SHUVOO NEWSLETTER

Issue No. 24 – October 12, 2006

 

A Minyan with Arba Minim does Hakafot (circuits) around a Sefer Torah while

saying the Hoshanot prayers at the Kotel on the 2nd day of Chol haMoed.

 

 

The Season of Our Rejoicing

Thoughts & Images of Sukkot 2006

 

Sukkot in Jerusalem ~

A Shuvoo Update from Ashirah Yosefah

 

The Jewish Holy Days are also called Moadim l’Simcha … Times for Rejoicing.  Three times a year, all Jewish males are commanded to come up to Jerusalem to the Dwelling Place of Hashem and not to come empty-handed!  They were to come to the Temple bearing offerings to Hashem, offerings of thanksgiving, which were shared with the Priests and with their families once the sacrificial portions had been offered up on the altar.  These three occasions are called the Shalosh Raglaim.  They are Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot. 

 

Chazal tell us that Pesach is the time for Israel to rejoice while remembering our Redemption from Mitzrayim.  Shavuot is the time when we remember and rejoice because Hashem gave us His Torah.  What about Sukkot?  Sukkot is the time when we celebrate having been forgiven and reunited with Hashem.  It is a time of closeness and intimacy with our Beloved in the sukkah, which is often compared to a marriage chuppah, symbolizing G-d’s protection and providence.  Rabbi Chaim Richman, in a Dvar Torah given in his sukkah this week (photo at left and below), likened the sukkah to the Beit HaMikdash.  It becomes our own private sanctuary to delight in Hashem’s Presence in the absence of the Temple.  But if Sukkot is a celebration of forgiveness, would not Yom Kippur be a better day?  After all, Yom Kippur is the day on which Hashem’s compassion and forgiveness flows from On High after the Divine Judgment of Rosh Hashanah.  We fast and pray all day, beseeching Hashem’s favor.  Having been assured by Torah of His promise to forgive those who truly repent, would not this be a better time to celebrate atonement and forgiveness?

 

Let’s consider a few events of the past to see if we can find some answers.  The Torah tells us that Hashem delivered the Children of Israel out of slavery in Mitzrayim with a “mighty right arm”.  The initiative was from On High.  Israel responded by fleeing Mitzrayim that first Pesach night, but the Redemption enterprise was Hashem’s.  In Chassidic terms, this form of quickening, of setting things in motion, is sometimes called “Arousal from On High”.  When the Children of Israel reached Har Sinai and Moshe conveyed Hashem’s desire that they should be a chosen nation to Him, a kingdom of priests, collectively the people responded Na’aseh v’nishma – we will hear and we will do.  This time, the “arousal” came from below, from the Children of Israel themselves, in response to which Hashem gave them His Torah.  On Sukkot, Chazal tell us, we have a synthesis of arousal from On High and from below – Tiferet in Kabbalistic terms, meaning beauty, splendor, balance.  Sukkot symbolizes the reunion of Hashem with His people, the return of the intimacy of their unique relationship.  Why “reunion”?  A shiur (teaching) I attended on Sunday that was given by Shira Smiles offered some answers:

 

After the giving of the Eser Dibrot (the Ten Words/Commandments) Moshe went up into the cloud atop Har Sinai, into Hashem’s Presence, to receive the rest of the Torah.  While he was receiving the Torah, the Children of Israel grew anxious, fearful that something had happened to their leader, and they built and worshipped the golden calf.  On the 1st day of Elul, Moshe was sent down the mountain by Hashem to rebuke the wayward worshippers.  In doing so, Moshe threw the stone tablets inscribed by the Finger of G-d onto the ground and they broke.  The clouds of glory that indicated Hashem’s Presence and protection over them departed.  The Children of Israel realized their error, did teshuvah, and Moshe returned to the mountain to plead for Hashem’s mercy and to inscribe a second set of tablets.  He returned tablets in hand, forty days later on Yom Kippur.  His return with the tablets signified Hashem’s forgiveness of their sin.  The Torah then tells us that Moshe gave over the instructions for the Mishkan and that the people freely brought such an abundance of gold, silver, copper, linens, skins, etc., that Moshe had to tell them to stop.  Five days after his return, Moshe and the Children of Israel commenced the work of building the Mishkan, the Dwelling Place for Hashem in their midst, his “Sukkah” in the desert, so to speak.  On that day, the clouds of glory returned, signifying the restoration of the special relationship between Hashem and Israel, their reunion. 

 

The month of Elul is an intense time of introspection and self-examination, of confessing our sins and seeking forgiveness from one another, then we stand before Hashem haMelech on Rosh Hashanah and are judged.  Our past actions are judged and the “sentence” for the year to come is determined. The ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur give us more time to work on our rectification in hopes of sweetening the judgment of Rosh Hashanah.  We afflict ourselves with fasting and cry out collectively and individually on Yom Kippur that Hashem should remember the rachmanis (mercy) He has long bestowed on the Jewish people and His long-suffering patience towards this ailing world.  We plead that He should seal our names in the Book of Life.  We feel a sense of purity and elation at the end of Yom Kippur prayers, but the past forty days have been intense – too intense for real feelings of closeness and intimacy to be renewed in our relationship with G-d.  After all, we’ve just spend over a month realizing how short of the mark we’ve fallen!  The Sefat Emet in “The Days of Awe” explains:

 

The only way [for Israel] to repair the strain in their relationship with Hashem was through proper joy.  The joyous outpouring of donations to the Mishkan which occurred during the period between Yom Kippur and Sukkot helped erase any lingering effects of Israel’s wrongdoing.  On that first Yom Kippur, Israel’s sins were forgiven.  It was only on Sukkot, however, through Israel’s generosity that the romance between Hashem and Israel resumed its full force.  This pattern continues in our times also.  Every Yo Kippur Israel returns to its Creator and its sins are expiated.  However, the joy that should characterize our relationship with Hashem is still not present since our misdeeds have left an almost indelible stain on it.  Once again, we draw close to the Creator through joy.  This time, the anticipation of dwelling in the succah (which is called ‘Hashem’s home,’ as discussed in previous essays) restores the joy to our ‘romance’ with Hashem.” (5644)

 

So, after five days scurrying about readying “Hashem’s home” next to our homes, we are ready to enter the sukkah, symbolizing both the House of Hashem and the marriage chuppah, and to rejoice with one another and our Maker remembering His mercy, goodness and forgiveness. 

 

Immediately at the end of Sukkot, we have another festival, Shemini Atzeret, which is combined with Simchat Torah here in Israel (two separate days in the Diaspora).  The tradition is to spend all night studying Torah on Hoshana Raba (the 7th day of Sukkot), much like we do on Shavuot.  Then we kick off the new festival the following evening by joyous dancing with the Sefer Torahs in the synagogues and, in some locations, in the streets.  We  celebrate the beginning of a new yearly cycle of Torah by reading both Parsha Zot HaBerachot and Parsha Bereishith, the first and the last Torah portions.  This makes a continuous cycle of Torah, just like a wedding band, with no beginning and no end.

 

The festival of Sukkot is filled with positive mitzvot:  Building a sukkah, the Arba Minim, Hachnasat Orchim (hospitality to guests) in the sukkah.  Shira Smiles describes the mitzvot as “invitations to relationship”.  She said the “simcha” in doing a mitzvah is the simcha of relationship.  Hashem gives us His commandments as invitations to spend time with Him, do things for Him, get to know Him, build relationship with Him.  Thinking of the mitzvot in this light puts a fresh perspective on Torah observance!

 

On Monday evening I attended a shiur given by Dr. Rabbi Avraham Twerski, pictured at right talking to people attending the lecture.  Dr. Twerski is famous for his many wonderful books and wise counsel.  The topic of the shiur was “The Essence of Spirituality”.  That “Essence”, Dr. Twerski explained, is the mitzvah that we are to serve Hashem at all times with “simcha”.  Normally, people immediately think that simcha is joy and we wonder how can we possibly be joyful at all times?!  The truth is that we cannot and we should not.  Shlomo haMelech, the author of Koheleth (Ecclesiastes), wrote the famous words, “To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under the heavens.”  In his enumeration of times and seasons, Koheleth lists dying, weeping, wailing, shunning embraces, losing, ripping, hating, war … surely these are not joyous times!  Rabbi Twerski gave over numerous sources from Rashi and other Sages that clearly show that simcha means several things.  While it can refer to joy, it also implies progress, growth and expansion … progressive development, if you will.  Most of all, Rabbi Twerski said, simcha means serving Hashem with a “lev shalaim” – a whole heart.  A heart of flesh and not of stone.

 

It happens that Koheleth is the megilla that we read during Sukkot.  In Koheleth 7:29, Shlomo haMelech wrote:  “But, see, this I did find:  G-d made men plain (Hebrew: yashar – straight), but they have engaged in too much reasoning.”  What a succinct and telling mouthful!  This problem has been man’s downfall since Adam haRishon.  In Gan Eden, Adam and Chavah tried to figure things out on their own, to create their own way to serve G-d as opposed to following the guidelines Hashem had given them.  At Sinai, the sin of the golden calf was basically caused by men thinking they knew how to serve G-d over and above the Torah.  G-d gave mankind, of all the creatures He made, the innate ability to change, improve, challenge.  Instead of using these unique skills to develop positively the potential G-d gives us in all aspects of life, we have made ourselves “crooked” instead of “straight”.  We were meant to do G-d’s Will on His terms, not our own.  His terms are clearly spelled out in Torah.

 

Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav was a man who excelled at serving Hashem with simcha.  His teachings on serving Hashem with simplicity are among my favorites.  He advised his students to strive for simplicity in Torah observance, not to become overwhelmed and confused, trying to do everything at once. We are to approach our Avodat Hashem (Service of Hashem) step by step, one level after the next.  Rabbi Nachman stressed that the important things are to learn a lot, pray a lot, to do good deeds, and to pour one’s heart out before G-d.  He taught that one does not have to be overstrict with oneself.  One simply does what one can.  (Source: Sichot Haran, no. 235)

 

The 18th of Tishrei (the 3rd day of Sukkot) is the Yahrzeit of Rabbi Nachman.  Rabbi Chaim Richman hosted a special seudah (meal) in his sukkah in honor of Rabbi Nachman’s Yahrzeit.  Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum, who has translated several of Rabbi Nachman’s works into English, attended together with friends and family of Rabbi Richman.  It was a wonderful afternoon.  Rabbi Richman gave over an excellent Dvar Torah in the sukkah that combined teachings on the role of Beit haMikdash with works by Rabbi Nachman that are so applicable to today they could have been written yesterday.  Rabbi Richman is seen giving over his Dvar Torah in the photo above.

 

Rabbi Richman’s teaching and parts of the seudah were filmed for internet television on www.universaltorah.com   Go online and enjoy a half-hour of sukkah rejoicing and learning with the October 12th broadcast by Rabbi Richman.  You will find many other programs to watch and learn from as well.

 

As a reminder, Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum’s “Tanach in One Year” 2-chapters a day study program will be beginning in early November.  Sign up for your daily study materials by email at www.azamra.com

Having discussed Sukkot being a time to rejoice, there is another matter worthy of celebration.  Israel National News reported that the annual Sukkot Birkat haCohanim (Public Priestly Blessing) at the Kotel on Monday had the largest attendance since the end of the Six Day War, the war which brought Jerusalem back into Jewish possession.  It was unbelievable!!  Not only were there thousands and thousands of people as far as the eye could see (so many that the police closed the Kotel Plaza and people filled the stairways and streets leading to and surround the Kotel), but a special conference of Cohanim and Leviim has been taking place in Jerusalem and the Western Wall was several rows deep in tallit-shrouded Cohanim, arms and hands raised beneath their talliot, pronouncing the Aaronic Blessing upon the masses, their voices carried to the people over loudspeakers.  May it be that such overwhelming attendance be indicative of a new year filled with renewed commitments to Torah, with growing unity amongst the Jewish people and continuing increases in aliyah.  May we be strengthened as a nation and may Israel soon embrace with understanding and vigor our Torah responsibility to truly be a light to the nations.

 

The Kotel on the 2nd day of Chol haMoed Sukkot just after the Birkat haCohanim.  The picture at left shows but half of the men’s court alone … now double this and add the women’s court, the rest of Kotel Plaza, the entrances, the stairways leading to the Plaza and many of the surrounding streets!  Baruch Hashem!  What a beautiful sight!

 

(All photos © Ashirah Yosefah 2006)

 

Chag Sameach from Jerusalem!

Ashirah