Shalom Friends;
Our Succot vort is being sponsored by Haim and Danit Kalb and family of Ramat Beit Shemesh 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 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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We recite Tehillim psalm #27: “L’David Hashem O’ri…” twice daily from Rosh Chodesh Elul through Simchat Torah night (through Shemini Atzeres in Chutz L’Aretz). The Succot Machsor (Nusach 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 Hashanah; “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 Chodesh Elul through Simchat Torah night.
[Again, 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 as noted above)]
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 and bond with our brethren while celebrating our special and unique relationship with HaKodosh Borchu.
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, fortified edifices for security and protection.
Integral to Chag HaSuccot is the Mitzvah of taking the “Arba Minim”; the Lulav (palm branch), the Etrog (the citron fruit), the Hadassim (myrtle branches) and the Aravot (willow branches). Sefer Vayikra, Perek 23, posuk 40 in Parshat Emor teaches:
“And you shall take for yourselves on the first day fruit of a goodly tree, branches of palm trees, twigs of a plaited tree and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before Hashem, Keilokeichem, for seven days.” (As rendered by Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, in his sefer “Unlocking The Torah Text,” page 213)
R’ Goldin discusses the Mitzvah of Arba Minim and the appearance in the posuk of an internal contradiction within the Commandment concerning the Mitzvah (“Unlocking The Torah Text,” page 213-214):
The passage opens by stating that the Arba Minim should be taken on the first day of the festival. This directive seems to limit the Mitzvah only to that day (otherwise, why mention the first day at all?). The passage, however, closes with the decree that we should “rejoice before Hashem, Keilokeichem” (apparently with the Arba Minim) for seven days.
What, exactly, are the parameters of this precept… one-day or seven-days?
Faced with the apparent contradiction in the text, the Talmudic sages derive[d] a two-tier approach to the Mitzvah of Arba Minim. Universally, they maintain[ed], the Mitzvah is only a one-day precept, limited to the first day of… Succot. The text thus reads: “And you shall take for yourselves on the first day…”
There is, however, one critical exception. Within the confines of the Holy Beit HaMikdash in Jerusalem, when we are “rejoicing before Hashem, Keilokeichem,” the Torah mandates that the Arba Minim be taken for the full seven days of the festival. (R’ Goldin citing Mishna Succah 3:12)
R’ Goldin now relates how Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai affected the evolution of the Mitzvah of Arba Minim as practiced by Jews from the destruction of the Second Beit HaMikdash through to today (ibid, page 214-215):
Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai’s life spans the years before, during and after the destruction of the Second Beit HaMikdash in 70 CE. He reportedly live[d] one hundred twenty years: forty years practicing a trade, forty years in Torah study and forty years in teaching. (R’ Goldin citing Talmud Bavli Rosh Hashana 31b)
… Among the students of the great sage Hillel, Rabbi Yochanan distinguishe[d] himself greatly in Torah study and in piety (R’ Goldin citing Talmud Bavli, Succah 28a) and eventually…[was] referred to by his teacher as a “father of wisdom, a father for generations. (R’ Goldin citing Talmud Yerushalmi Nedarim 5:6)
…Rabbi Yochanan’s approach… during the years prior to the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash [was], on the one hand… unyielding in his defense of normative Halachic process and wage[d] relentless battles against those who would subvert its course. (R’ Goldin citing Mishna Yadim 4:6; Tosefta Para 3:8; Talmud Bavli Bava Basra 115b; Menachot 65a). At the same time, Rabbi Yochanan… [was] deeply concerned over the looming catastrophe that… [would] result from continuing conflict with the Romans (R’ Goldin citing Talmud Bavli Yoma 39b) and therefore preache[d] restraint (albeit unsuccessfully) in that arena. (R’ Goldin citing Talmud Bavli Yoma 39b; Gittin 56a; Avot D’Rabi Natan 4:5)
Through it all, Rabbi Yochanan remain[ed] particularly devoted to the Beit HaMikdash, teaching in the shadow of its walls.
While this two-tier structure [mentioned above] reflects the biblical obligation of the Arba Minim, … [Upon the destruction of the Second Beit HaMikdash, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai] changes the rules.
The Mishna relates that… Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai enact[ed] a takana, a rabbinic edict mandating that the universal Mitzvah of Arba Minim be extended to a full seven-day observance even outside of… Jerusalem. Motivating Rabbi Yochanan’s decision, the Mishna explains, is his desire to create a zecher l’Mikdash, a lasting remembrance of the… Beit HaMikdash. Let the Mitzvah be performed universally for seven days so that the Beit HaMikdash and the observances within will never be forgotten. (ibid. R’ Goldin citing Mishna Succah 3:12)
Rabbi Yochanan’s takana concerning the Arba Minim is one of a series of Talmudic…. legal rulings… from [which] Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai emerges not only as as the man most responsible for the survival of the Jews… during the years following the destruction of the Second Beit HaMikdash, but also as the architect of a plan for national continuity that has endured to this day.
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 we, the B’nei 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 and that the twice expelled families of Amona be restored to their rebuilt homes, at government expense; both due to alt-leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized Yassamnik gunpoint. May our dear brother Jonathan Pollard be liberated and truly free — only upon his return home to Israel, and that the MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem, as should the remains of the two chayalim from the Gaza War of four years ago. 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 prevent Chas V’Challila 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 Al’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 a healthy, happy, sweet and prosperous 5779 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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