IN

HUTS YOU ARE TO STAY FOR SEVEN DAYS,

EVERY

NATIVE IN ISRAEL IS TO STAY IN HUTS-

IN

ORDER THAT YOUR GENERATIONS MAY KNOW

THAT

IN HUTS I HAD THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL STAY

WHEN

I BROUGHT THEM OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT,

I

AM THE LORD YOUR GOD!

(Vayikra 23:42-43)

Transience and Lack of Acquisitiveness as Expressions of Faith

The mitzvah of Sukkah requires a temporary dwelling (Sukkah 2a). The

author of the Baal Haakeida wrote that the simple reason [behind the

command] is to suggest to man that he

dwelling capable of housing only his head, most of his body, and his table. For

this world is a temporary dwelling; all the acquisitions of this world – houses,

fields, vineyards – do not provide him with a dependable foundation, and all are eventually lost to him.

This is the meaning of "And they journeyed from Rameses."

"An Easy Mitzvah Have I, and

Sukkah Is Its Name": 'Socheh' is one who finds shelter in the name of

God, and needs nothing, and makes do with a temporary dwelling for the hour,

for he who worries about tomorrow is deficient in faith. A temporary dwelling

for the moment is sufficient, and this is the

opposite of envy.

(Kometza Hamincha, R'

Tzakok HaCohen of Lublin, Part Two, 18)

And

Spread Over Us the Sukkah of Your Peace,

the

Sukkah of Mercy, Life, and Peace

THE SUKKOT FESTIVAL:

REMEMBRANCE, ATONEMENT AND JOY

Aviad Stollman

One of the brief and unique articles in

the Shulchan Aruch is Section 725 in Orach Chayim, and it consists of only one

clause. "In huts shall you dwell seven days, etc., for in huts I had

the Children of Israel stay" – these are the clouds of glory

with which He surrounded them, so that they not be hurt by desert wind and sun."

One cannot but be puzzled by this clause; it has no practical halachic

ramification whatever, being only a midrashic explication of a verse from the

Bible. R' Yoel Sirkis, in his glosses to the Tur, "Bayit Chadash",

explains that the exceptional concern with the mitzvah and its rationale

derive from the Torah's unusual step of stating the purpose of the mitzvah; therefore,

"one will not have performed the mitzvah properly unless he knows

the intent of the Sukkoth mitzvah according to its plain reading, and

therefore it [the Torah] explained – according to the plain reading – that the main

purpose of the mitzvah of dwelling in the sukkah is so that one remember

the exodus from Egypt…" From this we learn that it is incumbent upon us

to bring into clear focus the rationale of the mitzvoth of the sukkah

and of the festival in general.

In the Book of Vayikra (23:43), the

Torah gives the reason for the command to sit in the sukkah for seven days: "In

dwell when I took them out of the land of Egypt." This

rationale joins the agricultural rationale for the festival, which is also

mentioned specifically in the same chapter (verse 39: "When you have

gathered in the produce of the land"); in the Book of Devarim (16:13) the

agricultural rationale is augmented by the mitzvah to rejoice on the

Sukkoth festival: "The pilgrimage festival of Sukkoth you are to

orphan and the widow that are within your gates."

The Sukkoth festival is also perceived

as a conclusion of the Days of Awe. A Sage from Ashkenaz summed it up

succinctly: "If there is no atonement [for your sins] on Rosh Hashanah,

there will be such on Yom Kippur, and if not, it will be on Hosannah Rabba"

(Glosses

to customs in Matteh Moshe 957 and glosses to Customs of Tirana 216). In Midrash

Tehillim (Buber

ed., 17:5) we find the conceptual continuity of the Tishrei

festivals-which is mainly forgiveness, atonement, and even winning in

judgment-portrayed as a legal encounter between Israel and the nations:

On

Rosh Hashanah all those who have come into the world pass before Him like

sheep; Israel, too, passes before Him along with all mankind. The ministers of

the nations say we are victorious and have won in judgment, but no one knows

who succeeded, Israel or the nations. After Rosh Hashanah, on Yom Kippur, all

Israel come and afflict themselves, and they wear white and pleasant garments.

Yom Kippur passes, and still no one knows who won, Israel or the nations. When the first day of the Sukkoth

festival arrives, and all Israel, adults and minors, take the

lulavim in their right hand, and their ethrogim in their left, immediately all

know that Israel has won in judgment. And when the Day of Hoshanah Rabba arrives,

they take willows of the brook, and make seven rounds, and the cantor stands like

a messenger of the Lord, with the Torah scroll in his arms, and the nation

circles him as with the altar… immediately all the ministering angels

rejoice, saying "Israel has won! Israel has won!", and also "the

Glory of Israel will not deceive nor change His mind.

The Sukkoth festival fits in with the

distinguishing aspect of the other Tishrei festivals-repentance, forgiveness,

and atonement. In the coming lines I should like to examine two different

conceptual directions which seek to integrate the Biblical rationales for the

Sukkoth mitzvah with the overall ideas of the Tishrei festivals.

In the Pesikta of Rav Kahanah (addenda to

Parasha 2, Mandelbaum ed. p. 457), the following is written:

Said R' El'azar bar Maryom: Why do we

make a sukkah after Yom Kippur? To teach you that on Rosh Hashanah The

Holy One, Blessed Be He, sits in judgment on all mankind, and on Yom Kippur He

signs the verdict. Perhaps Israel's sentence is exile; therefore they make a

sukkah and exile themselves from their homes to their sukkah, and The Holy One,

Blessed Be He, considers this as though they had been exiled to Egypt, as is

written "Writhe and scream, Fair Zion, like a woman in travail! For now

foes (Micah

4:10).

The darshan wishes to explain

the juxtaposition of the Yom Kippur to Sukkoth, and in the process he adds

another rationale (not an alternative rationale) to the Sukkoth mitzvah. In

the darshan's view, the

dwelling in the sukkah is a kind of mini-Galut, and

The Holy One, Blessed Be He, in his kindness reckons it as though the Children

of Israel had exiled from their land. Thus the Sukkoth festival completes the atonement function

of the Tishrei festivals, headed by Yom

Kippur. A similar note, more detailed, is found in Rambam's Guide

for the Perplexed (Part III, Chap. 43, Schwartz ed., p. 598). Following

his short treatment of the joy dimension revealed in this festival (inspired by

a paragraph from Aristotle's Ethics), Rambam proceeds to deal with the ethical

aspect of the Sukkoth festival:

Both these festivals, I mean Sukkoth

and Pessach, inculcate both an opinion and a moral quality. In the case of

Pesach, the opinion consists in the commemoration of the miracles of Egypt and

in the perpetuation of their memory throughout the periods of time. In the case

of Sukkoth, the opinion consists in the perpetuation of the memory of the

miracles of the desert throughout the periods of time. As for the moral

quality, it consists in man's always remembering the days of stress in the days

of prosperity, so that his gratitude to God should become great and so that he

should achieve humility and submission. Accordingly unleavened bread and bitter

herbs must be eaten on Pesach in commemoration of what happened to us.

Similarly one must leave the house [during Sukkoth] and dwell in tabernacles,

as is done by the wretched inhabitants of deserts and wastelands, in order that

the fact be commemorated that such was our state in ancient times: That I made

the Children of Israel dwell in tabernacles, and so on". From

this we went over to dwell in richly ornamented houses in the best and most

fertile place on earth, thanks to the benefaction of God and His promises to

our fathers, inasmuch as they were perfect people in their opinions and in

their moral character-I mean Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. For this too is one

of the pivots of the Torah, I mean the belief that every benefit that will be

or has been granted is due to the merit of the Fathers, since they kept the way

of the Lord to do justice and judgment. (Translation by S. Pines)

In this paragraph, Rambam links the

Biblical reason "for in tabernacles I had the Children of Israel dwell"

to the ethical-educational rationale expressed through the Tishrei

festivals. Considering the dwelling in the sukkah as part of an educational

process continues the path begun by R' El'azar bar Maryom. According to R' El'azar,

the 'exile' to the sukkah atones for sin, whereas Rambam adds that the

atonement is effected by the educational influence of the exile. Rambam also

incorporated into these words the obligation to do righteousness, justice, and

judgment, which characterized the Fathers. This is a constant obligation, felt

intensely during these days of economic recession. We feel and hear those 'wretched

inhabitants' who dwell in huts even not on Sukkoth; we are charged to utilize

the festival to contribute more to institutions of charity and good deeds that

work towards the diminishing of the deep economic gaps.

Another aspect which stresses the tie

between Sukkoth and Yom Kippur and the act of repentance is to be found in the

words of Rav Kook, zt"l,

in his commentary on the siddur (Olat R"iyah II, pp. 367-368):

Repentance, with all its practical

stages, with the overall atmosphere which prevails primarily in the days set

aside for repentance, with its great benefit of purifying the souls. To refine

the spirit and to cleanse acts of their ugliness, it must hide within itself a

weakness from which even the most heroic of heroes cannot escape. When we

diminish the strength of the will, when we bend the strength of life, through

inner revulsion and the inclination to repent of all sin, the desire of good

also diminishes, the power of the pure life also is lessened. We find that one

suffers from his moral purification a weakness similar to that of the patient

who is cured by radiation-the treatment expelled the disease's poison, but it

also weakened his living, healthy power. Therefore, days of holy joy, of

spiritual elation, come to rejuvenate the positive will and the strength of the

pure life. Then will repentance be complete.

In speaking of "days of holy joy,

of spiritual elation", the Rav is referring to the Sukkoth festival. Davka

in respect to Sukkoth does the Torah (Devarim 16) mention

the mitzvah of rejoicing. He sees Sukkoth in general as a time of

healing after the spiritual struggle and the suffering which characterize the "the

overall atmosphere which prevails primarily in the days set aside for

repentance". In Rav Kook's teaching, the Sukkoth festival has a constructive function in

the teshuva process. Perhaps his words here are a continuation of his

discussion in the eighth chapter of Orot HaTeshuva, "The Pains of Sin, and

the Agony of Teshuva, and the Healing Effect of Its Illumination." There

the Rav deals with the extensive importance of finding the suitable proportion

between feelings of sadness and feelings of joy; the proper relationship

between these contradictory emotions grants man the proper spiritual platform

for personal repair.

We have seen, then, two different

approaches to the role of Sukkoth in the web of individual and national

purification which characterizes the Tishrei festivals. The words of Rambam

(and the darshan) stress the negative aspect of the impermanent sukkah,

which leads to humility and subjugation, as the first step in the process of

self-purification. The words of Rav Kook, on the other hand, emphasize the

positive aspect of Sukkoth, the spiritual delight and the joy of holiness,

which revive the vigor of life, completing teshuva… the final step in the process of

repentance.

Aviad

A. Stollman lives in Gush Etzion, and is a doctoral candidate in the Talmud

department of Bar-Ilan Univ.

The Seventy Bulls of the Festival for the Seventy Nations of the

World

Just as this dove atones for sins, so does

Israel atone for the nations, for all

those seventy bulls which are sacrificed on the festival are on behalf of the seventy

nations, so that the world not be bereft

of them, as is written (Psalms 109) "They

answer my love with accusation but I am all prayer"

 (Midrash Shir

Hashirim Rabba 1).

Seventy bulls. The bulls of the festival total 70,

except for that of the eighth [day], on behalf of the seventy nations, to atone

for them so that rain fall throughout the world, for on Sukkoth the world is judged for water.

(Rashi,

Tractate Sukkah, 35b)

Said R' Yehoshua of Sikhnin in the name of R' Levi:

Great is shalom, for all blessings conclude with peace, in the

Kriyat Shema 'who spreads the sukkah of shalom, in the benediction 'who creates shalom, in the priestly benediction 'and give you shalom. This is true for benedictions, from where do we

know that this is true regarding sacrifices? The Torah teaches: "This is the Instruction concerning the

offering-up… and concerning the slaughter-offering of shalom". Thus we have sources for this world, from where do

learn about the next world? The Torah teaches "I

will extend to her shalom like a stream". Our Sages taught: Great is peace, for when the

Anointed King will arrive, he will begin with peace, as is written, "How welcome on the mountain are the

footsteps of the herald announcing shalom.

 (Yalkut Shimoni, Bemidbar 6:711)

Kohellet and Sukkoth

It appears to me that a connection between the

custom of reading Kohellet on Sukkoth is to be found in the words of R'

Yonathan in Yalkut Kohellet: "R' Yonathan said, first 'Shir Hashirim'

(Song of Songs) was composed, followed by 'Mishlei' (Proverbs) and then 'Kohellet'. R' Yonathan derived this from the way of the world:

in one's youth he sings songs, when

he matures he recites parables, and

in old age, he speaks of vanities…"  

 (Yalkut

Shimoni, Kohellet, 1:965)

The three pilgrimage festivals signify this cycle

in the seasons of the year: In spring-which parallels youth-on Pesach we read "Shir

Hashirim" ("the

time of singing has come" ); in the

season of harvest and the ripening of first fruits, we read the Scroll of Ruth,

which makes mention of the wheat harvest; and in the [produce] gathering, we

read Kohellet, which makes reference to man's last days, ending with "The sum of the matter".

 (Mordecai

Zer-Kavod, from his preface to his commentary on Kohellet in "Daat Mikra")

Good for the Just – Justice is the Good

"For

who does not… and for him who swears and for him who shuns oaths" (Kohellet 8:2) – "It

because he does not revere God".

 (Kohellet

8:13)

In Kohellet, the Tzaddik-Wicked issue is repeated.

The author declares that one fate lies in store for both, who are in equal

degree exposed to life's changes and nature's scourges. But along with this we

read; "For I

and it will not be well with the wicked."

The obvious question is, 'good' in what sense?

Regarding the wicked it does not say that that he

will be punished; punishment is not mentioned at all, for Kohellet has already

declared that "One fate for the righteous and for the wicked" . He is

talking about denial of good from

the wicked. This again teaches us that the good which is the portion of those

who revere God, will be denied the wicked who will remain with his

foolishness/wickedness.

 (Y. Leibowitz: Discussions on Israel's

Festivals and Appointed Times, p. 206)

What's Happening in the Movement

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