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Chag HaSukkot

By: SFW Students & Alumna
Jaimie Fogel, SFW ’04-‘05

The specifically festive holiday of Sukkot comes at a perfect time in the yearly calendar.  We have just completed the intense and draining holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and are in need of a raising of spirits.  This is exactly what Sukkot accomplishes and was created to accomplish, as understood from the explicit commandment to be b’simcha (“v’samachta b’chagecha”) during this seven day period.

There are two aspects to Sukkot that we are unfortunately missing today as a result of our inability to have rebuilt the Beit Hamikdash: The mitzvah of aliyah l’regel, of journeying to the Temple site and bringing our korbanot and waving the arba’ah minim, and the mitzvah of Hakhel, performed once every seven years after the shemitta cycle has completed.  These two mitzvot highlight a specific aspect of the chag: That of turning the ordinary experience into the extraordinary; taking an action which could be enjoyable but not life changing, and transforming it into something which ignites our entire year with the spark that sometimes seems to fade by the arrival of the next Yom Kippur.

The mitzvah of aliya l’regel is commanded to man during the times of the year he could misjudge who is the true master of the land (karkah).  At this time in the agricultural cycle as well as the times of shavuot and pesach, one could get caught up in the “natural” order of things and forget who is really in control of the rain, sun and growing seasons.  To counter such a mistake, we are given this mitzvah which forces us to see beyond the surface and bring ourselves and our families to the beit hamikdash to celebrate with the true Master of the karkah.  (Sefer hachinuch, mitzvah 489).  The Netziv points out that the name of “Adon” referring to Hashem is used both times the Torah commands us to be oleh l’regel.  This name is to be understood with the connotation of “Adon ha’karkah”- to remind us not to get caught up in the façade of nature and that we must physically travel to Hashem’s shechina to remind ourselves of the true extraordinary nature of these seemingly natural events.

The mitzvah of Hakhel accomplishes a similar goal of transforming an ordinary experience such as crop growth, into an incredible, awe-inspiring one meant to invigorate us for the upcoming years.  In Sefer Dvarim 31:10-13 it describes Hakhel as the following:

 "And Moshe commanded them, saying: At the end of every seven years, after the sabbatical year, on the festival of Sukkot, when all Israel comes to see the presence of the Lord your God in the place that I will choose, read this Torah before all of Israel to their ears. Assemble the entire nation: men, women, and children, and the strangers who dwell within your gates, in order that they hear, and in order that they learn to fear the Lord their God and keep the words of this Torah. And their children, who do not know, will listen and will learn to fear the Lord your God, all the days that you live upon the land which you are crossing the Jordan to inherit."

This mitzvah contains three separate aspects.  One, to formally assemble b’nei yisrael; two, the actual events which take place: The Torah is read and listened to; and third, is the kiyyum or the purpose of the mitzvah which is to “listen and learn to fear the Lord.”  

R. Elazar (masechet chagiga daf 3a) believes that the Torah designates a specific purpose for each group present.  The men, to learn; the women, to listen; and the children who are not old enough to comprehend can have awe of Hashem instilled in them just by being present for the experience.  The Ramban disagrees with R. Elazar’s opinion and believes that both men and women are there to learn and listen.  Also, the pasuk says “assemble all the nation” and does not specify any role for each individual group present which would seem to be a direct disproof of R. Elazar’s interpretation. 

The Rambam (Hilchot Chagiga 3:6) explains the listening experience by Hakhel in the following way:

"The gerim who are not familiar with the Torah must prepare their hearts, and listen with their ears in order to hear, in fear, and in awe, in joy, and in trepidation, as on the day the Torah was given at Sinai. Even great scholars, who know the entire Torah, must listen with great intensity."

Clearly, the “hearing” involved in this mitzvah is not a mere physical hearing experience, but a hearing similar to internalizing.  Even a great talmid chacham is supposed to listen to the king read with great intensity because this is an experience which is supposed to instill awe and fear of Hashem in every member of the nation.  Hakhel takes an ordinary event of reading the Torah and transforms it into a transcendental experience which is supposed to invigorate us and bring everyone into a closer relationship with the Creator. (It is also not coincidental that this great experience comes right before the next six years which man will work the land and could get caught up in the “natural” order.  It comes to jumpstart the cycle with a strong sense of belief in Hashem which will hopefully last until the next Hakhel.)

I think Sukkot has another very specific purpose in its timely placement after the Yamim Noraim.  We have just spent days declaring Hashem’s kingship and appealing to His different characteristics.  On Yom Kippur we returned “back to the basics” and eliminated our physicality by fasting and attempting to act like the malachei Hashem.  Now we have Sukkot, where we are commanded to leave our homes and also, return to the basics by dwelling in huts.  I think that it’s a kind of slow return back to our physicality but the message is the following-- ‘you don’t need to live such ornate lives’ but we can be satisfied with the simple things like family, food and flimsy homes.  And specifically by Sukkot, we are given the mitzvah of simcha because Hashem is telling us, this is what will truly make you happy and this is the way we should begin our year and hopefully be a model for the ensuing months.  We are not supposed to be sad and afflict ourselves like we do on Yom Kippur, but we are commanded to be b’simcha in the basic way the mitzvot of Sukkot enumerate for us and it is only this type of simcha which truly makes us happy.

May this be a year full of simcha in the way Hashem desires and may we find ourselves in Yerushalayim being oleh l’regel in the coming year.

Chag Sameach!

(Some of the ideas in this dvar Torah were drawn from sichot by Rav Aharon Lichtenstein, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin)