Succos

​Dear friends,

I don’t know when you will receive my letter, but here in Yerushalaim even though it is after Yom Kippur, we are deep in the tshuvah season.
 Huh?
​
“Search for Hashem when He can be found” The Talmud tells us (quoted by Rambam for those of you who still remember learning Hilchos Tshuvah). This is a reference to the ten days of tshuvah. They begin with Rosh HaShanah and end with Yom Kippur. If you exclude the holidays, there are only 7 days of tshuvah… The Shlah mentions this and says that it is to tell you that the intense holiness of these days doesn’t end with Yom Kippur. It includes all of Succot and ends with Hoshana Rabbah.

Succos is a hard holiday to explain. Some of you may have had the experience of trying to get your non-Jewish boss understand its significance. Using the word Pentecost sometimes helps although the reason that it helps isn’t that anyone knows what the word means. They know that it sounds Very Religious.  While the mystery remains, when something is V.R., it’s not P.C. to ask too many questions.

The fragile huts that stay up for a week are part of your tshuvah process (even if you don’t actually get to be in one as much as you would like to). The Halachic requirements for a succah require that it have a minimum of two walls and a partial wall. The Arizal compares it to the two parts of your arm (the upper and lower parts) and then the hand which connects to the rest by your wrist. When you want to embrace someone you use all three joints and incline them towards the one you want to hug. This is what Hashem did for us in the desert. He embraced us fully, giving us protection, presence and Himself as free gifts. We were surrounded by the tangible presence of seven clouds that protected us from the outside world with its vicissitudes. When we entered Eretz Yisrael there was no more physical manifestation of Hashem’s protection. The clouds left us when we were still in the desert. The transition wasn’t easy. We love tangible evidence. Having to stretch yourself beyond tangible signs of Hashem’s love is far more challenging and demands a great deal of moving beyond self. The Lelover Rebbe would tell a story about this side of your personality.

“Jerry inherited his mom’s bad teeth. Sitting in the all too familiar dentist’s office, he got bored and phoned his friend, Jason. “You there again? If you’re stuck spending half your life in the waiting room, why not switch to my dentist, Dr. Klein. His waiting room is amazing. It’s completely wired, the décor is breathtaking and he keeps great books and magazines for the patients. Your guy has Mishpachah (which means family, and is the bestselling Jewish magazine around) magazine’s that are so old that they could have been called Bride and Groom-they weren’t even married yet. No mishpachah. Ha ha. Jerry chose not to laugh. “Is he any good?”, “Well,” replied Jason. I don’t really know about that side of the experience. My fillings fell out, and he wasn’t too happy to replace them, but at least I spent my time in a really pleasant place.” The meaning of this not so subtle parable is that when you devote your life to glorifying the “waiting room” by devoting your time here to acquisition and status, you missed the point of being here.  Most of us a far more aware of the emptiness of the journey than we are of the Divine embrace. You miss out on feeling His love.
That’s what Succos is about.

The word succah has the same number value (gematria) as two of Hashem’s Names. One is the one we do not say: it is the Name that tells you of Hashem’s presence being beyond time-This Name is composed of the letters that convey the concept of Being (He is, was and will be). The other Name conveys His mastery. This is the Name that relates most closely to your relationship to Hashem. You see a world that has a master, and you can’t help but questioning where your piece of the puzzle is meant to be placed.

Your life and mine are different (and of the seven billion or so people on the planet not one is a double in spite of the myth of the doppelgangers- there may be someone who looks like you, but no one who feels like you or lived a life like yours). The seven celestial “guests” who we invite to our Succos each experienced Hashem in his own way. They are called the “seven shepherds {both because that is what they actually did at various times in their lives, but also because their search makes your search easier. You have the example of the shepherds to guide you.) Their traits are part of you, even though you are an Original.

Hashem knows you more intimately than anyone else can because He molded you to a form that is never going to be repeated tells you about His love, and His vision that your unique place can’t be filled by anyone else. On the other hand, it makes it more difficult to relate to people who are at times so different than you that it is hard to find common ground. The easy way out is to live your life among those who echo your song-they sound the same, act the same and respond to life the same as you do. Aren’t they wonderful?

The more meaningful way is to take notice of the four species that we take on Succos. There are many ways to explore their significance. One of the best known hints is that the esrog (citron) is shaped like a heart, the lulav (palm frond) like the spine, the hadasim (myrtle leaves) like the eyes and the aravos (willows) like the lips. Think of their functions. They are all absolutely essential but totally different. Trying to “convert” a lulav to being an esrog is ridiculous. When you transfer this misjudgment to the way you deal with other people, it could be tragic. You will lose sight of their beauty.

Of the three, an esrog is called a “splendid fruit” It’s letters are sometimes seem as a hint of the following phrase from Tehillim Al tivienu regel gaavah” don’t let me tread with arrogance.

When you do, you stop feeling loved and protected, because you turn to yourself instead of the One who knows you better than you know yourself, and loves you more than you love yourself.
 
Have a wonderful Succos, and if this reaches you late, learn from it anyway!!
Love,
Tziporah