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Parshat Ha'azinu – Sukkot

A sukkah

whose height exceeds twenty cubits is unfit, but Rabbi Yehudah

allows it…

(Mishnah Sukkah 1:1)

What is the scriptural

basis?…

Rava

said: From [the verse]

You shall dwell

in sukkot for seven days

(Vayikra 23) –

The Torah said:

seven days.

Up to twenty

cubits [height] – a person has made temporary dwelling;

More than twenty

cubits – a person has not made a temporary dwelling,

but

rather a permanent dwelling.

(Sukkah 2a)

The Temporariness

of Permanence

One who dwells in the Land

of Israel must always remember the name Land of Canaan, which connotes servitude and submission to God…

you will merit being strangers in your land, as David said: I am an alien in

the land (Tehillim

119:9), and then: Hallelujah,

O servants of the Lord (Ibid.

113:1). The rule which

derives from this is that the inhabitants of the land must live in humility, and,

like sojourners, should not consider secure settlement to be the main

principle. In the words of the Sages: "And Yaakov

dwelt in the Land of Canaan" – He wished to dwell in tranquility;

The Holy One, blessed be He said: "Is it not enough for the righteous that

which is prepared for them in the world to come? He will only be in the land

of his father's sojourning, and an alien am I, and it will be the

Land of Canaan and his father's sojourning will be the secret of

Yitzhak's fear, the measure of the law, terror all around [Translator's

note: The SheLaH relates the Hebrew magor – terror – to the word ger – alien] … and this is the meaning of you

are but strangers resident with me, and your indication is It is a land

which devours its settlers – it destroys those who wish to dwell there in

quiet and tranquility and power, to eat its fruits and to enjoy it exclusively.

(Shenei

Luhot HaBrit of Rabbi Yeshayahu Horowitz, III, 11:31)

Forwhom is the Festival

of Sukkot Meant?

Nahem Ilan

The

multi-faceted character of the Festival of Sukkot

finds various forms of expression. The best known of these are seen through the

horizontal view, which impresses us with the festival's wide assortment of

commandments. An echo of this may be heard in Pesikta

DeRav Kahana's discussion of the verse, Sova semahot et panekha [In Your

presence is perfect joy] (Tehillim 16:11).

The expositor reads the word sova as sheva [seven] and expounds: "These are the

seven commandments of the festival: the four species of the lulav,

joy, and the hagigah offering" (U'lekahtem, 2, pg.

406 in the Mandelbaum edition, lines 4-5).

Actually, there is no need for

this derasha. A quick glance at the

decorations of almost any sukkah that one happens

upon will reveal the festival's rich conceptual content.

The vertical view can also teach

us of the festival's multi-facetedness, i.e., through

an in-depth study of a single commandment or topic and through contemplation of

the various ways of relating to that commandment or topic. I will offer a

single example of this method. Anyone who wishes to may use it as a model for

the study of other festival-related topics.

What is the festival's range? In other words: who belongs to

the "target audience" of the Sukkot

festival? It ends up that this single question may be answered in several different

ways. Clearly, the different answers express different philosophies.

The derasha

that views the four species as symbolizing four archetypical members of the Jewish

people is very well-known (Pesikta DeRav Kahana, loc cit pg.

416, lines 1-10, and parallel texts). That exposition emphasizes the festival's Jewish

framework. It is circumscribed by the entire Jewish People, and its gaze is

directed inward. Only by looking inward can one reach the conclusion that

perfection is dependent upon conjoining the different species and archetypes. Not

only that: the notion of conjoining is not a given. At first glance, it does

not seem that everyone "profits" from it; it is not a common

interest. That is why an external command is needed in order for the conjoining

to be done, as the midrash

states, "…rather, they shall form one bundle together, each gaining atonement

for the other. That is why Moses entreats Israel, saying to them, take for

yourselves (Vayikra 23:40)."

According

to the above-mentioned derasha, Sukkot is concerned exclusively with the Jewish People. Another

well-known midrash offers a clearly

different view. Treating the number of bulls sacrificed in the course of the

festival, it states, "…you find that during the festival, Israel

sacrifices seventy bulls before You for the sake of the seventy nations [of the

world]" (Vayikra Rabbah21,

pg. 295 in the Merkin edition, and parallel texts).

The derasha's deep meaning becomes clear in the light of

the verse upon which it is based: They answer my love with accusation and I

am all prayer (Tehillim

109:4). Here the sacrifices are understood as Israel's

gesture of love and concern towards the nations of the world. Israel

offers many sacrifices and prays for the entire world, but the world does not

appreciate it and repays Israel

with accusations. Due to this imbalance and lack of reciprocity, Sukkot becomes an exclusively Jewish festival, even though

it had been originally intended as a festival for all humanity. The limits end

up being the same as those appearing in the first derasha,

but here they are an imposition. They are a constraint born of failure. As the derasha itself claims – they are limits of accusation!

Zechariah

drew broader and more encompassing limits in the conclusion of his vision that

serves as the haftorah for the first day of Sukkot. According to his vision, in the future, the

remnants of the nations of the world will come to Jerusalem for the Sukkot festival, exactly as the Jews are commanded to make

pilgrimage to the city: All those who survive of all those nations that came

King Lord of Hosts and observe the feast of Sukkot

(Zechariah 14: 16). But that is not all. The

gentiles' pilgrimage to Jerusalem on Sukkot will not

be a matter of free choice, but rather a terrible obligation, as reflected in

the prophet's warning: However, if the community of Egypt does not make this

will strike the other nations that do not come up to observe the Feast of Sukkot? (ibid.

18).

Zechariah's

words read and sound like a fantastic vision; they describe a reality

completely different from our own. The entire chapter creates this impression. However,

truth be told, even if in Zechariah's own days it was a distant fantasy, it was

not always so. Consider what Josephus Flavius wrote in his Jewish Antiquities:

"One should not wonder how our Temple enjoyed such wealth, for all of the

Jews of the world and all those who worshipped God, even those from Asia and

Europe, contributed [money] to it for many years (Book

14:7:2, pg. 126 in the Shalit edition). This

passage makes it clear that the Second

Temple served as a ritual center

not only for the Jews, but also for additional peoples of Asia

and Europe. His testimony offers more than an echo of

the prayer made by Solomon at the dedication of the First

Temple:

Or if

a foreigner who is not of Your people Israel comes from a distant land for the

sake of Your name – for they shall hear about Your great name and Your mighty

hand and Your outstretched arm – when he comes to pray toward this House, oh,

hear in Your heavenly abode and grant all that the foreigner asks You for. Thus

all the peoples of the earth will know Your name and

revere You, as does Your people Israel;

and they will recognize that Your name is attached to this House that I have

built. (I Kings 8: 41-43)

Zechariah's

words set up the world as a boundary, they encompass all of humanity. The

nations of the world are included within this boundary not because of some Jewish

attitude or initiative, but rather because of the nations' own recognition of

the God of the world, who is also the God of Israel, and whose place of worship

is in Jerusalem. Thus, Zechariah

expresses an entirely different approach than that of the midrash cited above. Sukkot

not only a Jewish festival, it is a pan-human festival!

Daniel

Al-Kumisi, an important Karaite

exegete of the ninth-century, extended the universal compass of Sukkot to all of the three festivals of pilgrimage. His

commentary is "the earliest Hebrew commentary – excluding the midrashim and the pesharim of the Dead Sea Scrolls – on any book of

the Bible…" (from

E. E. Urbach's introduction to Merkon's

edition of Pitron Shenaim

Asar). Here is how Daniel Al-Kumisi explains Zechariah 14:16: [They] shall make a

feast of Sukkot – because their countries are far

away and they will not be able to come three times [a year]. And those gentiles

who will accompany [God's service] for many years shall have a portion amongst

the tribe of their neighbors, as Ezekiel made clear (Mirkun ed., pg. 76)!

As I

have said, Zechariah's vision serves as the haftorah

for the first day of Sukkot. Those who are cautious about

jumping to conclusions will probably say that the chapter was chosen simply

because it mentions Sukkot. But perhaps we can be a

bit more daring and conjecture that the Sages chose this chapter not only

because of its words but also because of its content. According to this

conjecture, the Sages took the vision aboard and identified with it, prompting

their decision to choose it as the day's haftorah.

In

any event, it ends up that Scripture assigns the festival a broader target

audience than the midrash

does. Even the midrashim

present more than one stand, but the present article is not intended to be

comprehensive. The question of the festival's range and intended audience

remains open. As soon as the sources present more than one option, resolution

of the question becomes a standing challenge. So it is even in regard to halakhic issues, all the more so when we deal with aggadic and philosophical matters.

Each

year, the festival of Sukkot can serve as an

ideological acid test and challenge. Is our present new year like all past

years? Is this year's Sukkot really the Sukkot of yesteryear? Or, perhaps, do the events of the

past few years, especially of the year just ended and of the present year call

for a new and creative analysis of the festival's image that would grant it a

new or renewed significance? Beyond granting the festival a possible new

significance, such reconsideration can endow our lives as believers with fresh

meaning, making us believers whose belief is not restricted to the rote

performance of commandments.

Prof. Nahem Ilan teaches in the MA

program in Jewish studies at Machon Lander in Jerusalem

(associated with Touro

College).

Just

and straight is H

Meaning

that the world should act according to law and beyond the letter of the law [lifnim meshurat hadin], meaning just – according to law and justice, straight

– beyond the measure of the law.

(Noam Elimelech, Parashat Haazinu)

Rabbi Yohanan said: Jerusalem was

destroyed only because they ruled according to the law of the Torah. What? Are

we then to judge according to the laws of the gentiles?! Rather say, "Because

they based their law on the law of the Torah and did not act beyond the letter of the law.

(Bava Metzia 30b).

A basic tenet of the Torah of Moses, our teacher, and all

who follow the Torah, is that man's ability is total, this is to say, that he

has the nature, the choice, and the desire to do anything which man is capable

of doing, without necessitating the creation of anything new…Another basic

principle in the Torah of Moses, our teacher, is that the Blessed one is in no

way false.

(RaMBaM, Guide of the Perplexed, III 17)

This book, which is called Sefer Bereishit, was

called by the prophets Sefer Hayashar – "The

Book of the Upright" as is written (Tractate Avodah

Zara 25a): Rabbi Yohanan

expounds: "This is the book of Avraham, Yitzhak,

and Yaakov, who were called "the upright":

as is written, May I die the death of the upright. It is important to

understand why Bilaam chose to call our fathers upright

and not tzaddikim or hassidim [degrees of

righteousness], etc., and why is this book in particular called "The Book

of the Upright".

The

explanation is to be found in the verse The Rock, whole and perfect are his

deeds… rue and upright is He from the Ha'azinu Poem.

The tribute upright is given to justify The Holy One's destruction of

the Second Temple – [in

the days of] a crooked and perverse generation. We had previously explained

that they were tzaddikim and hassidim and devoted great

efforts to Torah, but they were not upright in their actions. Because of the

baseless hatred they harbored for each other, they suspected those whose fear

of God was expressed differently than their own, accused them of being Saduccees and apikorsim,

and this led to bloodshed and division and to all the evils in the world, until

the House was laid waste. The tzidduk hadin – the justification of the sentence – was for

this; The Holy One, Blessed Be He, is upright, and he does not tolerate this brand

of tzaddikim. [He accepts] those who

walk on the path of the upright even in their civil behavior, not in crookedness

– even though it [the crookedness] be for the sake of heaven, for this is what

leads to the destruction of creation and the desolation of civilization.

(The NeTziV,

from the introduction to his commentary Ha'Amek

Davar, on the Bereishit)

And

you shall take for yourselves on the first day – but

is it the first day? Is it not the fifteenth day [of the month]? And you say on

the first day?

Rather, it is the first [day]

for the reckoning of sins…Israel collects

sins through all the days of the year. What does the Holy One blessed be he do? He says to them: Do teshuvah

from Rosh Ha'Shanah. They gather together on Yom

Kippur to fast and do teshuvah, and the Holy

One blessed be He pardons them. What do they do? On

the eve of Rosh Ha'Shanah, the great men of the

generation fast and the Holy One blessed be He

forgives a third of their sins. From Rosh Ha'Shanah

until Yom Kippur some individuals fast, and the Holy One blessed be He forgives