עומקה של מחשבה – פרק 27: מדברנא דאומתא

There are things that are understood only in the family. For subscribers, dial*6485. You are listening to the Mishpacha Podcast. Depth of Thought. The months of the year and the holidays of Israel in the light of ethics and philosophy. Presented by Rabbi Efraim Zalman Glinski. Welcome to the 27th episode of Depth of Thought. Today I want to speak about a particularly impressive figure. I would even say a powerful figure who led American Jewry for a certain period , not long ago. I am referring to the Gaon Rabbi Mordechai Gifter, who was officially the Rosh Yeshiva of Telshe in Cleveland (and for a time in Telz-Stone, Israel). But for tens of thousands of Haredi Jews in the United States, for the Torah scholars in the US, he was the voice of the Torah and the perspective of ethics and thought for several years. Since most of the listeners to this series are residents of the Holy Land, I want to describe the leadership of Haredi Jewry in the United States, as it was when I lived there as a child about 50 years ago. Essentially, the Yeshiva world in the United States was guided then by three Gedolei Yisrael from the previous generation who arrived in the US during the war years as elderly rabbis. They arrived as elderly men. Alongside them during that same period of leadership were several younger Torah giants. Some were even born in the United States, and they were supposed to inherit the place of the elders of the generation. So the division was like this. The Gedolei HaDor, the elders, were Rabbi Moshe Feinstein—everyone knows him— Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky, Rosh Yeshiva of Torah Vodaath, and Rabbi Ruderman, who was the Rosh Yeshiva of Ner Yisroel in Baltimore. They were all about the same age. Rabbi Kamenetsky and Rabbi Ruderman were even cousins, but they were all of the same generation and more or less of one mind in leadership. The three of them led the Torah world with love and unity, but along with them in the council of Torah giants was the younger generation: Rabbi Shneur Kotler—the son of Rav Aharon Kotler, who filled his place as Rosh Yeshiva of Lakewood; Rabbi Boruch Sorotzkin, who was Rosh Yeshiva of Telshe; Rabbi Gedalia Schorr, who was Rosh Yeshiva of Torah Vodaath; and Rabbi Mordechai Gifter, Rosh Yeshiva of Telshe. Of all of them, without a doubt, the greatest speaker among them was Mordechai Gifter . What was supposed to happen was that the next generation of leadership would pass to those names I mentioned, but then a great tragedy occurred: within a year or two, [it is hard to say it], it is hard to grasp, Rabbi Shneur Kotler, Rabbi Sorotzkin, and Rabbi Gedalia Schorr passed away. And yet, the elders of the generation were still alive. The only one left from the younger generation was Rabbi Gifter, and he really remained to lead for several years even after the passing of Rabbi Moshe, Rabbi Yaakov, and Rabbi Ruderman . In other words, for several years, Rabbi Gifter was the central figure in Haredi Jewry in the United States, and therefore it is important that the residents of the Holy Land also know this influential figure because of his life story and uniqueness, which we will address later. Rabbi Gifter was a speaker of supreme grace, both in English and in Yiddish. The English that Rabbi Gifter spoke came from his childhood in the American South, and so he had a Southern accent that—to people who lived in the South, or to people from the North (especially New York)—was a very unique accent; it was almost a strange accent to people not used to it. But later in his life, when Rabbi Gifter traveled to Telshe in Lithuania, he became an orator in rich, vivid Lithuanian Yiddish as well. One must remember that in the United States , for the Haredi public and especially for the Yeshiva world, there are two major annual events where the Torah leaders of the generation address the public. One is more famous, even here in Israel: the Agudath Israel convention, which happens once a year; within the convention, there is a main session where the leading Torah sage delivers the keynote address, and there , in his years of leadership, Rabbi Gifter would deliver that central discourse. And there is also an annual conference of an organization called Torah Umesorah. Torah Umesorah is essentially an organization that was founded by Rabbi Feivel Mendlowitz together with the Torah leaders of that time, primarily Rav Kotler, and he wanted—since the United States is known to consist of 50 states, each with its own administration, scattered all across the U.S.;we are talking about hours of flight time between state and state—and Mendlowitz wanted there to be a school in every state so that every Jewish child who wanted to learn Torah could learn Torah. It is a huge network with hundreds of principals and thousands of teachers, and they gather once a year together with the Torah leaders in the United States and discuss all kinds of educational questions there. This is the second annual event that takes place in the United States, and Rabbi Gifter was often the keynote speaker at the Torah Umesorah convention there as well. We would like to present here a small excerpt from a speech that Rabbi Gifter gave at the Torah Umesorah convention. I will state the point he wants to emphasize first, so that you can enjoy it—those who understand a little Yiddish or a little English can appreciate the power of his words—and the essence of what Rabbi Gifter stands for there is that the Targum Onkelos says on the verse "and man became a living soul"—it is very famous that the Targum says it means he became a " speaking spirit," that "living soul" is translated as a "speaking spirit." In other words, the distinctiveness of man , the main thing that distinguishes a human from a beast, is in the fact that his distinctiveness is expressed in speech. A beast has no speech; a human has speech. So that is the "living soul " of man. "And man became a living soul "—this is through the power of his speech, through his "speaking spirit." And Rabbi Gifter builds some kind of system there that we say: "Our lives are discourse, our meditation is our Torah, and our joy is our speech." So the plain meaning is that for our speech to truly be the speech of human beings, it must be the speech of Torah. And he emphasizes there very strongly how a person who neglects Torah is essentially committing suicide in terms of his uniqueness, the uniqueness of man. His central idea was that people need to be more involved in learning, in intense Torah study. It is worth hearing how he delivers this idea in such a powerful and determined way, in a unique language, both in English and in Yiddish. And perhaps we will hear a few minutes from this speech: And... Breath of life And a soul...Living, Living soul, spirit, A creature is a power of speech. In this, the human being is different from the animal world. All else was created before the creation of man. Man was the final creation, he had within him this elevation of soul, of spirit. The power of speech, this is man, the power of speech, so this power, it shouldn't become animal. Careful, if the power of speech is used for this high purpose, then you are a human being. Then you are what He wanted to make man for, if not, what do we need you in this world? My thinking is this, children. Perhaps we will now move on to talk about the very unique biography of Rabbi Gifter. Rabbi Gifter was born in the United States, born in the city of Baltimore, as far as I know. His father was a shopkeeper, and from a very young age, Rabbi Gifter was drawn to Torah study. There is a story that Rabbi Shimon Shkop arrived in the United States to collect funds for his yeshiva. He met Rabbi Gifter, and Rabbi Gifter asked him for a blessing. There are two versions of exactly what he blessed him with: whether he blessed him that he would be a Torah giant, or if he told him: "If you want to, you will succeed in your studies," something like that, some phrasing of that sort. We know another story from Rabbi Gifter’s young years, a very, very interesting story: that he used to collect pictures of rabbis and would make an album out of it; he would arrange pictures of rabbis on a page in the album all around, and in the middle, he left an empty square and said: "This is where I will put my picture when I grow up." Meaning, he had this kind of ambition, truly from childhood, to grow to be one of the Torah giants. I think it was already at age 15 that he went to study in New York at Yeshiva Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan, which I think was the only yeshiva in the United States at the time. And there he became attached to the son of Rabbi Chaim of Brisk, Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik, who was the head of that yeshiva at the time, and he viewed him as his teacher and mentor. And there was another very great Torah scholar at that time, Moshe Aharon Polyeff, who also influenced him greatly. I think that recently, in the last few years, books of Rabbi Gifter's correspondences between him and Rabbi Polyeff, and between some other Torah giants of Israel, have been published. I think the books are called "Millei De'igra," as far as I know. Several books of Rabbi Gifter's letters were published. Rabbi Gifter kept all of his Torah letters that he corresponded with the Torah giants of Israel. Let us note that in a Torah journal published here in the Land of Israel in the 1930s, a Torah innovation from Rabbi Gifter already appears. It is written there: Rabbi Mordechai Gifter. According to the check that I conducted, Rabbi Gifter was then 16 or 17 years old; meaning that he was already an important Torah scholar at such a young age. Now, at the Telshe Yeshiva, there was a yeshiva secretary. There are several ways to pronounce the name; either they called him Rabbi Sher, or Rabbi Shar, or Rabbi Zar—I found a different spelling for his name every time, Rabbi Shmuel Sher, something like that. And he was, I think, very much from Lithuania, and he arrived in the United States and was a yeshiva secretary there. He encouraged boys to go study in yeshivot in Europe, and he recommended to Rabbi Gifter that he should go study in Telshe. Rabbi Gifter really, truly took that very unusual step for that time and went to study in Telshe. He always spoke about the immense impression of the tremendous persistence that was in Telshe, and along with that, the great poverty that existed at that time; he would paint it in really vivid colors. I remember one lecture, one talk of his, where he said that they didn’t even have money for coffee in the yeshiva, so they would drink chicory, which is something like coffee, some plant that resembles coffee. We actually have an interesting recording of a great man who studied in Telshe at that time, Rabbi Brown or Baron. He tells us that, indeed, during that period, many Americans were arriving in Telshe to study. I don’t know if it’s "many"—maybe we’re talking about dozens—but there were people who would arrive. It seems that was the period when Rabbi Gifter also arrived in Telshe. Entering the Telshe Mechina was very young; usually, it wasn't for someone who was a great genius. He was older there to go with him in that intensity. The whole Telshe had 400 boys; the dining room couldn't hold everyone. There were many immigrants in the world , and in our Mechina, there were 180 boys, aside from the large yeshiva. Yes , the fourth grade in the Mechina. The whole rule of the heads, Rabbi Yitzchak Bloch. Rabbi Yitzchak was the great Rosh Yeshiva and the Rabbi in Telshe, and the second one was Zalman Bloch. It was a matter of very, very righteous people there. Everyone there were righteous people, but they were already older, very, very important people. And they were busy. In Telshe, Rabbi Gifter was very, very successful and progressed greatly in his studies, and he became beloved by the heads of the yeshiva, and when the time came for him to start shidduchim, it was just before the outbreak of World War II, and he was chosen to be the son-in-law of the Mashgiach of the yeshiva, Rabbi Zalman Bloch. But then the war broke out. Rabbi Gifter went to the United States and organized enough entry visas for all the Telshe boys and the administration. That’s how I understood it, but the yeshiva there decided, because of some tradition they had from Rav Elya Bloch during the First World War, that they chose to stay in place. But the fiancée, the future wife of Rabbi Gifter, did manage to arrive thanks to his efforts, and they got married in Baltimore, in the United States. And at that time, let’s say at the time of the outbreak of the war, there were two of the Telshe Yeshiva staff members who were in the United States. I think it was Elya Bloch and Rabbi Chaim Katz. Rabbi Elya Bloch is the son of Rav Zalman Bloch, and Chaim Katz is his son-in-law , and both of them were in the United States at that time, and over time they succeeded in re-establishing the Telshe Yeshiva on American soil. Ultimately, Rabbi Gifter joined the yeshiva's administration in later years, but we are getting ahead of ourselves. So, Rabbi Gifter got married and lived in Baltimore; his first position was when Rabbi Ruderman asked him to deliver a lecture to the students of Yeshivas Ner Yisrael. Ner Yisrael was the yeshiva in Baltimore. And Rabbi Gifter was grateful to Rabbi Ruderman his entire life for the privilege of teaching Torah as a young avrech. Afterward, Rabbi Gifter became the rabbi of a community, a not-so-large community in the United States. This was in Connecticut. And when the new Telshe Yeshiva was established in Cleveland, he was invited to join the administration of the yeshiva to teach Torah at Telshe in Cleveland. This period lasted several years, and Rabbi Gifter, who was a great lover of the Land of Israel—which is also noted in his books regarding how he cherished the virtue of the Land of Israel—was asked to open a branch of the Telshe Yeshiva in the Land of Israel. For this purpose, a plot of land was purchased in the settlement of Talstone, and the yeshiva was established there. The building still exists today, but Rabbi Gifter arrived here in Israel with a group of students from the United States, along with a group of students from the Chevron Yeshiva, and founded the Telshe Yeshiva in the Land of Israel in Talstone. Rabbi Gifter's presence here in the country was very, very significant for the Americans who lived here, because there was someone of their own stature who had come from the United States and would deliver classes in their own language. And I understood that during that period, they would gather weekly to hear classes from him; I believe there was a class on Minchas Chinuch, and from that emerged his book on those novellae. But this period did not last very long. Now , one must remember that Rabbi Gifter, as I said, was an immense lover of the Land of Israel. I think I once heard from Rabbi—ah, the rabbi of Gan, Rabbi Zev Lef, the rabbi of the settlement of Matityahu, who is an accomplished student of Rabbi Gifter ( and, by the way, his speaking style is very, very reminiscent of his rabbi’s style)—and I think I heard from him once how Rabbi Gifter would simply stand and gaze at the flowers he would see in the Land of Israel, and his soul would simply pour out in love for the Land of Israel. Now, what happened was something—because I mentioned earlier the tragedy of the young yeshiva heads in the United States who passed away in their youth. One of them was Rabbi Sorotzkin, who was the head of the Telshe Yeshiva in Cleveland, and when he passed away, the Steipler and Rabbi Shach simply compelled Rabbi Gifter to return to lead the Telshe Yeshiva in Cleveland. He very much did not want to take this step, but I believe he said the phrase: "I am not starting up with the Steipler." That was his reaction to this matter, and he simply packed his bags, returned to the United States, and with that, the attempt of the Telshe Yeshiva in the Land of Israel ended. Since then, this yeshiva has not been established again in Talstone. And Rabbi Gifter returned to the United States, but he said he was not willing to live in a house in Cleveland, but rather he would live in the yeshiva dormitory, because he said: "I cannot now settle down as if I am back in the Diaspora; for me, this is still exile." And he lived in the dormitory of the Telshe Yeshiva until the end of his days, or at least until he became ill. That is it. Over time, as I said before , Rabbi Gifter was the leading voice and orator in the United States. He influenced tens of thousands of students, Torah scholars, and Haredi Jews across the United States. Whenever there was a controversial issue, he would present his position in such a decisive way, without mincing words, and his comments would even receive coverage in the secular press in the United States, sometimes due to their sharpness and the forceful way they were stated. I must tell another interesting story here that you heard firsthand. I teach at a yeshiva here in the Land of Israel, a yeshiva for students from abroad, called Yeshivas Ohr Dovid. The Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Yosef Granovsky, once told me how he came to the decision to establish this yeshiva for students from abroad here. He said he was at a crossroads; he wanted to stay in Israel, but didn't know what to do. He had the idea to open a yeshiva for students from abroad who needed academic reinforcement and special tools to help them succeed in their studies. He was hesitant. He was uncertain whether to take this step. It was a bold step in those days. We are talking about nearly fifty years ago. It is one of the first yeshivas of this style that opened here in the Land of Israel for students from abroad. During that period, he was staying—I don't remember if it was Chol Hamoed Sukkot or Chol Hamoed Passover—at the Galey Sanz Hotel in Netanya 50 years ago, and Rabbi Gifter was also staying at that same hotel, so Rabbi Granovsky, the Rosh Yeshiva, decided he would consult with Rabbi Gifter on the matter. This matter. Rabbi Gifter told him that regarding the verse "You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He..." The translation says, "For it is He who gives you counsel to do this." In other words, Rabbi Gifter learned from this that the Holy One, Blessed be He, is the one who gives a person the advice to do the right thing, and he recommended that since......since such an idea had entered his head to do such a great thing, to establish a yeshiva, he should go down that path and would succeed in his endeavor. And that is what happened, and Rabbi Granovsky truly established Yeshivas Ohr Dovid. And years later, after Rabbi Gifter had already passed away, Rabbi Granovsky held a dinner for the yeshiva somewhere in the United States, and he mentioned during the dinner that the yeshiva was established thanks to the encouragement that Rabbi Gifter had given him. To his surprise, that night in his sleep, Rabbi Gifter appeared to him and said: "Ah, thank you for mentioning that the yeshiva was established thanks to my encouragement, and I want to say thank you to you." So Rabbi Granovsky, very bluntly, said to Rabbi Gifter—all this, of course, in a dream—he says to him: "What, you need my stupid stories?" He says to him: "What? What?" "You were a leader and a giant in the United States, one of the greatest of the generation, a scholar and a master of ethics, a man of deep thought.""What do you need these...these merits of me telling stories at dinners for?""What, what good does that do you?" So Rabbi Gifter answered him—all while in the window—he answered him a very interesting response. He says to him: Here on earth, in this world, if there are two hotels and one hotel is five stars and one hotel is four stars, then in the advertisements where they compete, the five-star hotel says: You should come to me because I have five stars, not just four. But what happens if there are two hotels that are both five stars? What will they do then? So the hotel that wants to convince you to come says—it advertises: I have a little something that the other doesn't , I have some other thing, some...some other advantage that the other one doesn't have. So Rabbi Gifter told him: The story you told at the dinner—it gives me another "piki" in heaven, it gives me...it elevates me even more in heaven. It is an interesting story, " pikanth." To...to close this part of the biography of Rabbi Gifter, maybe we will talk a little bit about the... about the Torah of...of Rabbi Gifter. As I mentioned, Rabbi Gifter studied in Telshe, and at the Telshe Yeshiva, they placed a very, very great emphasis on a type of thought they had; they called it "Shiurei Daas." There are the " Shiurei Daas" of the Rav Bloch himself, who is the founder of the method, and there are the "Shiurei Daas" books of his son, Rabbi Eliyahu Meir. Bloch, and there are also talks in this style of " Shiurei Daas" by Rabbi Mordechai Gifter . Now, these talks are scattered across a few books. I highly, highly recommend that people look for these books. You can find them; I at least found them in a free database on HebrewBooks, and I assume someone has them on Otzar HaChochma as well. It is there. But just by entering the name of Rabbi Gifter, you already arrive at the books : there are books on Emunah, on Torah, on holidays, on Parsha, and more. Also Torah insights called "Nitei Ne’emanim," and also letters with greats called "Mei'Lishkat HaGedolim." So we will talk about a few segments today. We will talk about one segment on, a general introduction to the holidays, a very, very beautiful segment. Afterward, we will talk something short about Sukkot, and maybe if we manage, we will also talk something about Parshas Bereishis, if time permits. And we will start now with a very, very interesting introduction that Rabbi Gifter gives to all the holidays combined. This is what Rabbi Gifter says. The pious Ramchal, of blessed memory, wrote in the book " Derech Hashem": And behold, it is from the goodness of the Creator that He created the holidays and the times, the evening and the morning, in order to make man pause and stop from his habits , to change his nature and renew his own feelings. Since he has already become accustomed to his habits and the path of his old life has already grown stale and habitual, and it is hard to cast them off, and he lives like yesterday since today he is drawn after habit; and therefore, the Holy One, Blessed be He, divided the long day into morning and evening, into different periods, so that it will be easier for man to change his habits, to wake up, and to begin his life anew. When he wakes up in the morning, refreshed in his powers, forgetting what was, he begins anew to be according to the higher intellect, and so too for every period, times, and seasons. So far are the words of the Ramchal. Rabbi Gifter says: And according to his words, we will feel with a new sensation what is said in the prayer, "He changes times and alternates the seasons," and we will feel that the wisdom in this is also directed toward His grace and His great goodness, for this change serves as a source for man for constant renewal to depart from his natural habit. Every change allows a person to return and contemplate, for it is the nature of habit to forget to contemplate, and there is in this a new feeling in this grace of the change of seasons. The peak of man's contemplation is the wisdom and sensation of faith, and therefore, at the moment of the change of morning and evening, the Torah commanded the recitation of the Shema. That is to say, since according to the foundation of the Ramchal, the changes were given so that a person would contemplate anew, then exactly when the change begins, morning and evening. There the Torah commanded the passages of faith, which are the paragraphs of the Shema. This is an interesting observation as to why the Shema is in the morning and evening. It turns out that the change of seasons allows a person to see His light, blessed be He, which the darkness of habit hides from that light. And this is the grace established in all the times and seasons that the Torah set. The holidays and the festival days in Israel. Every holiday has a cessation set within it. Because of the constancy of habit, it enables a person to contemplate, and from His grace that illuminates our eyes, why should we know what to contemplate? And always the contemplation is on the point of faith: a remembrance of the exodus from Egypt. For one who does not believe in the exodus from Egypt will not believe in the One who lives and exists, the Creator of all, blessed be He. That is to say, the same idea he said before: that morning and evening—the beginning of the morning point which is light, the beginning of the evening point which illuminates—there the Torah plants the commandment of the Shema; because the Torah wants to plant words and verses of faith there so that one will receive a new perspective at the beginning of that time period. Likewise, the Torah plants in the holidays that it established, which are also given for renewal once again, it plants the commandments of the remembrance of the exodus from Egypt in order to root faith there in those periods of change. And indeed, the general contemplation of faith is the recognition of His grace, blessed be He , with us and with all of Israel, so that we will not be ungrateful, but rather that gratitude for His grace, blessed be He, will always prevail within us. This was a general introduction to the matter of holidays, but now I want to say something really interesting and beautiful that he says regarding the commandment of the Sukkah , and it is a point that I have always felt, but I was very, very happy that I found these things explicitly stated in the book of Rabbi Gifter in his book, Beis Elokim. The author raises a question, this is a very famous question: Why did the Torah establish the commandment of the Sukkah in memory of the miracle of the Clouds of Glory, and we do not find a commandment established for the miracle of the Manna or the miracle of the Well? That is to say, if the holiday of Sukkot was established for the Clouds of Glory, there were other miracles in the desert , and why was no miracle established for the other miracles that were in the desert? Many answers have been given for this, and we want to approach here the answer of Rabbi Gifter. Rabbi Gifter says a wonderful fundamental principle: bread and water are essential needs for human life, without which one cannot survive death, and God , in His grace and goodness, provided all of Israel with these necessities through the miracles of the manna and the well, in the merit of Moses our teacher and his sister Miriam. Here he points out the great difference: the protection of the Clouds of Glory, given in the merit of Aaron the Priest, did not involve any vital necessity without which a person could not survive. Thus, the kindness of the Clouds of Glory was a form of the attribute of kindness of Aaron the Priest, who loved peace and pursued peace in matters that were not essential to human life and survival in the world. That is to say, what Aaron the Priest would do was, as it were, to improve human life in ways that were not related to life-saving; there was no life-saving issue here, for if there were no peace between people, it was a sort of extra measure to enhance human life. Therefore, this kindness did not stem from the lack of the recipient who needed grace for their existence, but rather flowed from the giver who wished to express the measure of their kindness and goodness, just as when a person gives something that is not essential to the recipient. So the need and distress of the recipient is not what calls for this kindness. Because there is no distress here. There is truly no distress. It is possible to live without it. What causes the giver to bestow this kindness is the desire to do good. That is what was special here. Thus, this kindness did not stem from the lack of the recipient who needed grace for their existence, but rather flowed from the giver who wished to express the measure of their kindness and goodness. And this is the definition of going beyond the letter of the law, from which we learn the preciousness of Israel, upon whom He pours His grace and goodness in an unlimited measure. It is precisely from the Clouds of Glory that we see the great kindness of the Holy One, blessed be He, to the people of Israel, and we also learn the nature of God’s attribute of kindness, which does not require external prompting but flows from Him, blessed be He, seeking a place to rest. The fact that the Holy One, blessed be He, gave them things that were not essential is proof that He, on His own, wishes to give, and not because of the distress or request of those asking for it. Therefore, regarding this kindness that goes beyond the letter of the law, which clearly shows the preciousness of Israel and teaches us the nature of His grace and goodness, the Torah established the commandment "so that your generations may know," specifically for this kindness. The Torah established a commandment, the commandment of the Sukkah, "so that your generations may know," to awaken the realization of the preciousness of Israel before God, to instill in us that we feel in our bones the love the Holy One, blessed be He, has for us, choosing us from all the nations, and to root within us the measure of kindness and goodness according to a true standard. Meaning, also to teach us how we should perform acts of kindness—not just because someone triggered your pity regarding something they need, but that from our side as givers, there should be the desire to give and do kindness. Here he says a very, very interesting thing: this knowledge that we were commanded about, "so that your generations may know," the Torah uses the term "know." Where else have we found the concept of "know "? It is in the sense of "And Adam knew ," where the Torah speaks about the connection between Adam and Eve, about the bond of marriage between Adam and Eve; the Torah used the expression "And Adam knew." It is not that we should just remember that just as the Holy One , blessed be He, knew and loved Israel, so we merited this religion to draw close and cleave to Him, may He be blessed. From this we will draw near to His attribute of kindness, which, in doing so, we too become influencers of kindness according to the true definition of the attribute, in the sense of "as He is, so are you." And here he says something profound, I think I want to explain it a little; he says another small sentence: By this we will understand the halachic definition of the dwelling of the Name of Heaven upon the Sukkah, which we do not find in any other mitzvah. Meaning, it is written in the halacha that the Sukkah takes on the status of "for the sake of Heaven," that is. This means that the Sukkah itself becomes holy, and he explains that all our perception of Him , may He be blessed, is according to the revelation of His attributes, may He be blessed, in the conduct of creation, and they are the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy: "Hashem, Hashem, compassionate and merciful." Meaning, we have no concept of who the Holy One, blessed be He, is, or what the Holy One , blessed be He, is; the only thing we have is what He revealed about Himself through the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy. The Mitzvah of Sukkah in its essence comes to bring us close to those attributes of kindness and mercy; as he explained earlier, that the Mitzvah of Sukkah stems from the attribute of kindness of the Holy One, blessed be He, therefore it has in its foundation the dwelling of the Name of Heaven upon it, as the attribute of kindness is the inner point of the Name of Heaven in the world, and see it well . That is to say, the attribute of kindness is as if it were the central point of the Holy One, blessed be He. I think this is explained very well by the fact that the Holy One, blessed be He, says...Moses our Teacher asks the Holy One, blessed be He: "Let me see Your glory," which is the essence of the Holy One, blessed be He, and the Holy One, blessed be He, says: "I will make all My goodness pass before you," and He reveals His attributes of mercy at that time. So we see that the attribute of kindness and the attribute of mercy of the Holy One, blessed be He , are the essence of the Holy One, blessed be He. Therefore, the Mitzvah of Sukkah, which was given as a response to the kindness of the Holy One, blessed be He, toward us, is precisely where we see this concept of the dwelling of the Name of Heaven upon the Sukkah. This is the passage on Sukkos that I wanted to bring in the name of Rabbi Gifter. Yes, I also wanted to add another passage on Parshas Bereishis, but due to time constraints we will not succeed, so we will just note that it appears in the book*Pirkei Torah*, Parshas Bereishis, under the title "The Book of the History of Man." It is very, very worthwhile to see this passage; there Rabbi Gifter speaks about the difference between history books and the book of Bereishis, that the Torah also records history, but only the history of eternal values. It is a passage that is very, very worth seeing . Yes, we tried to summarize in this episode this great figure of Moreinu Gifter; I highly, highly recommend that people look for his books and the recordings of his lessons. It is something very, very powerful. I hope you enjoyed it. And we will meet, God willing, in the next episode. You listened to*Oimka D’Machshava*from the Mishpacha podcast family. I am Rabbi Efraim Glinsky. Thanks to the editor Tehila Siton, to the production manager Ella Goldstein, and to the sound editor Avrami Vizel. All series and episodes are waiting for you on the Mishpacha website, on all podcast apps, and on the phone line 02-652-3. 820 Extension 51. Goodbye until the next episodes. Su Suko Shuv