Shalom Friends;
Our Succot vort is being sponsored by Haim and Danit Kalb and family of Ramat Beit Shemesh to Lilui Nishmas the Yahrtzeit of Haim’s Grandfather Efraim ben R’ Mordechai. To the Kalb family, many thanks for your sponsorship and for your continued kindnesses.
You can celebrate a Simcha — a birth, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, a Chassuna or other Simcha event in your life, or commemorate a Yahrtzeit of a loved one, or for whatever other reason by sponsoring (or as the case may be, co-sponsoring) a Parshat HaShevua.
Please forward to your relatives and friends and encourage them to sponsor a Parshat HaShevua. And please be in contact with me with any questions, or for further details.
Best Regards,
Moshe Burt
olehchadash@yahoo.com
skype: mark.burt3
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Having emerged from Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, hopefully all have been inscribed and sealed for a happy, healthy, successful and meaningful year and years ahead, we find ourselves in the midst of Succot.
During Succot, the B’nai Yisrael, as an Am Segula (a nation apart and unique from the other nations), as Hashem’s special, chosen people, visit, bond, and celebrate our special and unique relationship with HaKodosh Borchu.
Just a note here, we recite Tehillim psalm #27: “L’David Hashem O’ri…” twice daily from Rosh Chodesh Elul through Simkhat Torah night (through Shemini Atzeres in Khutz L’Aretz). The Succot makhsor (Nusakh Ashkenaz, pages 68-69) explains:
The custom to recite this psalm of repentence is based on the Midrash [Vayikra Rabbah, Perek 21, siman 4] which expounds: “Hashem is my light” on Rosh Hashana; “and my salvation” on Yom Kippur; “He will hide me in His shelter”… an allusion to Succot. The implication is that Rosh Hashana, Hashem helps us to see the light and repent; on Yom Kippur, He provides us salvation by forgiving our sins. Once we are forgiven, He shelters us from all foes and dangers, just as He sheltered our ancestors in the wilderness.
Various commentators cite the Zohar Vayikra daf 31b which indicates that the final sealing in the Book of Life occurs on Hoshana Rabbah. Thus, one could draw a definitive spiritual connection between this final sealing of one’s future in the coming year on Hoshana Rabbah, and the recitation of Tehillim psalm #27: “L’David Hashem O’ri…” from Rosh Khodesh Elul through Simkhat Torah night.
[Many thanks to R’ Yedidya Kramer of Ramat Beit Shemesh for his help in nailing down the exact sources: [Vayikra Rabbah, Perek 21, siman 4 and Zohar Vayikra daf 31b above]
From the above citing: “He will hide me in His shelter”… an allusion to Succot. Jews recognize that Hashem has dominion over the world and that man can’t look to or have trust in the physical, such as stone, iron or steel structures, etc. to provide protection. The nations, conversely, look to tall, fortifed edifices for security and protection.
Gemura Mesechet Avodah Zora, daf gimmel relates that in the future, the nations would seek reward from Hashem as they related how they did and made many things to benefit the Jews, and make the claim that had Hashem forced them to accept Torah as He did the Jews, that they would have accepted Hashem’s Law as well. So Hashem offered them one Mitzvah to do — Succah.
The story goes that a king, or head of state of the nations will sit in the Succah and Hashem would bring an intense heat, more intense than the heavy heat of Arnoldis Chapman’s hardest fastball. The head of state can’t take the intense heat and leaves the Succah, kicking the door in as he leaves.
Our emunah in Hashem as our protector is what distinguishes us from every other nation and people. [Many thanks to R’ Ari Enkin, R’ Moshe Braun, R’ Chaim Zev Malinowitz, Sh’lita for their help in providing a clearer understanding of of the above Gemura.]
Prominent in our thoughts during Succot are the Haftorahs where the prophecy of the War of Gog and Magog, Moshiakh, the Ge’ula Shlaima (the Redemption) and the rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash are pronounced. Or, as the expression goes among baseball fans each springtime — right down to the fans of the most hapless MLB team; “Hope springs eternal!”
But before we can question what the relationship is between the War of Gog and Magog and the simanim of Succot: the Lulav, Etrog, Hadassim and Aravah, and before we approach the simcha, the happiness and light of Succot; fundamental questions still seem, to this author, to need thought and introspection. These questions regard where one’s personal kavanah (intent, concentration and understanding) regarding tefillah is.
One need wonder; what motivation of the nations could be behind their seeking reward? Would the nations perceive Succot as “an easy Mitzvah”, “a free pass” courtesy of HaKadosh Borchu? And might we also ask questions of ourselves as to whether we have institutionalized short-cuts in our tefillot? Whether our tefillot, all year long, are worthy of our unique relationship with Hashem?
With the added insight regarding the parallel between “L’David Hashem O’ri…” and the final sealing in the Book of Life, this author yet again asks the following questions: Are we collectively and systematically programmed for success or failure by our personal kavanah in tefillah? Why have Shaliach Tzibborim seemingly drawn “a bye”, a free pass in “the system” regarding “Rabbinic injunction” concerning correct, fluent pronounciation and not slurring or running-on words of tefillot, etc. during Chazarat HaShatz? Why are those given Aliyah honors seemingly exempted from Halachic rules concerning pronounciation of Baruch Attah Hashem and Melekh HaOlam during Brachot over the Torah? And why the elaborated, elongated time-consuming khazzanut during Khazzarat HaShatz (repetition of Shemonah Essrei) at the cost of short-shrifting Aleinu? Can any communal leader explain the rationales?
One may well wonder what is meant here. Bluntly, and to the point: Is an individual’s spiritual growth as well as his bonding and kesher with Hashem systemically stifled, stymied, blunted and nipped in the bud by collective peer-pressure to conform to Kehilla-imposed time-limits at each step or section of tefillah? This author views these questions and thoughts as critically important to air, even now, once we have passed Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, lest we begin to back-slide into the old familiar patterns. And to date, there have been no answers received, no answers received from Rabbanim, from communal leaders. Why?? Are they all sooo handcuffed, for fear for their jobs, for their branding, for their overseas donations, for fear of ridicule by their peers that they fear to back up their words about intent and concentration regarding tefillot with concrete actions by systemically imposing changes which address the issues raised here?
This author is NOT a Talmud khacham, but when Rabbanim urge their followers, the Kehillot to “slow down — you are standing before The Melekh Ekhad, The Creator — pronounce the words of tefillah properly — understand what you are davening,” those words are strong, powerful, to be taken seriously. But how does one reconcile the words of mussar with the compelling and disruptive pressure that an individual is made to feel to conform to systemic Kehillah-imposed norms such as “the 6 minute rule” for Shemoneh Esrei, the sub-one minute Aleinu, etc. lest his personal concentration be totally shot by the Chazan’s repetition or Kaddish?
And when stam individuals suffer the continual conflict of the mortal race with the Shaliakh Tzibbor to Khazarat HaShatz, imagine the extent of the compelling and disruptive pressure felt by Kohanim who are Halachically compelled to be ready to have their hands washed at or shortly after conclusion of Kedusha in order to be ready to ascend to the Duchan by the Bracha of Retzei.
One could go on and on as to the contradictions in spirit inherent in unrealistic Kehilla-imposed systemic time limits at each stage of tefillah.
Are all of the spoken and written words about intent and concentration during tefillot empty and devoid of content vs the “system”, which the Shaliach Tzibbor is bound by conformance with, which mandates blowing through Aleinu as if shot from a rocket. This author has written at length on this — as if the B’nai Yisrael:
“… fled from the mountain of G’d like a child running away from school.” (Rabbi Artscroll mentions a Ramban on Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 10, posukim 35-36)
So we ponder why Moshiakh has not yet appeared. And if, as we are told by our Rabbanim, that we must ask, pray to, beseech Hashem in order to receive, it seems likely that our short-comings in tefillah are continuous, built-in to the system and seem directly attributable to not receiving what we seek and denial to our brother of the same opportunity to ask and receive, both on a personal and national level. In essence, it seems as if we have collectively been systemically programmed by “the system” to fail by virtue of time-restrictive prayer.
And so we ponder the War of Gog and Magog:
“When Gog, all his army and all of the nations attack Israel, even in a redemption ‘in haste,’ Israel will tremble with fear. Afterward, G’d will rise up and destroy the nations in the final redemption, as in the first one.” (”The Jewish Idea”, by Rabbi Meir Kahane, Z’l, Vol. 2, page 984)
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“Our sages said (Tanchuma, Re’eh, 9); “…In the future, Gog and Magog will attack Israel, and they too will be burnt up with one fire, as it says, ‘I will punish him with pestilence, blood and torrential rain […fire and brimstone]. At that moment, I will magnify and sanctify Myself, and make Myself known to many nations.’” (Yecheskel, 38.22-23 in part, as quoted from”The Jewish Idea”, by Rabbi Meir Kahane, Z’l, Vol. 2, page 984)
May it be that there be root changes in the way that B’nai Yisrael davens such that questions about intent need not be repeated in the future, so that we — the Jewish people truly distinguish ourselves in Hashem’s view, and that we collectively merit being sealed for life in the coming year and always and that we merit Moshiakh and the Ge’ula Shlaima before its time.
May we, the B’nai Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them at leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized gunpoint, that our dear brethren Jonathan Pollard and Sholom Rubashkin, as well as the MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bimhayrah b’yamainu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!
L’Shana Tova, Chag Same’ach and Good Shabbos! — may all who read this enjoy healthy, happy, sweet and prosperous 5775 and every year thereafter to at least 120!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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