appreciation of what it means the anonymity coverage there because of an errand because of one who has that ability to appreciate and is also longing for things to live up to their potential when we're in that mindset there's no greater joy so when we come to sukkots and it's true there's so many different truths on so many different levels what i mean by that is all the things become multiple layers of meaning it says that king pharaoh he knew all the languages except one he didn't know the but the guy understood all these other languages he couldn't get hebrew the thing that he struggled with with hebrew with the holy language was that he couldn't get the layers of meaning the multiple layers when we come to the holiday of sukkot there's joy there's joy because we just came through the holiday and we were we were able to cleanse ourself we're coming to a holiday where it's the end of the cycle and therefore we're so happy we had a you know it was a good year but we also are happy because of the circus mamash because we went through transition and we realized it was for our best and we could see the growth and for that we are so thankful and we are so happy because of the the satisfaction and we're all so happy because of the anime covered because we recognize that these clouds of glory it's not just that yes it also represents the fact that god loves us and cared enough about us to protect us for those 40 years and take care of every need of ours but also it's what's behind it the deeper meaning the idea that it's there for a person like an aaron in his merit because it represents their ability to be aware to appreciate to be happy in the depths of our heart we see things that are reaching its potential and also to have an awareness to pray to say thank you to hashem to request that which is lacking there's plenty that lacks that's how the creation was based on hashem created a world where there's lack where there's a need for something to be filled in and that is done with our prayers but when we have that appreciation when we have that awareness there's no greater joy so when we come to friday nights and should come to us with goodness and hashem should bless us that we should really see an end to this very difficult time of corona that we should be able to look back and see the positives that have come out of this crazy situation more time with our families or if we listen if there were bad things if unfortunately there have been tremendous loss we don't understand why but god willing one day we should be able to have a clarity we say now when we have these difficulties diana emmett we say that we recognize that there's the true judge we don't necessarily understand why these things happen but the ultimate is and that we should be able to see like it says in zachariah that the end of days should come and we should get to that place will ha celebrate the holiday of sukkot and the reason we'll celebrate that holiday of sukkot is because we'll be able to look back and we'll be able to understand why all the difficulties happened why we had to go through these these tribulations and that hopefully and at that point we'll be able to really appreciate then it will be with a tremendous symptom so as we come to this special holiday hashem should grant us good health and that we should really have tremendous joy and be able to reflect on these ideas and that we should realize that we have a tremendous tremendous treasure our torah and it's something that we have to constantly just keep on going back to because it has endless endless things to teach us and be able to connect that kadash brought hashem who has tremendous love for us and that's what the idea of the three holidays were to go up to the temple and to be seen and to be and to see to see and to be seen which really means like we want it to be doesn't mean i want to be seen i want to count and i want to see i want to be able to experience i want to be able to experience hashem and really also to be able to be together with the jewish people as well so god willing we should be able to get together and to have restrictions lifted we should be able to get back together and we should be able to then come together and celebrate and that we'll be able to really appreciate all the goodness that uh that we get in our lives wishing everybody a wonderful wonderful holiday