Sukkot

"You shall live in booths seven days;

All the citizens of Israel shall live in booths"

(Leviticus 23:42)

 

The citizens - that is citizens. Of Israel - including sojourners, [gerim] (Rashi, ibid). This excludes women from time-bound mitzvot but does include sojourners and freed slaves.

The literal translation, according to the Kabala, alludes to "One law shall you have for sojourners and citizens of the land." (Numbers 9:14) "All the dwellers in Canaan are aghast," (Numbers 13:5). So that it would not be necessary to mention citizens and sojourners each time, he says, "all the citizens of Israel," to include everyone in Israel, adults and children, so that all shall dwell in the sukkah, not just one from each household while the others would remain in the house, but all would dwell together. Perhaps it said that every citizen resides happily in his home, to exclude sailors and travelers.

(Ramban, ibid)

 

 

The transience of permanence and the permanence that is in the transient

Ariel Pikar

On the Festival of Sukkot, we are commanded to go out of our homes and live in a sukkah. The Braita, describes it like this: "Our rabbis taught: Seven days man makes his sukkah his permanent abode and his home, temporary. How does he do this? If he has beautiful crockery - he brings them to the sukkah. If he has beautiful linens - he brings them to the sukkah. He eats and drinks and passes his leisure time in the sukkah," (T.Bavli, Sukkah 28:72). The sukkah becomes the space we live in for seven days, while our real homes become a temporary place that we enter from time to time.

Our sages differed on the architectural character of the sukkah. Rabban Gamliel interpreted it that the sukkah should withstand strong sea breezes, as opposed to Rabbi Akiva, who thought that a normal land breeze was sufficient. The Talmud explains their dispute: "Rabban Gamliel is of the opinion that the sukkah must be a permanent abode and since it cannot withstand normal sea breezes, it is nothing, while R. Akiva, is of the opinion that the sukkah must be temporary, and since it can withstand a normal land breeze it is valid" (Bavli Sukkah 23:A). In the same way, Rabbi Yehudah thought that a sukkah must have a mezuzah, because he also saw the sukkah as being permanent, as opposed to the rest of the sages, who considered a sukkah exempt from a mezuzah because it is a temporary abode (Bavli, Yoma 10:B) This is also how the Talmud interprets the dispute of the Tannaim, as to the maximum height of the sukkah (Bavli, Sukkah 2:B). In all these disputes, the Halakha is always according to the opinion that the sukkah is a temporary abode and not permanent.

During the Festival of Sukkot man should feel like his home is temporary. The accepted interpretation of this mitzvah, is that particularly at the time of harvest, when man’s self confidence is strong - the feeling of accomplishment and his agricultural success - Man’s feeling of entitlement and strength - particularly then, he should leave his protected living environment - his home - and dwell in the sukkah, his temporary abode, where he will again feel reliance on God, who provides the power to succeed.

City dwellers who, during the year, are not engaged in reaping and harvesting, can also find existential meaning in the mitzvah of the sukkah. Mankind lives in the dialectic between two existential polarities. Sometime we feel permanence: In work, in society, in the family. We live with the assurance that what was, will be, that the sun that rose yesterday will also rise tomorrow. We believe that our financial stability will endure and that our relationships with our family will be sustained. But sometimes we are forcibly shaken out of our complacency. We sense the transient condition of our existence; impaired health, eroding relationships, and disintegrating economic stability.

To cope with these tensions, the mitzvah of Sukkot offers us a chance to make our permanent home temporary and make the sukkah permanent. Thus, we can experience the transient as permanent and the permanent as transient. From turning our permanent home to temporary, we learn that what seems to be permanent is not so safe: Home, family, work, social networks - the things, that we try so hard to stabilize and institutionalize - all these do not buy us complete security, as we never know what awaits us today, as it says "Man can plan in his heart but God’s intent will prevail."

If man delves too deeply into his thoughts he is likely to be completely depressed and helpless, and will be unwilling to build and achieve. To balance these thoughts, we turn our sukkah, for seven days, from a temporary dwelling to a permanent residence. The sukkah exemplifies our ability to design complete lives in a temporary situation. We are reconciled to our insecurity and we create an existence for ourselves, also in a temporary residence. Our willingness to perceive our sukkah as a home provides us with the peace of mind to live with the uncertainties. On an island of stability, for a moment of serenity, there can also be importance and meaning and we can achieve the most out of the temporary and transient.

This idea has a spiritual and emotional dimension, as well as a deep social meaning. In a state of self- confidence, man lives for himself, in his own protected and air-conditioned house. We live in a fortress. Confidence isolates, transience unites. Moreover, houses represent class disparities - the simple sukkah - equality. We can go out to the sukkah, we meet our neighbors, hear and join in with their singing and conversation, and we enjoy the aromas of their cooking. Passerbys peek in and are welcomed in. "Ushpizim" (guests) visit, whether they are ancient guests, like Abraham and Isaac, or they are new guests - they all enter our sukkah "that all of Israel are worthy to sit together"( Bavli Sukkah 27:B), with no class or ethnic or ideological distinctions. Not only that, but all the nations of the world are invited to celebrate with us the Festival of Sukkot (Zechariah 14).

"You shall live in booths seven days... All the citizens of Israel shall live in booths...in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the Land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God." (Leviticus 23:44). The people of Israel solidified as a nation while they sat in sukkot in the desert. The mitzvah of sukkah reminds us of the wandering in the desert, the years we lived together in simplicity, solidarity and equality. When we leave our home to go out, we are attempting to recreate the wilderness experience, the simplicity and the social cohesiveness and the belief that we are capable of coping with transience and insecurity, in the wilderness, in the uncultivated land - and in the land of milk and honey.

Ariel Pikar - Educational Director of Tochnit Beeri at the Hartman Institute.

 

...And you shall rejoice before the lord your god seven days.

On rejoicing - when, how much and how!

...All seven days of the festival, we recite the [full] Hallel, but on Pesach we recite the [full] Hallel only on the first day and its preceding evening. Why? Because "If your enemy falls, do not exult; If he trips, let your heart not rejoice." With regard to Shavuot, simcha - joy - is mentioned only once, as is written, "And you shall observe the Festival of Weeks for the Lord, your God, and you shall rejoice you and your household." Why is joy mentioned? [Because] the wheat has been harvested. Why is it not mentioned twice? Because the fate of the fruits of the tree is still being decided. But on Rosh Hashanah, joy is not mentioned even once, because souls are being judged, and man pleads for his soul more than for his wealth. But on the festival [Sukkot], because all souls were pardoned on Yom Kippur, as is written, "For on this day, atonement shall be made for you", and the grains and the fruits of the tree have been gathered, joy is mentioned three times, "You shall rejoice in your festival", "You shall rejoice before the Lord your God", "You shall have nothing but joy".

What is "nothing but joy"? Even though man may rejoice in this world, his joy is incomplete. How is that? Children are born to him - he worries lest they not survive. But in the future, The Holy One, Blessed Be He, will abolish death forever. That joy will be complete, as is written "Our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with ringing song."

(Yalkut Shimoni, Torah, Parshat Emor, 247 654)

 

Kohelet and Sukkoth

It appears to me that a connection between the custom of reading Kohelet and the holiday of Sukkoth is to be found in the words of R' Yonathan in Yalkut Kohelet: "R' Yonathan said, first 'Shir Hashirim' (Song of Songs) was composed, followed by 'Mishlei' (Proverbs) and then 'Kohelet'. 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, Kohelet, 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 Kohelet, 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 Kohelet in "Daat Mikra")

 

 

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)

 

 And god seeks the pursued.

(Kohelet 3:15)

 

In connection with that which is written, and God seeks the pursued -

Rabbi Huna said in the name of Rabbi Yosef: In the future, God will exact the blood of the pursued from their pursuers:

A righteous man pursues a righteous man - and God seeks the pursued,

A wicked man pursues a wicked man, or a wicked man pursues a righteous man - and God seeks the pursued.

You are found implying: Even if a righteous man pursues a wicked man, in any case: and God seeks the pursued.

Know that it is such, for Abel was pursued by Cain, and therefore the Lord paid heed to Abel and his offering, but to Cain and his offering He paid no heed (Bereishit 4:4-5). Noah was pursued by [the people of] his generation and it is written that Noah found favor with the Lord (4:8). Abraham was pursued by Nimrod, and it is written, You are the Lord God who chose Abram, who brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans (Nehemiah 9:7). Isaac was pursued by the Philistines, and it is written, and they said, "We have plainly seen that the Lord has been with you, and we thought: Let there be a sworn treaty between our two parties, between you and us (Bereishit 26:28). Jacob was pursued by Esau, and it is written, for the Lord has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel, as His treasured possession (Tehillim 135:4). Joseph was pursued by his brother, and it is written, the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he stayed in the house of his Egyptian master (Bereishit 39:2). Moses was pursued by Pharaoh, and it is written, had not Moses His chosen one confronted Him in the breach to avert His destructive wrath (Tehillim 106:23). Israel is pursued by idolaters, and it is written, the Lord chose you to be His treasured people (Devarim 14:2). Rabbi Yehudah Ben Simon says in the name of Rabbi Nehorai: The ox is chased by the lion, the lamb by the wolf, the goat by the leopard - God said: Bring only the pursued before Me as offerings - the ox, or the lamb, or the goat.

(Tanhuma Emor, 9)

 

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.)

 

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)

 

 

 

 

 

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