Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week.
Parshat Ha'azinu - SukkotA 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:
Leave your permanent dwelling and live in a temporary dwelling for all of those
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
(Shenei
Luhot HaBrit of Rabbi Yeshayahu Horowitz, III,
And Spread Your Sukkah of Peace over Us, the Sukkah
of Compassion, Life, and Peace.
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
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
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
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
up against Jerusalem shall make a pilgrimage year by year to bow low to the
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
pilgrimage, shall it not be visited by the same affliction with which the Lord
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
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
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
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
pilgrimage year by year to bow low to the King Lord of Hosts and observe the
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
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.
Rabbi Yohanan said:
(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
(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...
(Tanhuma
Emor 22)
What is
Good for Man?
The antithesis between the
constantly repeated question - what is good for man? - and
nothing is discovered which is good for man - and the final verse, which does
not say what is good
for man but rather what is the totality
of man. That is to say, what is the significance of human existence
in a world in which nothing is good for man? This antithesis proves that the
final verse is not an addendum tacked on by a God-fearing Jew who had been
shocked by the skepticism and heresy found in the author's words. It is rather
quite the opposite: that verse expresses the author's own main intention. Kohelet does not say fear God and observe His
commandments, for that is good
for man. Rather, he says in a demonstrative and blatant fashion: for
that is the totality
of man. Here faith and the service of God are seen as independent
values, not as means for the gain of benefit.
(From Prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz z"l's He'arot le'Parashiyot Ha'Shavu'a pg.
137.)
Shabbat
Shalom is available on our website: www.netivot-shalom.org.il
If
you wish to subscribe to the email English editions of Shabbat Shalom, to print
copies of it for distribution in your synagogue, to inquire regarding the
dedication of an edition in someone's honor or memory, to find out about how to
make tax-exempt donations, or to suggest additional helpful ideas, please
contact
With
God's help and your own, we will ascend ever higher.
Editorial
Board of Shabbat Shalom
Executive
Board of Oz Ve'Shalom-Netivot Shalom
If you enjoy Shabbat Shalom,
please consider contributing towards its publication and distribution.
·
Hebrew edition distributed in
·
English edition distributed via email $ 100
Issues may be dedicated in honor
of an event, person, simcha, etc. Requests must be
made 3-4 weeks in advance to appear in the Hebrew, 10 days in advance to appear
in the English email.
In
US and British tax exempt contributions to Oz VeShalom may be made through:
New
New
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE NEW
PEF will also channel donations and provide a tax-exemption. Donations
should be sent to P.E.F. Israel Endowment Funds, Inc.,
All contributions should be
marked as donor-advised to Oz ve'Shalom, the Shabbat
Shalom project.
Oz Veshalom-Netivot
Shalom is a movement dedicated to the advancement of a civil society in
Oz Veshalom-Netivot
Shalom shares a deep attachment to the
Oz Veshalom-Netivot
Shalom's programs include both educational and
protest activities. Seminars, lectures, workshops, conferences and weekend
programs are held for students, educators and families, as well as joint
seminars for Jews, Israeli Arabs and Palestinians. Protest activities focus on
issues of human rights, co-existence between Jews and Arabs, and responses to issues
of particular religious relevance.
5,000 copies of a 4 page peace
oriented commentary on the weekly Torah reading are written and published by Oz
VeShalom/Netivot Shalom and they are distributed to
over 350 synagogues in
Oz Veshalom-Netivot
Shalom's educational forums draw people of different
backgrounds, secular and religious, who are keen to deepen their Jewish
knowledge and to hear an alternative religious standpoint on the subjects of
peace and social issues.
Oz Veshalom-Netivot
Shalom fills an ideological vacuum in