Succos - The Mitzvos We Love

You're listening to the weekly partial podcast with Ari Goldwag, recorded with Hashem's never-ending assistance in Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel, 5784, 2023. This week we do not have a parsha. We begin the holiday of Sukkot. We're going to read about Sukkot. The following week is going to be Simchat Torah here in Israel. And we're going to read from the last parsha of the Torah, Vezot HaBrachah, and we're going to start the Torah anew with Bereishit. But I'd like to share with you some thoughts about our holiday, about Sukkot. It's called Zman Simchateinu, it's a time of tremendous joy. And we have so many mitzvot. We get to sit inside of the sukkah, eat our meals in the sukkah, be metayel, as the Gemara says, in the sukkah, hang out in the sukkah, spend time with our families. And we have the mitzvah of the arba minim, the four species, the lulav, the etrog, the hadassim, the aravot. And I'd like to share with you some thoughts about it. These are mitzvot that are very precious to the Jewish people. These are mitzvot that we hold very dearly, that we hold dear. And I'd like to think about and share with you some thoughts of my own. I want to tell you that of all of the holidays, if you would ask me which is my favorite, so of course we're not supposed to have favorites, but Sukkot is my favorite. And part of it is because in 11th grade, 27 years ago, with with my rebbe, Rabbi Yehoshua Kalish, we completed Maseches Sukkah. It was the first tractate of of the Talmud that I completed. 55 pages. And I've completed it numerous times since then. And so it has a special place in my heart. And not only that, but I was thinking recently about the fact that about 25 years ago, it was the first time that I spoke publicly in this type of forum where I create some kind of idea, bring together different ideas, and present it in front of an audience. It wasn't in front of a live audience. It was in the Young Israel of West Hempstead where I grew up in West Hempstead, Long Island, New York. And they had a Kennis B'nei Ayishivis. They invited guys who were at that time either high school or post high school. I don't remember exactly what the age was that I started doing it, but I think it was post high school. Uh me and some other of my contemporaries, some friends of mine, were asked by the synagogue, they had a all of the people came out to listen to us speak. And I spoke about the Gamara which I'm going to share with you now. I spoke about some other things as well. I'm not going to get as into because it's more halachic and I want to be more uh aggadic, let's say. But it's it's especially has a special place in my heart. It was the first time that I realized or the second time that I was able to speak in the way that I do. Baruch Hashem, I've been recording these podcasts for 16 years plus. So all of this combines to What a simcha, what a joy that we have when it comes to Simchas Torah, when it comes to Sukkos, when it comes to the mitzvahs, the sukka, the lulav, the esrog, etc. So I'd like to read to you the Gamara tells us that it's the Gamara is talking about the fact that we have to when we bring when we shake a lulav and an esrog on the first day. This year we won't be able to because the first day falls out on Shabbos. But ordinarily when the first day is not on Shabbos, so we shake the lulav and the esrog, but it must belong to us. Cuz the possuk says "Lekachtem lachem bayom harishon. You shall take for yourselves on the first day the four species, the lulav, the esrog, the palm branch, the hadassim, the willow branches, the arovos, the uh um um blanking on what it's called in English. And and the Oh, I'm sorry. We got the willows and we get I always blank on these. Okay. That's one of those. So, these we take and it needs to belong to us. The Gamara says that what if I give it as a gift to somebody? Let's say I purchase it and then I give it as a gift to somebody. But not just that, I give it as a gift on condition that you return it to me. Which means that if you don't return it to me then it didn't belong to you in the first place. Right? I say it's yours but only if you return it to me. Right? So, such a thing works. You can give it as a gift on a condition that it will be returned. And while it's while I've given it to you, let's say, so you can use it. It's yours. And then when you return it to me it becomes mine again. So, the that's the halachic basis for this but it the the point that I want to bring out is something else which the brisa says like this. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai Rabbi Gamaliel Rabbi Joshua Rabbi Eliezer ben Azariah Rabbi Akiva There was a story with these great sages Rabbi Gamaliel Rabbi Joshua Rabbi Eliezer ben Azariah the famous sages of the Talmud of the times of the Mishna Rabbi Akiva Rabbi Akiva was there. They were on a ship. They were traveling on a boat and it was Sukkot. There was only one lulav and Rabbi Gamaliel had one. There was only one lulav one set of the four species that was on the boat. Rabbi Gamaliel had purchased it and he had brought it with him. He bought it for 1,000 zuzim. And he bought it for 1,000 zuzim. Okay, understand. We say on Passover "The goat with three zuzim." That when a goat is purchased with two zuzim. Okay, a goat today is quite expensive. I don't know the exact prices but I imagine it's a few hundred dollars maybe even more. So, this lulav and etrog was purchased for 1,000 zuzim. That's the price of uh correct correct me if I'm wrong, 500 goats. Well, that's an incredible amount of money. So, he bought it for a thousand zuz. Not learning him the outside of it. I mean Leo was his. He took it. He shook the lulav and he was he he completed his his mitzvah. And that's the name of the Montana. And he gave it to Rabbi Yeshua as a gift. Not Rabbi Yeshua outside of it. Yeshua now had received it. It belonged to him and it has to belong to you. He took it and he and he he did his mitzvah. Then also Rabbi Eliezer. So, each of them gave it as a gift to the next rabbi and then they shook it and they fulfilled their obligation and at the end Rabbi Akiva returned it back to the original owner which was Rabbi Gamaliel. So, the Gemara says, "Why does it have to tell us that he gave it back to him at the end?" Because it's telling us this idea that if I give you a a a gift on the condition that you return it, so it's considered yours in the meantime as you're holding it as it's it's in your possession as long as it's returned in the end. Now, the Gemara says, and this is the point that I wanted to bring out, loving the main Marshall looking at zuz. Why does the Bryson need to tell us that it cost him a thousand zuzim? It was an expensive uh set of the lulav and the esrog, a thousand zuzim, tremendous amount of money. I do you have a common message to have you saying? This is to teach us how precious how precious the mitzvahs are to to these great sages. The mitzvah is so precious, he'll spend crazy amount of money. Obviously, it seems to me that it was a year where they didn't have a lot of them, right? If the other stages didn't even have one, and Gamaliel did have one, so it was clearly a time of scarcity when it came to the to these Arba Minim. And he was willing to spend a lot of money in order to have it. But you see how precious the mitzvahs are. Especially to these great sages. But Rabban Gamaliel, despite it being something that he spent a tremendous amount of money, he first of all had it for himself, but he was willing to share it. He didn't doesn't say anything about him charging them or anything. They all partook of it. And he was generous with it. That's one part of the Gemara. The other part of the Gemara which I want to read to you, which also displays which also brings out the the love that we have for this mitzvah. Reb Elazar bar Tzadok omer, Elazar bar Tzadok says, Kacha hayu minhagin shel anshei Yerushalayim. This was the way of the people of Jerusalem. The people of Jerusalem were known for their great piety, for their tzidkus, their righteousness. What would they do in Jerusalem? Adam yotzei mibeisei velulavo beyado. They would have they would hold onto this lulav and esrog, they would hold onto their Arba Minim as they left their house. Holech leveis haknesses, they're on their way to the synagogue. They get to the synagogue, lulavo beyado. Korei Krias Shema, mispallel, lulavo beyado. Even when they were when they were saying Shema, they were davening. They're holding their lulav and esrog the whole time. Korei baTorah, noisei sefer Torah, manicho al gabei karka. They would only put it down when they were called up for an aliyah to the Torah or when they were when it came time if it was a kohen, a priest, so he needed to put it down in order to bless the Jewish people. Holech levaker cholim ulenachem avelim. Let's say he would go to visit the sick or to to console the mourners with the lulav and the other day. Everywhere they would go, they would be taking the the the lulav and the esrog with them. When he goes to the base medrash, means the base medrash, he would send the lulav and the esrog with his with his son or with his servant. When he came to the base medrash to study the Torah, so they would give it to the to the hands of their son or their servant to to put it away. So, the Gemara says, "What does this teach us?" Uh what are they holding it so much for? This is to teach you how careful they were, how excited how much This is to teach you how careful they were, how excited, how much alacrity that they had to do mitzvahs. And this is the Tosfos on daf lamed tes amud aleph, which I'm not going to read inside, but he brings down this Gemara and he explains that although really the pasuk says "ul'kachatem lachem" and as soon as you pick it up, as soon as you take the four species together, you're yoitze, you fulfilled your obligation. The obligation is just to pick them up and hold them together. But there's also a continuation of the mitzvah, you can extend your mitzvah. It doesn't have to stop there just cuz you held it, you picked it up, and maybe you shook it in the six directions, the mitzvah can continue. As long as you're holding it, as long as it's in your hand, you have a mitzvah. It says "kamah kamah yuzrizin b'mitzvos". They were they had such alacrity to do the mitzvah. They wanted the mitzvah so much that they held onto it all day in order to continue that the mitzvah should continue. That shows their interestingly it doesn't say here before it said how dear the mitzvah was to them. Right, that's why you spend so much money. Spend a thousand zuz. But here it says not just how dear it is, but how much they wanted to continue to hold in their hands so that they could have that mitzvah it should continue. So, the Jewish people are known we are known to this day people spend tremendous amounts of money for the lulav and esrog. Today everybody has their own, every kid has their own. And it's a big business. It's a big business and it's a beautiful thing. It shows Hakadosh Baruch Hu shows Hashem we see how precious this mitzvah is to the Jewish people, how important it is to us to keep this mitzvah. So, that's just like that's cool, very nice, but I'd like to share a little bit of a depth of what it means to us. Why why is it so important? Let's look in here in the Medrash. The possuk says lachem l'rishon. That says a very interesting thing. The Medrash here, if you look in uh parshas Emor, in parshas Emor, in the 30th section of Sefer Vayikra, in parshas Emor, so it goes through many different ideas. Pages and pages and pages trying to understand what is the depth of the mitzvah. Many of us are familiar perhaps with we find that each of the different parts of the mitzvah represent different aspects of the Jewish people. This thing has a smell and a taste. This thing has no smell, no taste. This thing has taste and no smell. This one has a smell and no taste. Representing different aspects of the Jewish people. There are tzaddikim, the righteous individuals who have a smell and a taste. The people who are not so righteous, but all of all of it is part of the Jewish people they come together. We bring all the parts of the Jewish people together. We need everybody. Whether they're the biggest tzaddikim or whether they're even people who are not righteous. They don't have too many mitzvahs. They don't have too much Torah. But we we need everybody. It's a famous words. It's actually in the Medrash here. There's many different explanations. We'll actually see one one of them soon, which I don't remember encountering in the past, and perhaps you've never encountered it as well. It might be new for you as well. But, the measure says something interesting. After we've explained everything, all the different reasons for it, the measure says, "The truth is that we don't really know. We don't appreciate. We don't have a deep conception, really, of what this mitzvah is about." After all of the wisdom the Torah says that Melech, King Solomon, had, so even though the Torah Torah testifies that he was the most brilliant human being that ever lived, but when it came to trying to understand, what is the reasoning? What is the depth of the mitzvah, of the Arba Minim, of the four species, he didn't know. He many. Passuk says in Proverbs, written by King Solomon, chapter 30, verse 18, "There are three things that are beyond me." What are these three things the measure says that were beyond King Solomon? Haima, Shlosha Haima, Pesach, Matzah, Maror. Excuse me. The first the first set of things that said I can't really understand all the way to its depth, is the mitzvah of Nissan, the mitzvah of Pesach, which is the Korban Pesach, the Matzah that we eat, and the Maror that we eat. So, even though we have an understanding, it's important to to get. Even though we have, you know, the Torah tells us cuz Shimshu Maru es Chayenu, we eat the Maror because it's they they made our lives very bitter. Etcetera. We we have some reasoning for it, but says, "Although I understand something, but I know that I don't really understand it down to its depth. The Arba Minim in the possuk says, "Yes, for those three, there's another four that I don't know." He's trying to understand what are these four the the Arba Minim, the four species. So, we know what they are as we said before, lulav, the esrog, hadasim and aravos. But, if you read the possuk, the way that it refers to them is a little bit nebulous. It's not so clear. It's You could You could think that it's a different fruit. It just says pri eitz hadar. Right? says, "How do I know?" The possuk says it in an unclear way, pri eitz hadar. You know, I'm not sure who esrog. Kol ilan asher prio hadar. What does prio mean? Prio hadar? It says, "Should bring a beautiful fruit." There's lots of trees that have beautiful fruits. What makes this one a beautiful fruit? Interestingly, in modern Hebrew, eitz hadar means a citrus fruit. So, there are many citrus fruits. How do I know that it's a citron? How do I know that it's an esrog? Kappos temarim. The possuk says you should bring kappos temarim. The the Torah says you should take kappos temarim to wave them with the lulav, lulav shel temarim. The possuk says kappos, which sounds like it's plural. But, what do we actually do? We bring one. We bring one lulav, one palm frond. And one of the other things that it's brought down here is that why don't we bring the fruits? Why, you know, we bring the the esrog, right? Why don't we Why don't we bring the fruit of the date palm? Why don't we bring the the fruit is it's it's sweet, it's delicious. Bring Bring that. But, we don't. And there's in each of the different points of the Torah mentioning the way that it it it refers to each of the different components of the Arba Minim we could always ask what how do we know that it's this one? By enough it's a voice. Right, the hadassim the myrtle branch, there it is, that's the word. The myrtle branch so me I must show hadas, who says that it's a myrtle branch are you and the music just says it's a voice which means some kind of branch which has it looks like a chain. It looks like it has it has levels. Right, we're going to offer to our review of the Zion so God etc. There's a possuk which seems to indicate that hadas is not the same thing as it's a voice. It's a different tree. Possuk refers to these two in the same verse. So I have a view of the Zion etc. etc. and it says ali hadas, ali a voice. It's ali it's a voice. So it seems to be separate. Seems to not be the same thing. But nevertheless, we have a masora, we have a tradition. We know what it is. It's a willow branch. I'm sorry, it's a myrtle branch. Rabi Nachal and willow branches call all the ones that grow in the mine. As it refers to the willow, it refers to it as the the the branches that grow on a lot of water. That's the Gemara. Says the Medrish every tree grows on water. So wait. So this is something that we know because we have a masora. It's something that we know because our sages tell us this is what these branches are. So So Melech says it's trying to tell us that from the verses itself it's left unclear as we said. But we have a masorah as to what they mean. Which I think is so important because as we saw as we mentioned, part of the idea here is that there's a love that Hashem has. Think about it. If we're bringing together all the different parts of the Jewish people, so there's a certain love that Hashem has for us, even if we're imperfect, even if we're not the greatest tzaddikim. Even if we're not as righteous as we'd like to be. Still, Hashem loves us, and he wants us all to join together. He wants us to love each other. He wants us to be in one bundle. But, we he wants us to know that we need to follow the sages, right? We need to follow the words of the sages in order to understand what is the masorah, what is the tradition specifically about these items. So, the Midrash finishes off and says, "Eilu arba'ah minim shekol echad yachol Yisrael lalechet ulekayach lahem lehalel leKadosh Baruch Hu." We know that we shake the lulav and the etrog as we say hallel, right? As we say these amazing praises of Hashem for having taken us out of Egypt, tzeis lisiat Mitzrayim, for having protected us and continuing to protect us until this very day. He but he protected us in the wilderness for 40 years. The elements are quite difficult in the wilderness. Hashem took care of us. He protected us. He gives the clouds of glory to protect us. So, we praise Hashem. We praise Hashem for the bounty. We we know we just came out of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and we got a good judgment. We we are sure of it. We come out of the Midrash says that the lulav also represents this like sword. We won. We won the battle. So, here we are. We're praising Hashem with this with this mitzvah. I mean ketana in any Adam. Says the madrish, they don't seem to be like so significant. Like Like what is this mitzvah? It's a branch. It's a fruit. It's a It's like a lemon. Different branches. But even though we don't understand it as and as says, it's it's not only that we don't understand, the pasuk is vague. It's only something that we know through tradition exactly what even what it is. So it's even more like wow. I mean it's it makes us You know, when you understand something, you connect with more. When you have a depth of understanding in something, so you you feel more connected to it. But the madrish is saying, despite all the explanations that we've said, we don't really understand this mitzvah. We don't even it doesn't even make sense to us that the branches that we're using are the ones that the Torah refers to. It's not even so clear. Could I don't hang them in front of Hashem. These are great in front of Hashem. These This mitzvah is an awesome mitzvah in front of Hashem. We don't appreciate or recognize how amazing and how awesome and how exalted and how significant spiritually significant the mitzvah is. But we do it. But Hashem knows how amazing it is and how great it is. We pierce the heavens and all the meaning of all of them and all of them and all of them and all of them and all of them and all of them and all of them. As we said, so who explained that these are these? That it's the citron, that it's the that it's the lulav branch, that it's the the myrtle, that it's the willow branch. Our sages teach us this. And we do this. We do this. So, there's a certain simplicity in the midst of it. There's a certain simplicity that we go through, and yet I'd like to share with you one last thought, which has to do with what Besides for as we said it it it hints to the different people within the Jewish people that we're bringing together in the achdus, there's another aspect of it. The medrish tells us that the acher creates a hadar zeh Hakadosh Baruchu. The fruit, the beautiful fruit, hadar, says the medrish, this represents Hashem. And as we mentioned say, Hashem's name is composed of four different letters, a yud, and then a hey, and then a vav, and then a hey. Okay, so each of these letters has a different aspect of the way that we experience Hashem, just like you know, Hashem has many names. Hashem is sometimes called Hashem, sometimes he's called Elokim, sometimes he's a God of judgment, sometimes he is the God of mercy. He's the same God, but it's how we you know, it's how we experience him. Each of these different fruits represent a different aspect of Hashem. But we see that Hashem is referred to with the word of hadar, just like this the esrog is referred to with the the word of hadar. Hod vehadar lavasha. Hashem clothes himself in splendor and beauty. Kappos temarim zeh Hakadosh Baruchu. Hashem also is represented, or an aspect of Hashem is represented, by the lulav. Shekassuv ba'itz tzaddik katamar yifrach. Possuk says that the righteous one blossoms like a a date palm. And the righteous one, besides for the possuk shaalem the possuk, which means that it's talking about a tzaddik, a righteous individual, it's also referring to Hashem. Hashem is tzaddik Hashem we say in rochav. Ashrei. Hashem is righteous. And so there's an aspect of Hashem which is represented by the lulav. The anaf eitz avos the myrtle is Hakadosh Baruch Hu I mean hadassim we find that Hashem stands amongst the myrtle branches. The myrtle branches represent the tzaddikim the righteous individuals that Hashem manifests through. But the word hadas myrtle is used in reference to Hashem and his manifestation. The willow branch is also represented cuz it's represent Hashem cuz it says about Hashem rides the highest level of heaven there are seven levels seven levels the highest one is called arovos. I don't know what that means. Not going to get into that. We're running out of time. But Hashem rides on arovos. So each of these aspects each of the four parts of the the the dalet minim represents Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So what I'd like to say is like this wrap it up by saying like this. We connect to the mitzvah we connect what are we connecting to? We connect and it's it's so important to connect simply to the mitzvah like the measure said before like we read before. It's important to connect to it simply we don't understand it. But on another level and and I can you know like the Anshei Yerushalayim I can love this mitzvah I don't totally understand I'm going to just hold it with me. I just want to do this mitzvah it's Hashem's mitzvah. On another level we connect to Klal Yisrael the achdus the join together the different aspects of the Jewish people. But on another level when we hold it it's like I'm willing to pay a thousand zuz. I'm only running willing to pay thousands of dollars to have a lulav and an esrog. Why? Perhaps we could say because he he recognized that manifest besides her all the other things manifest within the dalet minim is a representation of Hashem. The glory of Hashem. The the way that Hashem manifests through the tzaddikim through the righteous. It's all represented in these in these four different species. The citron, the the lulav, the etrog, the hadassim, the aravot. We bring them together and we shake it. We can shake it simply. We can think about Hakadosh Baruchu as we shake it. We can We can have all different types of kavanos, but the end of it all is how precious it is. How precious the mitzvah is. We're willing to spend money on it. How precious, how beloved, how special, how connected we are to the mitzvah. We want to hold it all day long like in Eretz Yisrael. We don't want to let go. We know we only have usually we have 7 days. This year we only have 6 days cuz one of the days the first day is Shabbos. But how precious the mitzvah is and how much we want to hold on to it cuz what we really want to hold on to is the connection to Hashem, to God. And I want to bless you and ask you to bless me. Hashem should help us. We should be able to go through these incredible days of Sukkos besimcha with joy sitting with our families in the sukka shaking the the lulav and etrog as we are mahalel as we praise Hashem for all of the kindness all of the goodness that he has done for us, that he does for us, that he's going to do for us. Thank you so much for listening. Have a wonderful Shabbos and a wonderful Yom Tov. This podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you. For more podcasts like this, please visit www.arigoldwag.com or search on iTunes Ari Goldwag.