We come out of the Rosh Hashanah – Yom Kippur Te'shuvah =
repentance and atonement experience, with a joy in our new perspectives about
life and closeness with God. These feelings of joy and closeness to God can be
given expression through the 'mitzvah'
of the ' sukkah' and the other commandments of the holiday Sukkoth. We leave
our permanent homes and dwell in God's shadow – the sukkah. We no longer need
the protection of a permanent dwelling. Being closer to
nature, without the barrier of physical structures, we feel God's closeness and
protection in a temporary booth. Our new trust and closeness with God makes us
feel less threatened by others and more accepting of other people. Sukkoth is
called the festival of happiness and we are happy with life itself and our
relationship with God.
The other pilgrim festivals - Pe'sach and Shavuot have good
reasons for experiencing joy and simchah. Pe'sach comes when it is spring -
when the barley begins to ripen. It is also the spring of the nation who gained
their freedom from the Egyptian slavery. The fruits of this
freedom are not harvested until Shavuot, when the Torah was given on Mount
Sinai. Shavuot is called Chag Ha'katzir when the actual crops are harvested.
Sukkot is called Chag Ha'asif – the festival of the ingathering of the crops at
the close of the year. On a spiritual level we ' gather in' the lessons of life which God and his creation
have taught us over the past year. We then spend a week being very close to God
and happy with our relationship and his creation.
Although we received the Torah on Shavuot, we will not be able
to totally appreciate the Torah and the world until the messianic period. Chag
Ha'asif hints to this period where the ' ingathering of crops ' on a spiritual
level refers to our new understanding of God and his creation.
Rabbi Eliyahu Meir Bloch, a Rosh Yeshivah from Telse, explains
that Sukkot is essentially a glimpse into the messianic period. When we hear of
bad news, we bless God as the ultimate and true judge. When we hear good news
we bless God as being the ultimate of Good and He does good. In the messianic period we will have the
perspective to see God's goodness behind both good and bad tidings.
On sukkot , this new perspective allows us to find joy in
leaving our homes in order to be in a temporary 'sukkah' a symbol
of being in ' ga'lut' = exile. In the sukkah we also have the positive experience of being in the
shadow of God , similar to the clouds of
glory that protected the Israelites in the desert. Ga'lut = exile is now
only a positive experience.
The 4 plant species=' 4 minim' are
pointed and waved during prayers in different directions in order to invoke
God's blessing of rain on the world. They also symbolize the unity of the
Jewish people. The ' etrog' = citron which has both taste and a pleasant aroma
symbolizes the scholar who possesses scholarship and good deeds, the lulav= the
palm tree branch has fruit – the date which has taste= scholarship but has no
aroma= good deeds. It symbolizes the scholar who lacks good
deeds, the myrtle=hadas has aroma but no taste, symbolizes a person who
has good deeds but is deficient in Torah
learning. The willow lacks both taste and aroma. On sukkot we are happy with
everyone, and bless God who is good and does good even to those people who
don't have taste or aroma.
The sacrifices are often accompanied by song = shi'ra and the
wine libations – nisuch ha'ya'yin. The principle is ' ein shi'ra e'la
ul ha'ya'yin. There is ' song' only with wine, because only wine has the
ability to elicit joy and song. On sukkot we don't have any special reasons to
be happy except life itself. And it is for this reason we are happy even with '
plain water '. We celebrate the gift of water with the ' simchat beit
ha'sho'evah ' and accompanying the daily sacrifice with water libations in
the hope and prayer for the blessing of rain.
During the year we suffer from the nations of the world who
pursue Israel like 70 wolves. But on Sukkot, we wear different lenses and see
only the good in the nations, and thus we bring 70 sacrifices for well-being of
the seventy nations.
We need to leave our permanent dwellings for the temporary
structures of Succoth in order to enjoy the heavenly, spiritual and 'futuristic
' happiness of the messianic period. But our spiritual demands and aspirations
are to leave the sukkah and take with us its eternal messages and combine '
heaven and earth '. On she'mini a'tzeret, the 8th day of our
celebration, we leave our Succoth and return to our homes. For 7 days we were
God's guests in His sukkah. Now, we invite God as a permanent guest back into
our homes and try to live 'eternal lives ' and enjoy ' a futuristic happiness '
where we can see God's positive hand in all the creation. May we see only good
in our kids and family and see problems as opportunities for growth and becoming
closer to God.
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