BS”D Sukkot
Dear reader we have arrived at such an endearing time of
the year, full of Mitzvot and connection! Thank Hashem we are in Moed the
intermediary days of Sukkot, we can relax now, spend time with our loved ones and bask in the Shechina - G-d's holy presence.
In Vayikra, Leviticus ch 23 we read about the three
festivals: Pesach, Shavout and Sukkot,
Note Ch23 v 14, the not eating bread is an eternal decree, as well as in relation to the Omer count and Shavuot it is written in V 21 it is an eternal decree for all our generations.
Regarding Sukkot it states in Ch 23 v 39 but on the 15th day of the Seventh month, when you gather in your crop of the land you are to celebrate Hashem’s festival for seven days; the first day is a rest day and the eighth day is a rest day. On the first day you are to take for yourselves the fruit of a citron tree (Esrog), the branches of a date palm (Lulav); Twigs of a plaited tree (Myrtle leaves, Haddasim),brook willows (Willow tree leaves Arvavim) and you are to rejoice before Hashem your G-d for seven days. You are to dwell in booths (Sukkot). So that your generations (all future generations) shall know that I caused the children of Israel to dwell in booths when I took them out of the land of Egypt; I am Hashem your G-d. (I.e. this instruction comes from the top so take it seriously.)
Note Ch23 v 14, the not eating bread is an eternal decree, as well as in relation to the Omer count and Shavuot it is written in V 21 it is an eternal decree for all our generations.
Regarding Sukkot it states in Ch 23 v 39 but on the 15th day of the Seventh month, when you gather in your crop of the land you are to celebrate Hashem’s festival for seven days; the first day is a rest day and the eighth day is a rest day. On the first day you are to take for yourselves the fruit of a citron tree (Esrog), the branches of a date palm (Lulav); Twigs of a plaited tree (Myrtle leaves, Haddasim),brook willows (Willow tree leaves Arvavim) and you are to rejoice before Hashem your G-d for seven days. You are to dwell in booths (Sukkot). So that your generations (all future generations) shall know that I caused the children of Israel to dwell in booths when I took them out of the land of Egypt; I am Hashem your G-d. (I.e. this instruction comes from the top so take it seriously.)
What is all this taking of the four species about -
below I explore what our learned Teachers and Rabbis have taught us. The Sukkot construction was taught to us by Moses passed down from Sinai, the roof that provides the shade needs to be made of plants that grow from the ground, but
are no longer attached to the ground, we need to physically take from G-d’s plants detach them
and construct a roof; we need to do this physical act – a command to make it Kosher, thus it says make for yourself Sukkot. When we look up
while sitting in the Sukkah we are reminded how in the harshest of places, in
the wilderness, G-d had showed our people an expression of love that went
beyond what we simply needed, the roof we make helps us recall, reminds us of the clouds that made our travels not only
bearable but most comfortable and pleasent providing us with protection, we recall how we resided in the shade of the clouds of the Holy
one blessed be he when we departed from Egypt.
In Exodus ch 33 G-d said in v 14 "My Own Presence will go along and provide you
rest."
My eight year old son told this over on the first night of Sukkos "We had fallen from the Sin of worshiping the Golden calf, we had broken the Covenant (Moses smashed the first set of commandments), but through Moses prayers our repentance was finally completed, Moses had replaced the Old tablets aknew, G-d had forgiven us completely and we had found favour, it was soon to be a time of placing his Shechina on us, this is one of the energies of Sukkos, it is a time of having a good eye, and beholding the good in everyone, judging everyone favourably, having forgiven the past wrongs if only we change wanting the best for ourselves and G-d!
My eight year old son told this over on the first night of Sukkos "We had fallen from the Sin of worshiping the Golden calf, we had broken the Covenant (Moses smashed the first set of commandments), but through Moses prayers our repentance was finally completed, Moses had replaced the Old tablets aknew, G-d had forgiven us completely and we had found favour, it was soon to be a time of placing his Shechina on us, this is one of the energies of Sukkos, it is a time of having a good eye, and beholding the good in everyone, judging everyone favourably, having forgiven the past wrongs if only we change wanting the best for ourselves and G-d!
Moses said v16 : “I
and your people – unless you accompany us, and thereby distinguish me, and Your people from every
people on the face of the Earth.” And
he also says Ch 34 v 9 “...for it is a stiff necked people so may You forgive our sin (though he did not take
part in the actual sin, he was at one with the nation when he spoke of our
error) and make us your heritage, he pleads.
To which G-d replied Ch 34 v 10 “Behold I seal a
Covenant, before your entire nation, I will make distinctions (with the Israelite nation)
such as have never been created in the entire world and among all the nations.
We see the nationhood theme comes through very strongly
in the above scriptual excerpts which we read during this holiday.
The festival of Sukkos is really all about an expression
of our love for G-d and his love of us the nation of Israel despite the past, he loves each and every one
of us! We arrive at Sukkot having come through the scary days of Judgement (for the entire human race - this is the day of Rosh Hashanah) and moved
through the days of repentance, days where we resolve to change for the better this is Yom Kippur, to arrive at a time of unconditional
love for each other and G-d this is - Sukkot. It is
a time of the ingathering the harvest and enjoying both of the physical and
spiritual goodness we receive in this world and how we appreciate the relationship we have with Hashem. We sit in a Sukkah a flimsy structure exposed
to the elements but we are not scared, we just need to look up and we see Schach the leafy roof, this should bring us an incredible faith as we remember how we survived the wilderness, this shade is the shade of the Shechina – as a Rabbi I Know always
says Gevalt what a privilege!
I once read a fascinating insight it
was a blog by the past Chief Rabbi of England, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks he points
out interestingly in the book of Shmot (Exodus) a book which deals with Hashem taking
us out of Egypt to make us into a distinguished nation,
Rabbi Sacks points out that in Parasha Pekudai the last chapters of Exodus, we
read how the nation comes together to donate resources for the building of
G-d’s Mishkan (dwelling place) the project was a national one and at the end we
read how the Shechina rested on the Mishkan and the People. The Rabbi asks why do read about
the construction of the Mishkan in Exodus, surely it would fit better as part of the book of Leviticus where we deal with
all the utensils, services and offerings used and done in the Mishkan, why is this construction of the Mishkan included as part of
Exodus, the tale of our departure from Egypt and becoming a nation of G-d Almighty, he answers the
construction of the Mishkan was the final step to nationhood it resulted in the Shechina coming down, this happened
only after we united in the service of Hashem together! We are only considered a
distinguished nation when we act as a unit responsible for each other, when our hearts are
full of love for each other (a good eye) and dedicated to G-d, and this my friend is one of
the key themes of the festival of Tabernacles.
The word Tzibur (community) according to the Rebbe is an
Acronym for Tzaddik; Ben-oni and Rashoyim meaning Righteous; Average and Wicked individuals. There are so many lost Souls, suffering
Souls, lonely souls and feeling down and unloved, this time is called a time of our happiness - we are taught it is our
responsibility and duty to not judge but to have a good eye and to bring to them
the light of the Shechina to bring them joy, – worship is not an intellectual exercise alone, it
needs to be accompanied with emotions, love and good deeds, a recognition we are all one,
part of a Devine whole , when we see Hashem in every living thing, and
specifically in humanity, just as Hashem
is one, we are all one, we each have the Yud, the devine soul, maybe that is why Hashem created the world in a circle, to
include everybody and everything as a unit.
The four species according to a vord (speech) I heard from Rabbi
Aurbach represents this idea too, each plant is shaped like a part of the body:
The Lulav is the spine; the structure that gives us mobility
enables us to do good deeds,
The Esrog is the heart, this is why it needs to be clear
of marks, and it needs to be pure and clean to be kosher;
We take the Myrtle leaves which look like eyes placed above the willow branches which look like lips; to teach us our speech must be guarded and words should only be spoken after investigating (seeing) the
consequences and impact our words will have on those that
will hear them i.e. words should be constructive, our speech should be used in service to build
and honour G-d Almighty. The eyes that investigates, should be placed before the mouth that talks - we should not be rash with our speech.
We thus serve Hashem with all out heart, reflecting seeing and serving with speech and our deeds!
The species also represent different type of people within
the nation:
The Esrog (Citron) – has a good taste and smell representing
people with both Torah learning (the knowledge of the Holy one’s
will) and good deeds.
Lulav (Date Palm) – has good taste but no smell representing
People with Learning but who neglect good deeds to their fellow man
Myrtle branches– have good smell but no taste representing People
with deeds but no Torah learning.
Willow –Has No smell or taste representing people
without learning or good deeds
We take this bundle and bring all the "people" together, and if
any of the 4 types are missing we cannot carry out the Mitzvah of shaking the Lulav on Sukkot
We ourselves individually all play a part by impacting the balance of Torah knowledge and service to G-d as well as through our good deeds (caring for our fellow man) in the world, to increase these is to come closer to Hashem with the hope in the near future with our goal of becoming the "Esrog" the individual with a good heart, full of knowledge of G-d and full of good deeds, for this surely will bring the redemption the entire world longs for - may it occur speedily in our days.
We ourselves individually all play a part by impacting the balance of Torah knowledge and service to G-d as well as through our good deeds (caring for our fellow man) in the world, to increase these is to come closer to Hashem with the hope in the near future with our goal of becoming the "Esrog" the individual with a good heart, full of knowledge of G-d and full of good deeds, for this surely will bring the redemption the entire world longs for - may it occur speedily in our days.
The nation went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the
festival with our gifts and offerings and we read about the libation services refer to Numbers Ch 29 from V12. at the end of Sukkot we pray for water, water represents life, the ability to be sustained going forward. We are taught that the Water service held at the Temple was a wonderous affair, it lasted the whole night,3 poles 8 stories tall, had cups holding oil each would be lit, this provided enough light for the pilgrims in Jerusalem, their was festivity, with dancing and celebration. And here is another lesson for us, how seriously we must take the teachings of our Sages - all this festivity was based on a teaching they worked out from the written Torah from Parsha Pinchas Numbers Ch 29 v 19 to 37, which discusses the offerings and service of Sukkot V 20 ends with the words Vaniskayhem (libations) v 23 and V 29 V 35 ends of a Libation (Vaniskuh) vs 32 ends with the word (Vaniskaheyah) its Libation, Vs 37 reads Vaniskayhem (libations), our sages worked out from this structure that Mem Yud Mem spelt, Mayim (water service) and through this a great celebration was adopted. They saw in these letters the hint of recognising the gift of Water the source of all Life! The other Libation poured down the alter was wine.
Vsos Ha Brocha
Before Moses dies he blesses the Israelites in doing so he is referred to as an Ish Elokim (Ish indicates he had stature i.e. he was a Prophet or spiritual person connected to Elokim the name that indicated G-d's attribute of Power. Indicating his blessings were connected to the source of all Powers and thus would take affect, the Ve Zos (This - being the Torah), indicating for the Blessing to take effect we need to recognise and follow the Law.
Vsos Ha Brocha
Before Moses dies he blesses the Israelites in doing so he is referred to as an Ish Elokim (Ish indicates he had stature i.e. he was a Prophet or spiritual person connected to Elokim the name that indicated G-d's attribute of Power. Indicating his blessings were connected to the source of all Powers and thus would take affect, the Ve Zos (This - being the Torah), indicating for the Blessing to take effect we need to recognise and follow the Law.
A blessed Moed to all my readers, may your holiday be
filled with joy, happiness and closeness
Michael.
