Weekly D'var

SHABBAT CHOL HAMOED
Jorde Nathan

Niggun
(Tune of ashemnu)
(Tune of selach lanu)

Does the al chet cause you to tremble or cheer?

Post Yom Kippur does the remnant of viduy make you eager or hesitant?

It should bring a deep feeling of joy. We should leave Yom Kippur and head straight into sukkot with a big smile…with simcha. Let’s explore.

[brief commercial: my father’s yahrzeit is on Simchat Torah; come celebrate his memory, hakafot, dinner and lunch]

First…speaking of simcha…I want to pause and recognize events in Israel. Forget about if the deal is perfect or if the timing is perfect or if Trump is perfect or if Netanyahu is perfect. My guess is that at this time of year…this time of joy…we can all find some way to rejoice. We can in some way be sameach.

Lets review Yom Kippur:

Asham-nu

Bagad-nu

Al chet shechita-nu

Nu? what’s with the nu?

Our teshuvah on Yom Kippur is plural. We are seeking forgiveness for US. And it is WE who are forgiven. Yom Kippur’s pronoun so to speak is “us” and “we”. The “I” of each of us as an individual seems to be transcended.

So SCHKOYACH on our forgiveness. Now what? What happens next? What do we do with all this teshuvah? We do sukkot. We do simcha.

Sukkot is like a big welcome mat…we just got a big Yom Kippur HUG and the Jewish people have become like a solid single and united unit.

Each of us comes into the sukkah as one of the four species…the arbah minim…but the individual lulav components only function when taken together.

We have the lips and the eyes; the spine and the heart of the etrog. Only taken together as a whole can we celebrate sukkot. We celebrate that WE have succeeded in Yom Kippur and now WE can go out with achdut/unity as a Jewish people. In a way the sukkah pronoun is “I” but the I encompasses the WE.

It’s this togetherness when we are closest to one another and to haKadosh baruk’hu…and it is this closeness that is simcha. Sukkot in this way is z’man simchateinu. And it makes perfect sense that in this way, simchateinu would follow teshuvah on Yom Kippur. Drop the mic.

But wait. I thought sukkot celebrated the miracles Hashem brought and the dwelling in booths we did as we left Mitzrayim and lived in the midbar. This is certainly true. But this narrative would have sukkot in Nissan. This narrative would also celebrate the be’er, the mannah, the ananei haKavod and all the chesed God did in the desert. But our only surviving story is one of Tishrei and the only “miracle” given celebratory mainstage billing is that of just the clouds. Sukkah. Not mannah. Not travelling wells just sukkah. Hello? What is going on over here?

The Torah chose to put sukkot in the harvest season. That is in the fall, in Tishrei. What’s the simple explanation for this? Prior to harvest, we must break our backs farming; in the spring, we plant and till soil. We water; we weed. We protect the crops from insects and weather. And then, and only then, can we harvest.

This reaping, which follows such torturous work, is simcha. What would make us happier than seeing the fruit of our labor? And so, this simcha-time of harvest is most appropriate for sukkot. Z’man simchateinu. Chag sameach. Sukkot is in the fall.

But wait again, there is more! [Say or sing this part to the tune of gemara learning:] “if sukkot came in Nissan, when the weather is nice, we might think the simcha is coming from the weather and not from the harvest. Nissan sleeping outside in the sukkah would be pleasant and we might lose track with the mitzvah-purpose of the whole thing.”

Sukkot in Tishrei, however, teaches us to be sameach for the sake of the mitzvah and the mitzvah alone and for the miracle of the crops themselves growing – and so we dwell. Sure, when the weather is nice, being outside is simple and pleasant. Sitting in the cold and rain, however, the cold dampness of fall, focuses us on the iker mitzvah: we are thankful to Hashem and his doing for the harvest and his doing for the exodus; this hakarat hatov and gratitude and our closeness to the Almighty post teshuvah is simcha. Mazel Tov!

The booths are frail and temporary. We leave our homes to stay in nothing. Hashem has us. He has us just like he had us protected under the clouds shielding the burning hot desert sun. And if God has us, we must be at heightened connection, we must be holding at a heightened level of kedushah. Kedushah? You might ask “How can I find kedushah around this time?” Let’s explore. For this point, I’m going with the Vilna Gaon. The Gaon suggests a deeper reason for the Tishrei sukkot no-brainer. The Gaon explains that sukkot indeed commemorates the ananei haKavod; that the huts symbolize the clouds of glory that euphemistically reflect the shechinah that protect the Israelites in all time and space – not simply in the desert/Nissan.

How does he construct this argument? The Gaon observes that God removed the clouds after the chet of the egel (the sin of the Golden Calf). The clouds did return, however. But the clouds RETURNED ONLY after the c’lal repented. Israel in the midbar did viduy for chet. And after their atonement the divine protection returned.

Are you having a clouds/sukkah/sin/teshuvah/forgiveness/simcha/ SUKKOT COMES AFTER YOM KIPPUR tingle? Our apex closeness with God comes after teshuvah and our unity and return to the Almighty. The Gaon goes further and says like this: After the sin of the golden calf, God removed the clouds. But, He brought them back on the 15th of Tishrei, after Yom Kippur. NOW for sure you are having the tingle. This return of the clouds is marked with something else “coincidentally spectacular.” The 15th of Tishrei (sukkot, right?) coincides with the commencement of Hashem’s instructions to build the Mishkan. And what is the Mishkan? What is the point and purpose of building a mishkan or having a Temple anyways? We of course know this. It’s for Shechinah! It’s for Kedushah! THIS IS SUKKAH.

We build a dwelling place for God in shemayim to be present in us. The simple shack is teaching us what matters. Is it the house/car/purse/clothes/flyrod? Course not. It’s being connected. Connected with Hashem and connected each other: kol y’Israel aravim z’eh l’zeh. This is simchah.