Shalom Friends;
Our Succot vort is being sponsored by Haim and Danit Kalb and family of Ramat Beit Shemesh Lilui Nishmas for Haim’s Dad, Mordechai Yosef ben R’ Efraim, his Mother, Feigye bat R’ Mordechai and for the Yahrtzeits of Haim’s Grandfathers R’ Efraim ben R’ Mordechai and Mordechai ben David as well as for the Yahrtzeit of Danit’s Father Avraham Avigdor ben Aba Yehuda and for the safety of the Chayalim and the liberation of all remaining hostages and their return home home without experiencing any further harm, as well as for the good health and security of kol Am Yisrael. . 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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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 now find ourselves, after assembling our Succahs and acquiring our Arba Minim (Lulav, Hadassim, Aravot and Etrog), celebrating Succot.
And we all know who the first Ushpizin is, in this author’s parody of that iconic Rowan and Martin’s “Laugh-In” line: “And now, the man without whom the Jews wouldn’t be the Jews without the Jew — Avraham Aveinu!”
This Succot vort begins by excerpting from last year’s vort.
The Manchester Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Yehudah Zev Segal, z”l wrote discussing Succot in his Sefer, “Inspiration and Insight,” Volume ll (page 97-99) :
In the Shemonah Esrei of Yom Tov, we say, “And you, Hashem Kelokeinu, have lovingly given us appointed times for gladness, festivals and seasons for joy…” Every Yom Tov is a time for Simcha, gladness. However, only Succot is called “Z’man Simchateinu,” the season of our gladness. The source of this… is the verse (Sefer Devarum, Perek 16, posuk 14) where the term Simcha is used specifically in connection with Succot (though it applies to the other Yomim Tovim as well). Why, indeed, is Simcha associated with Succot more than with Pesach and Shavuot?
The joy of Succot can be explained…, the season of soul-searching and introspection which commences with Rosh Chodesh Elul becomes more intense with the advent of Rosh Hashana and reaches its climax with Yom Kippur, when we enumerate our sins… and beg forgiveness. Those who approach this season with the seriousness that it demands might well become dispirited after spending so much time pondering their spiritual failings. R’ Yisrael Salanter writes in a letter that in days past “every man was seized with dread by the voice which proclaimed the month of Elul.” (ibid, citing Ohr Yisrael 14) Forty days and countless tears later, such a man might find it difficult to mend his broken heart.
Yom Tov is a time of special closeness between Hashem and His people: this closeness is the source of the joy that permeates the Yom Tov experience. The Mitzvah of Succot symbolizes this closeness in a most unique way. The Gemara states that the Succah represents the Ananei HaKavod, Clouds of Glory, through which Hashem’s Presence was manifest during the Jews’ sojourn in the Wilderness and which sheltered them from harm. The Vilna Gaon, in Shir HaShirim 1:2, showed how the very date on which Succot commences is related to the Clouds of Glory. Succot is the season of our gladness because its arrival revives our broken spirit and infuses us with joy, both because it is Yom Tov and because its primary Mitzvah (ibid, Primary in the sense that it becomes one’s dwelling throughout the festival) represents the special bond which exists between HaKadosh Borchu and Klal Yisrael.
Torah records in Parshat Re’eh;
“You shall rejoice on your festival — you, your son, your daughter, your slave, your maidservant, the Levite who is in your cities, the proselyte, the orphan, and the widow who are in your cities.” (Sefer Devarim, Perek 16, posuk 14 rendered to English in the Artscroll Stone Chumash)
But it may seem that this year the joy of Succot may be tempered somewhat by events both within Am Yisrael — in Eretz Yisrael amidst Israel’s continued multi-front war against Iran-sponsored and funded terrorist forces and their so-called “innocent civilian” co-conspirators, as well as within world Jewry — and the chaos worldwide.
It is in this context that this author cites Sefer Shem Mishmuel (written by Rabbi Shmuel Bornstein, the Rebbe of Sochaczev and translated to English by Rabbi Zvi Belovski). Shem Mishmuel writes (pages 442 – 444) :
In his…Kad HaKemach, Rabbeinu Bachya quotes a Midrashic source which explains that the arba minim (four species) correspond to the four exiles which the Am Yisrael will have to [have] endure[d] and their ability to overcome their adversaries each time.
We may explain the connection between exile and these species in the following manner. In the admonitions of Parshat Ki Tavo, the Torah warns that exile will befall Am Yisrael;
“because you did not serve the Lord, your G’d with happiness and a glad heart, with abundance of everything.” (Shem Mishmuel cites and renders to English a portion of Sefer Devarim, Perek 28, posuk 47)
For a broader context of posuk 47, with a view toward our current matzav, the Artscroll Stone Chumash renders to English Sefer Devarim, Perek 28, posukim 45 – 47) :
“All of these curses will come upon you and pursue you and overtake you, …because you have not hearkened to the voice of Hashem, your G’d, to observe His Commandments and Decrees that He Commanded you. They will be a sign and a wonder, in you and your offspring, forever, because you did not serve Hashem, your G’d, amid gladness and goodness of heart, when everything was abundant.”
Returning to Shem Mishmuel (pages 442 – 444) :
An obvious question can be asked here: why should such a severe punishment be appropriate for a lack of Simcha in Mitzvot performance? After all, no serious punitive action, such as execution or excision is mandated for this. However, the
Zohar HaKadosh explains that man’s inclination, whether good or evil, is aroused by Simcha. The Yetzer HaTov, his good inclination, is aroused by the Simcha of Mitzvah observance and Torah study, whereas his Yetzer hara, his bad inclination is aroused by mockery, immorality and overindulgence. Perhaps the Zohar is telling us that the power pf Simcha is very potent. This means that of we don’t utilize our abilities to produce the Simcha expressed in Mitzvot and Torah, we automatically feel the bad side of our personalities, distancing ourselves from Hashem… until ultimately we bring upon ourselves punishment and persecution, eventually leading to the ultimate estrangement: exile itself.A Jew must be prepared to give up his life, if necessary, to avoid committing three cardinal transgressions: idol worship, murder and sexual immorality. In some sense, however, malicious gossip [loshen hara] is regarded as equivalent to all of these terrible sins. Each of the nations to which Yisrael have been subjugated represents one of these four transgressions. In fact, the very nature of these nations is defined by the particular affinity of its inhabitants for a specific sin…. The four exiles, therefore, afford us the opportunity to eliminate even the slightest traces within us of the four most serious transgressions.
We are specifically enjoined not just to take the Arba Minim, but to rejoice and praise Hashem with them. The Simcha, rejoicing in our ability to conquer our leanings toward the serious transgressions described above, has the same purifying effect as exile itself. For once we express pure Simcha, together with the… redirection of the bad intent in our personalities, we reverse the admonition, “because you did not serve the Lord, your G’d with happiness and a glad heart.” Then we will no longer need exile or the four nations to help us back to the path of Torah and Simcha, for we will have reached it through the Arba Minim and our own efforts.
This is not to say that all factions of secular Israelis, by their seeming lack of Mitzvah observance and level of Torah study, have thus submitted to their Yetzer hara — not so.
But, to hearken back to this author’s Ha’azinu vort; The many factions and resultant discord and disunity among Am Yisrael which, in turn, manifest itself in equivocal governamce; agendization in judicial courts, mainstream media, “intelligencia” and universities; restrictive glass ceilings in the military high command limited only to those of certain factions and ideologies, as well as the self-aggrandizing arrogance of the military “elites” displayed before enemy nations and animalistic terror groups — all are not akin to proving and maintaining Hashem’s trust in us. All of this seems to reflect a lack of Simcha in it’s most negative forms.
It would seem that the War of Simchat Torah, with its myriad of intelligence and strategic misreadings and miscalculations are a wake up call to Am Yisrael, in Israel and worldwide, regarding coming near to Hashem, and justifying His continued love for, and trust in us.
May it be that our Chayalim, regardless of the machinations of their high command, emerge totally victorious — eradicating from the face of the earth Hamas, their terrorist buddies and the so-called “innocent civilians” of Gaza who joined with Hamas in their murderous deeds, that the Chayalim return home whole — physically, mentally and spiritually and that the Chayalim Liberate and bring home all remaining hostages. And may we see the restoration of true unity within Am Yisrael.
May we, the B’nei Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently re-settled in Gush Katif, once the IDF, by the Yad Hashem, destructs and eradicates the wild beasts of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, all other terror entities, and if necessary Iran, and that our brethren be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them, that the thrice expelled families of Amona be restored to their rebuilt homes and the oft-destroyed Yeshiva buildings in Homesh be rebuilt, as well as the buildings of Yishuv Elchanan, all at total government expense. May our Chayalim return from battle unharmed — physically, mentally and spiritually and may all of the remaining hostages brutally taken by the wild beasts of Hamas be liberated and brought home to their families. Baruch Hashem that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard is now in his fourth year at home in Eretz Yisrael and continues in a new chapter in his life. May Esther Yocheved bat Yechiel Avraham have an aliyah in Shemayim and may her spirit and memory continue to lift Jonathan to at least 120 years. May the MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem — as with the return in April, 2019, via Russia, of the remains of Zachariah Baumel, as should the remains of the two chayalim from the Gaza War of ten 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 see, in 5784, the REAL Jews from the Ukraine and Russia as well as the US and Canada, the real Jews via matrilineal descent, make Aliyah enmass — via thorough review by Misrad HaPanim. And may we soon and finally see the total end to the Communist Chinese Wuhan Lab corona virus pandemic and all like viruses and variants. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nei 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 5785 and every year thereafter to at least 120! (123 years if you are Kohen.)
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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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