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Succot
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Connecting to the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

כל האזרח בישראל ישבו בסכות

"May it be Your Will our Father, our King... remember our love and endearment, return the Holy Presence to our Holy Temple and return to have delight in us as in yore, for Your separation from us is difficult to us like the separation of our souls from our bodies; our innards long, and our souls yearn for the redemption of Your Holy Presence, for Your Holy Abode, and for Your Will HaShem we long..." (Prayer of the Holy Or HaHaim)

These days are days of extenuated closeness to the Holy Presence. The sukkot in which we dwell must be higher than 10 hand-breaths in order that the Holy Presence, which does not go beneath this measure, may dwell in our Sukka.

During these days we are commanded to make pilgrimage to the Holy Temple when it is standing. Especially this Sukkot, at the end of the Shmita year, the entire people are called up to the City of the Holy Presence to hear the Torah and awaken their awe of God, in the mitzvah of Hakhel. We may link the mitzvah of Hakhel, literally meaning 'the ingathering', to the nature of Sukkot in general, which carries much emphasis on the ingathering and the unity of the People.

From our title quote that 'all Israel shall dwell in Sukkot' our Sages learn that it is possible for all Israel to dwell in one Sukka. From this learning our Sages extrapolate the law that there is no limit to the length or width of a sukka. This learning also sheds light on the nature of Sukkot as being an all-inclusive holiday, in contrast to Pesach, for example, when families may not be intermingled for the eating of separate Paschal lambs. Also the mitzvah of the four species highlights the unity of different species, indicative of different types of Jews, together as one whole.

In the mitzvah of Hakhel this unity reaches even greater dimensions, when so many masses of People are united together with the Holiest Land, Jerusalem. We are taught in the Mishna Brachot (ch. 7) and more that the Holy Presence rests with masses of Jews. In addition we are taught that the Holy Presence rests in the Holy Land and in Jerusalem in specific. Thus, when masses of Jews come unified to this Holy City, we can understand how the spiritual energy is multiplied. Thus, we can understand the Torah's command to accentuate one's awe at such a ceremony, and how hearing the Torah from the king is similar to receiving the Torah again from Sinai.

In absence of the Temple we do not have Hakhel today, yet still we can hold on to Hebron - the Holy City of Unity - as being a key towards the ultimate fulfillment of this mitzvah in Jerusalem

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Real Stories from the Holy Land #139

"I wanted to honor my son's teacher with a gift of 200 NIS in honor of Purim. When I told this to my husband, he agreed to 100 NIS but said that 200 was too much in our financial state. A bit later I turned to HaShem in prayer saying 'just as I honored my husband's wishes, so too please honor my wishes to honor this teacher'. As I walked praying, suddenly I saw a red piece of paper at the side of the bus-stop, and I picked it up. It was no other than 200 NIS with no sign of an owner..." A.M  

Sources: Rambam Hagiga ch.3

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