SHUVOO NEWSLETTER

Issue No. 23 – October 5, 2006

 

G’mar Tov v’Chag Sameach

SUKKOT  IS  HERE!

 

 

An Arba Minim (Four Species) market in Katamon,

a Jerusalem neighborhood.

 

 

A Shuvoo Update from Ashirah Yosefah

 

Streets in Israel are now dotted with seasonal street-side stands and markets selling Lulavim and Etrogim, the Four Species (Arba Minim) waved daily (except Shabbat) by religious Jews during the Feast of Sukkot.  As soon as Yom Kippur came to a close, people were scurrying about setting up their sukkahs and restaurants throughout Jerusalem were doing likewise.  It happens like clockwork each year at this time.  But, before turning my attention to Sukkot, I would like to share a Yom Kippur memory or two. 

 

There is a familiar saying that a picture is worth a thousand words.  The only problem is that some of the best photo ops of all in Israel happen on the Moadim, on the Appointed Times, when the use of a camera is forbidden by the Halacha for Shabbat and Yom Tov.  Such was the case on Leil Yom Kippur.

 

The Kol Nidre services which began the Yom Kippur prayers finished for most congregations around 8:00 pm last Sunday night and people began spilling out into the streets of Jerusalem (indeed all Israel) from within the packed confines of their synagogues.  It is a tradition for Jews to dress in white for Yom Kippur, both men and women, even many of the children.  Here in Israel, we went back to regular time on Motsi Shabbat, so by 6:00 pm, it is fully dark.  The side streets were very pleasant as people walked along engaged in conversation with family and friends; however, the real feast for the eyes was waiting just ahead.  Arriving at Emek Rafaim (the main street running through the Moshavah haGermanit neighborhood of Jerusalem), the street was filled from curb to curb with people, thousands of people of all ages, mostly all dressed in white.  A sea of white extended north and south as far as the eye could see. 

 

Yom Kippur is the one day of the year when seeing a vehicle on the streets of Jerusalem is a true rarity, with the exception of emergency vehicles.  Curiously, this year even the emergency vehicles seemed to get a break – I did not hear one siren the entirety of Yom Kippur and usually I hear several an hour!  As I walked towards my apartment, I witnessed a humorous sight:  Two police vehicles, bumper to bumper, completely surrounded in by white-garbed people, slowly inching their way down the street through the masses that enclosed them.  What a sight!  When the two vehicles finally reached me, or rather I reached them (I was able to move faster), the expression on the faces of the officers was a mixture of frustration and resignation.  B’ezrat Hashem, may the day come when awe replaces frustration and resignation on those same faces!

 

Dropping my Machsor off at my apartment, I returned to Emek Rafaim and walked the 6-7 block length of the street in order to enjoy the experience of so many people milling about, young and old, children on bicycles, pets on leashes, chatting in the street, sitting on street-side benches.  One young boy, approximately 8 years old, had come up with an ingenious mode of transportation.  He had hitched his small scooter to an even smaller family pet … his dog, weighing in somewhere between a chihuahua and a miniature poodle, but amazingly the little dog was pulling his young master and the scooter briskly down the empty sidewalk (everyone was in the street)!  There was hardly a straight face to be found anywhere in the vicinity of the dynamic little duo.

 

At many of the pre-Yom Kippur shiurim (classes), Rabbis spoke of the need for Jews to remember the Torah command “Ve’ahavta Lere’acha Kamocha” (To love your neighbor as yourself).  Rabbi Shalom Gold, in particular, stressed emphatically that we must realize this mitzvah is one of the pathways to teshuvah.  He reminded us last Shabbat afternoon that at the time of the Second Temple, Jews were keeping the “letter of the Law” to the exclusive of the “heart of the Law”, namely respect, kindness and justice towards one’s fellow.  Consequently, when Jews failed to mend their ways, the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE.  As I walked the length of Emek Rafaim this past Yom Kippur night and beheld thousands of people greeting each other warmly with “G’mar chatima tova” (May you be sealed [in the Book of Life] for good), chatting, laughing, embracing, I could not help but wonder if I was experiencing a wee microcosm of the World to Come, when mankind will learn to live amicably with one another and all nations will acknowledge Hashem as the One True G-d.  If only the love and brotherhood of that Yom Kippur evening would last!  Walking along the street that night, I kept overhearing the refrain, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if it was like this every Shabbat?!”  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if it were like that every day!  

 

Waking early Yom Kippur morning, I made my way up to the Kotel where an early morning minyan was just beginning Shacharit.  The streets of Jerusalem were silent with only a few early risers adding a human element to the serene Jerusalem cityscape.  When I returned five hours later, the streets were still empty of vehicular traffic.  “Only in Jerusalem”, I thought … as we so often find ourselves saying here.  A few handfuls of people wandered about but most people were still in shul.  The Kotel minyan had begun much earlier.  Later that night, as Neilah services concluded, the peaceful 25-hour period that seemed to somehow transcend time and space departed and once again Jerusalem streets resumed their frantic pace.

 

The period between Yom Kippur and Sukkot is intense in Israel.  People rush about building sukkahs, buying Arba Minim, shopping, preparing meals, inviting guests to their sukkah, working and trying to maintain a semblance of family life!  Meanwhile, the hotels, hostels, apartments and rooms throughout Jerusalem begin to overflow as Sukkot visitors pour into the country in astounding numbers, both Jews and non-Jews.  Simply navigating the sidewalk gets to be a challenge!

 

Two years ago, when I was living in a caravan in a small yishuv in the Judean desert, I built from scratch my very first sukkah here in the Land … what a delightful experience was and it came with an unexpected blessing.  My neighbor, a man in his 50’s or so, came to visit after setting up his own sukkah and told me that it was the first sukkah he had built in his life – his inspiration to build it had come from watching me build mine!  The lesson to be learned?  One never knows how far-reaching an influence performing a mitzvah can have.

My first sukkah in Eretz Yisrael.

 

While studying this week’s Sidra, Parsha Ve’Zot Ha’Berachah, I came across interesting commentary by Rabbi Uziel Milevsky in his book, Ner Uziel, Vol. II.  He discusses the opening verses of this week’s Sidra where it states:  “G-d came from Sinai, and He shone forth to them from Seir [the land of Esav] and made His appearance from Mount Paran [the land of Yishmael].  From the holy myriads He brought from His right hand the fiery law.  Although He loves all His nations, Your holy ones are in Your hands and they were at Your foot and received Your Word.” (Devarim 33:2-3)

 

Rabbi Milevsky notes:

 

“The Talmud (Avodah Zarah 2b) explains in Rabbi Yochanan’s name that G-d offered the Torah to the other nations in the world.  He drives this from the verse cited above, ‘G-d came from Sinai (to meet the Jews),” but He also came from Esav and Yishmael,” and it is with this point that Moshe introduced His blessings to the people.  Originally, the Torah was supposed to have been universal, but the other nations of the world would not accept it.”  (Ner Uziel, V’Zos HaBerachah, pgs. 319)

 

In his words cited in the Talmud, Rabbi Yochanan was referring to what occurs ‘below the bottom of the pyramid.’  Other nations were given the choice of accepting the Torah, he explains, not instead of the Jews, but together with the Jews.  Ideally, the Torah could have become a universal religion, with the entire Jewish people comprising its priesthood, and within that priesthood there would have been the progressively higher levels of holiness and priesthood that still remain part of Judaism.  Had the other nations accepted G-d’s Torah, the whole world would have shared a religion based on Torah.

 

The ideal universal religion never took hold, for the rest of humanity refused to remain attached to Torah, even in a position of lesser holiness.  The Torah tells us that G-d went to Sinai first, but according to the tradition in Talmud, G-d first went to the other nations, and they all refused, until G-d went to the Jewish people.  In fact, both statements are true.  G-d first chose the Jewish people to be His priests to the world, but after Sinai, G-d offered other nations the chance to join the Jews in serving G-d and, to a lesser extent than the Jews, in keeping the Torah.  When they refused, G-d returned to the Jews to make them the exclusive keepers of the Torah.  As the Torah tells us in these verses, G-d loves other nations, but His special attachment was only with those who accepted Torah.  G-d does not have that intense relationship with other nations that He has with the Jews, because the other nations would not accept the Torah. 

 

Nevertheless, the Torah remains a universal entity, meant for all of mankind.  However, since other nations refused it, the result is that ‘the Torah was commanded to us by Moshe, but it is an inheritance to the Jews alone.’  The Torah became an exclusive inheritance of the Jews only when the other nations chose to reject it.  The reason the Jews are different is that all the other nations refused the Torah. ” (Ner Uziel, V’Zos HaBerachah, pgs. 321)

 

Since the time of Sinai, generation after generation of Jews has handed down from parent to child their inheritance, the Torah.  The prophecy would seem to be unfolding in recent years, but at some future time the Torah will truly “… go forth from Zion, the word of Hashem from Jerusalem …” and the nations of the world will finally accept the Torah.  At the time of the Temple, offerings were brought by the priests on behalf of the nations each day of Sukkot, totally 70 bulls for the 70 nations.  These special offerings are remembered with “the bulls of our lips” in our daily Sukkot prayers.  Known as the “Festival of Ingathering,” Sukkot is a harvest festival.  It occurs at the time of year when crops are being harvested in Israel, but it also speaks of a far greater harvest – the future “harvest of nations.”  At that time, the nations will not only accept Torah; they will acknowledge Hashem as the One True G-d.  Creation fairly groans in anticipation and longing.  Mankind has wandered so far from G-d’s Divine blueprint and all Creation suffers as a result.  Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav once said, “The world to come, the perfect world, we at least believe in.  But, this material world, the one here and now, how can anyone believe in it?  The only thing to do is to run to the refuge of G-d.”

 

During Sukkot, Jews eat their meals and entertain guests in their sukkahs.  Some even sleep in them.  Most hotels and many restaurants set up sukkahs so that their patrons can perform the mitzvah of eating in the sukkah even while eating away from home.  Rabbi Moshe Braun has a beautiful description for the sukkah; he describes it as “G-d’s refuge and garden.  It is the Garden of Eden and the World to Come.”  In his book entitled Jewish Holy Days, Rabbi Braun comments on a promise contained in Psalm 104:31, “G-d’s honor will be forever and G-d will be happy with His work.” 

 

Rabbi Braun writes:

 

“True happiness is present when G-d’s Name is completely revealed in the world.  Such revelations will not occur until the nature of the world changes from deception and illusion.  Revelation is ‘light,’ for it is written, ‘The light is planted for the righteous.’  It is planted and concealed in the earth at present, but ‘for the straight of heart, there is joy; (Psalms 97:11).  To be straight without illusion or deception belongs to some future time.

 

A repentant, however, can transport himself into the World to Come.  He transforms time into the infinite by restoring his past and revitalizing his future.  He catches a glimpse of the straight path leading directly to the Throne of Honor, the Divine Essence.  In that place there is true happiness.

 

Therefore, after the repentance of Yom Kippur, we are transported to an island of the World to Come where we find true happiness and great rejoicing. This is the Sukkah.”  (R. Moshe Braun, Jewish Holy Days, pgs. 81-82)

 

 

Jewish men holding Arba Minim in a sukkah

in Kikar Tsion in Central Jerusalem.

 

Shuvoo wishes all our subscribers a joyous Sukkot.  May it truly be a taste of both Gan Eden and the World to Come. 

 

In the “weeks to come”, Shuvoo is pleased to announce that Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum will be starting a very special email group in support of his new program “Know Your Bible”.  This program will help you to study the entire Tanach in one year by simply reading two chapters a day, at your leisure, with supporting study materials emailed to you by Rabbi Greenbaum.  Sign up for this valuable learning opportunity by subscribing at http://azamra.org/NaCh.shtml

 

In closing, a very warm note of appreciation to Evelyn Carpenter and to Brian Bond for their recent donations in memory of loved ones.  May your kindness and generosity be to the merit of the souls of those you have honored.  If Shuvoo subscribers would like information on how to receive tax receipts for donations to Shuvoo made from within the USA or Canada, please send a request to info@shuvoo.com

 

 

Chag Sameach from Shuvoo!