Strolling Through Paradise

a deeper look at the Torah and Holidays

Elchanan Shoff
Booths for War Sukkos
The Sukkah, explains the Tur1 is to remind us of the clouds of glory, the annanei hakavod that enveloped the Jewish people during their time wandering in the wilderness. R. Yoel Sirkes, usually known as the Bach2 writes that this piece of information actually has halachik ramifications. When the Torah gives a reason explicitly as it does here, for in sukkas I housed the Children of Israel then in order to fulfill the mitzvah, one must be conscious of the reason for it whilst performing it. This makes the Turs ruling a troubling one. The gemara3 records two interpretations of the verse for in sukkas I housed the Children of Israel. One is that of Rabbi Eliezer who understands that these Sukkas were the clouds of glory. Rabbi Akiva on the other hand understands that they were actual booths sukkos mamish. We always rule like Rabbi Akiva when he and Rabbi Eliezer disagree on anything halachik.4 Until the Bach came along, it would have been possible to account for the Turs siding with Rabbi Eliezer as a non-halachik statement. Since, as we all know there is no accounting for taste, it would have simply appeared that the Tur liked Rabbi Eliezers image more for whatever reason. But now that this is a halachik issue, why did the Tur not rule like Rabbi Akiva? Another difficult thing to make sense of is the opinion of Rabbi Akiva. What on earth does he mean by actual booths? After all, the Jews in fact did live inside of the clouds of glory. What need could they have had for booths? The Rokeach5 offers
1 2

O.C. 625 Ibid. 3 sukkah 11b 4 Eruvin 46b 5 Sefer Harokeach 219

an explanation. He writes that although the Jews never needed booths when they went out to war against Sichon and Og, they no longer were protected by the clouds of glory; it was then that they built booths. Sukkos commemorates these booths. But why in the world should this be? What could be the meaning of a holiday to commemorate wartime booths?

Rabbi Moshe Wolfson6 asks another interesting question. Why would a battalion of warriors build above ground booths rather than trenches? Does it really make any military sense to build a bunch of little booths with palm branch roofs decorated with childrens projects, construction paper chains, and pictures of the 7 special fruits of Israel when at battle? What were they thinking?

The answer to all of this lays in the amazing and beautiful words of the saintly Divrei Chaim of Sanz.7 The Divrei Chaim explains that the sukkah is not something that one is simply meant to eat or sleep in. The gemara says8 that you are to treat the sukkah kein taduru, just as you might normally treat your home. Just as one has his home as a residence even when he goes out to do other things, so is it with ones sukkah. Explains the Divrei Chaim, just as the person who sits in the sukkah is sitting in a place of holiness and is enwrapped in the holiness of the sukkahs shade, so does one who leaves the sukkah for good reason. Even the person who leaves the sukkah when he needs to in order to do other good things that fulfill Hashems will is nevertheless making the sukkah his home, and keeps the holiness of the sukkah along with him. R. Moshe Wolfson explains that not only is this true about the sukkah, it was certainly true about the original clouds of glory as well. The clouds of glory protected the Jewish people from all danger, but did not do so for Jews outside the clouds of glory.9 But they did protect the person who left the sukkah for the right reasons. If a person left the clouds of glory to fulfill the will of Hashem, he took the powers of the clouds of glory along with him, and also was immune to damage just as he was when inside the actual clouds, since their energy was with him. They were able to build sukkas in the line of fire, and were nevertheless untouchable.

6 7

Emunas Ittecha, Moadim 124-5 Divrei Chaim Al Hatorah, inyanei sukkos p. 10b 8 sukkah 26a 9 See Dvarim 25:19 and Rashis comments s.v. kol hanechshalim. See also Rashi to Bamibar 21:1 s.v. vayishma

It emerges that even the opinion of Rabbi Akiva is that the sukkas that we sit in commemorate the power of the clouds of glory10 it simply extends that power to even outside the clouds of glory. The Tur is following even the opinion of Rabbi Akiva. Every year we sit in a booth that is not of clouds of glory, to remember that we have the power to extend that power to wherever we need to. The ability to engage in the physical world and nevertheless remains in the embrace of the clouds of glory is what Sukkos is meant to help us achieve. In your sukkah, even the completely lifeless act of sleeping is a great mitzvah. Just having a pulse in a sukkah is enough to be fulfilling a mitzvah. Anything can become spiritual when in the sukkah. This is what Rabbi Akiva teaches us. [Why it is Rabbi Akiva specifically who teaches us this, you can discover in link to the audio shiur attached to this email. Though that shiur doesnt mention the same materials as this written dvar Torah, it fits together with it quite nicely.]

On the last day of Sukkos, Hashem turns to the Jewish people and says, it is hard for me to see you go. Please stay one more day.11 That extra day is Shmini Atzeres. But is it really any easier to leave after that one more day? Wouldnt it be easier to just get the goodbye over with like removing the proverbial band aid in one clean shot? We are taught in the gemara12 that Shmini Atzeres has its own special character as a holiday, it is a regel bifnei atzma. Rashi13 explains that it is its very own day, since we do not sit in a sukkah. Is that really enough to make a day meaningful? What is a day of not sitting in the sukkah all about? R. Yechezel Weinfeld14 points to the Targum Yonason15 who tells us that word Atzeres means a joyous return to ones home, from the sukkah. The nature of the holiday of Sukkos was to tell us to leave your permanent home and enter a temporary home,16 teach our sages. This world is all temporal. The person who loves his child will gladly give everything else up to protect
10

See also Chasam Sofer in Torah Moshe to Emor s.v. Ki Basukkos where he explains an alternative explanations of the Rokeach. He explains the we commemorate the time that we had to build sukkas to remind ourselves that it was only twice that we actually needed housing, and that otherwise we were taken care of entirely. [Sometimes, we only appreciate what we have when we dont have it for a little while.] That is why, explains that Chasam Sofer, we build sukkas to remember the sukkos mamash. Thus according to the Chasam Sofer as well, we see that the real purpose of the mitzvah of sukkah even according to Rabbi Akiva is to remember the clouds of glory. 11 , Rashi to Vaykira 23:36 s.v. atzeres hi. 12 sukkah 48a 13 Ibid s.v. regel 14 Chachmei Lev 6, Simchas Torah 5767 p. 944 15 Bamidbar 29:35 16 sukkah 2a

his son. He would never consider giving his childs life for 500 billion dollars. Only when you have something that makes everything else completely worthless have you begun to live. The time of our joy, as we refer to Sukkos in our prayers is also the time when we read all about how everything is futility of futilities.17 We remind ourselves what is real and what is not when we can leave of big strong homes for a time. But the goal is not to forget that after the holiday and go back home, but rather to take that spiritual achievement back home with us. To move back into our permanent mansion with the feeling that we are living in no more than a flimsy sukkah is the goal of Shmini Atzeres. It is a holiday of not sitting it the Sukkah.

The holiness of the Sukkah; the great spiritual gains that we earn from sitting in its shade and breathing its air are ones that can extend outside the sukkah, and through our entire year. Enjoy. It is truly the most joyous time of year.

Rabbi Elchanan Shoff was ordained by Rabbi Noah Weinberg of Aish Hatorah, and by Rabbi Zalman Nehemia Goldberg, Chief Justice of the Supreme Rabbinical Court of Jerusalem. He is currently residing in Jerusalem, where he is a Rebbe in Yeshivas Zeev Hatorah, a Senior Lecturer for Hineni International Programs (H.I.P), a Lecturer for Aish Hatorah, and teaches several other classes each week as well. He is the author of Vaani Bahashem Atzapeh (Jeruslaem 2010) in Hebrew on Tehillim, and his weekly Torah email Strolling Through Paradise reaches more than 1000 people. He can be reached at [email protected]

17

Koheles 1:2