לרפואת נריה דב בן חנה לייטנר בתוך כל שאר חולי ישראל.
The Mishna (Suk’ 1:4) lays down: ’This is the principle: Anything that is susceptible to ritual impurity, or its growth is not from the ground, one may not roof his sukka with it. And anything that is not susceptible to ritual impurity and its growth from the ground’ and is not attached to the ground, ‘one may roof’ his sukka with it.
Let us preface our exposition,by bringing an intriguing Midrash: ’Breishit: The Torah ‘boasts’ that it was the artful instrument of Hashem. - in the way of the world, when a king builds a palace, he doesn’t build it by his own intellect, but by the advice of an artisan, and the artisan doesn’t build it from his own intellect, but after preparing and being guided by his notebooks - as to the rooms to be built and all other aspects of the matter.
‘So too, Hashem consulted the Torah and created the world, and the Torah said:’Breishit Hashem created the world’, and ‘Reishit’ is none other than the Torah’.
The underlying meaning of this wondrous Midrash, is that the Torah acted as the architect or the blueprint, by which Hashem created the world.
Clearly, in doing so, the world created by the blueprint of the Torah, had to provide for all that the Torah required of man - to enable him to observe all the mitzvot of the Torah - including, of course, the mitzvot of schach.
Here begins our conundrum.
We read in the Torah’s relation of the events of the third day of Creation:(1:11)’G-d said: ’Let the earth sprout vegetation: herbage yielding seed, עץ פרי עושה פרי: fruit trees yielding fruit, each containing its own seed on the earth.’ And it was so.
‘And the earth brought forth vegetation, herbage yielding seed after its kind, ועץ עושה פרי: and trees yielding fruit, each containing its seed after its kind.
‘And G-d saw that it was good.’
Rashi brings the midrash, commenting: ’Fruit trees yielding fruit’: that the tree’s taste should be like the fruit - but it did not do so, but ‘brought forth..trees yielding fruit’, and not ‘fruit trees yielding fruit’ - therefore when Adam was cursed for his sin, it too, was cursed for its transgression.’
Let us note - at this juncture - that the Torah, after this transgression, states: ’And G-d saw that it was good’.
Rav Yitzchak Karo expounds: ’This midrashic commentary - that the tree, too, could be eaten - is said homiletically, and I do not understand what was said, that ‘it did not do so’.
‘How could it be that the earth did not do as Hashem commanded - this was not dependent on its will, but the Will of Hashem, as when Hashem created the world and created nature, He did so as He willed, and did not give nature permission to do what it wanted - as by His Word all was created, and He ordained as a law, that they not change their assigned role, but perform their assigned roles.
‘Further, I do not understand what was said, that it was therefore cursed - does the earth have a mind, so that it should be open to reward and punishment?
‘I therefore conclude that this was said homiletically, and אין משיבים על הדרוש: ‘one does not critically attempt to answer homiletic expositions’.
The Rav then advances his own learned explanation, which is outside of our purview - and, regrettably, of my limited intellect.
Rav David Pardo advances his commentary on our subject, asking:’What led the earth to deviate from Hashem’s command? it was not subject to the wiles of the yetser ha’ra?
‘It appears that the earth understood literally Hashem’s command:’a fruit tree making fruit’ - as, had He said: ’AND making fruit’, with the connecting ו'יו:’and’, it would be understood to mean that the tree itself would be fruit, AND also bear fruit.
‘But in our case, where it is written ‘bearing fruit’, without the connecting ‘and’, it sounds like there are two separate subjects, and Hashem was saying: Some will be fruit trees, and some - more commonly - will be ‘bearing fruit’.
‘This is how the earth understood Hashem’s words, and how it acted, as there are some trees - such as the etrog, where the taste of the tree and of its fruit are the same - as our Sages say:the fruit of the hadar tree’: the taste of the tree and of its fruit, are the same.
‘Since the earth, in the way it acted, did not intend to rebel against Hashem - but acted according to its understanding of Hashem’s command - it did not merit punishment.
‘However, when Adam transgressed and merited punishment, the earth was also punished, as because of it diverting from what Hashem commanded, there was an opening for Adam to err and divert from
Hashem’s command - as had the earth not diverted, Adam would not have had a precedent to follow, and would also not have diverted from Hashem’s command.
‘Since Adam’s divergence was due - in the way we have described - to the earth’s error, when Adam was punished, so was the earth, for its role in Adam’s divergence.’
If we have gained a glimpse at the wondrous event of the earth’s seeming failure to obey Hashem’s command - even be it unintentional - we are surely compelled to seek to understand, why Hashem - after this transgression - saw that ‘it was good’?
Further, in what way is this relevant to the schach?
Rav Azriel Tauber provides a beautiful answer to these questions: ’Sukkot is ‘the time of our simcha’, a special simcha, because we have made תשובה מאהבה : repentance out of love, on the Days of Awe - Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
‘During the preceding month of Elul, ‘one thing we asked of Hashem.. to sit in the house of Hashem all the days of my life, to view the pleasantness of Hashem and to visit His palace’ (Ps’ 27:4).
‘When does this take place? In our Sukkot.
‘The schach is צילא דמהימנותא: ’the shade of Hashem, that protects us.
‘As we know, kosher schach has to be פסולת גורן ויקב: of the waste of the wheat and vines - the wheat and the grapes themselves cannot be used for schach, as they receive impurity.
‘Where does this waste come from?
‘In truth’ - as we have brought - ‘before the sin of Adam, there was no waste, as, although Hashem commanded that there should be only trees who would themselves be fruit, and there would be no waste - so that there could not be kosher schach.
‘The reality of waste only came because of the action of Adam, as - as a consequence of his sin ‘the earth was cursed.. and would henceforth only produce thorns and thistles - such was the result of the sin.
‘Instead of producing forth עץ פרי מוציא פרי: ‘a fruit tree making fruit’, the earth produced עץ עושה פרי: a tree that bears fruit - thereby giving birth to waste, which alone is kosher for schach.
‘Let us reflect: had Adam not transgressed, we would have been unable to observe the mitzvah of Sukkot, as there was no material that was kosher schach - not only this, but as righteous as we might have been, but for the sin of Adam, we would not have Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur - so that it would not be possible to attain the level of: ’where baa’lei tshuva stand, completely righteous people do not stand’.
‘Where do we ‘dwell with Hashem’? When we sit in the shade of the Sukkah - under the schach - and gaze upwards, reflecting: this schach is waste, the result of all the transgressions, starting from the sin of Adam , up to ours - but we repented, Yom Kippur now being behind us - and the Sukkah is the room of our union with Hakadosh-Baruch-Hu - and all this started with our tshuva!
‘This is the צילא דמהימנותא; ‘the shade of Emunah’: we are sitting in the shade of our transgressions that we acquired, and for which we did תשובה מאהבה: ‘repentance out of love’.
‘The. Rambam posits that ‘a ba’al tshuva is only when ‘the One before whom all is revealed, testifies that the sinner will never ever repeat his transgression’.
‘How can we know this? The simcha, that we have returned in complete tshuva. Sukkot is ‘the time of our rejoicing’, and when one invites Hashem to his sukka - that is clear proof.
‘Why the sukka specifically?
‘Because - as we have said - of the waste: ‘the kosher schach’ we made.
‘On the face or it: a difficulty, as had Adam not transgressed, from where could he have a sukka?
‘The answer is, that had Adam not transgressed, there would not have been a need for that evidence, nor for the servitude in Egypt, as there would not have been any transgressors.
‘We find - therefore - that the exodus from Egypt: the ‘I caused you to dwell in sukkot’ - was entirely a consequence of sin.
‘Therefore, Hashems presence in the Sukka, gives evidence that we repented ‘out of love’.
‘Why did Hashem let Adam transgress? How could man mar the creation of Hashem?
‘The answer is clear: the objective of all creation, is tshuva! By it, man becomes Hashem’s partner in the Creation - by giving man the power to create the existence of transgression in the world.
‘Hashem created His world in a way that there had to be transgression in it (Kohelet 7:20): ‘because there is no man who is completely righteous, who will do good, and never sin’ - so that we should necessarily reach tshuva, because tshuva is the purpose of Creation.
‘These are the ‘profits of Hashem’, from Creation - ‘the place where baalei tshuva stand, the completely righteous do not stand’ - that is the simcha.
‘After Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, when the ba’al tshuva wants to know if his repentance has been accepted - and desires that Hashem testifies to it - says Hakadosh-Baruch-Hu, to him: ’Enter the sukka’; he enters the sukka, and recognizes every part of the schach - made from the waste - from his transgressions, and he finds himself בצילא דמהימנותא: in ‘the shade of Emunah’.
‘Our sins ‘made’ this ‘shade’ - thus, from this we derive the greatest simcha, as through the sukka, our partnership in Creation is materialized.
‘To reach this exalted position - that in Sukkot, Hashem will turn our transgressions to merits - we have first to work hard in the Days of Awe, to rise to the level of ‘tshuva out of love’.
‘Rejoicing in our transgressions, can only be achieved if we truly repented for them ‘out of love’- if we went through the whole process of Ellul, of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and we did tshuva ‘for its sake’, with simchs, then - on Sukkot - Hashem turns all our transgressions to mitzvot, and they become the waste of the ‘shade of Emunah’.
‘Hashem adorns His palace with our transgressions for which we did tshuva out of love.’
The Netivot Shalom adds:’The essence of Chag haSukkot ‘the time of our simcha’, is that after the Days of Awe, during which Bnei Israel purified and elevated themselves, Hashem gave us the mitzvah of Sukkah, which is in the nature of ‘And He brought me into his House’, which is likened to the Beit haMikdash - as our Sages say that sanctity resides on the Sukka.
‘This can be likened to being brought inside, to the Beit haMikdash - and this is why Sukkot is ‘the time of our simcha’, that Hashem brings us into His house, to rejoice with Him.
‘Could there be a greater show of love, than this?’.
Perhaps, homiletically, there is another instance of joy: our Sages say: אין שמחה כהתרת ספיקות: ‘there is no joy like the removal of doubts.
Might we not apply this to our subject - to our joy on Hashem showing that we have merited to have proven that we will not repeat our transgression - meriting being true baalei tshuva.
The Be’er Mayim Chaim describes the ‘reunion’ in the Sukka, of Bnei Israel with Hakadosh-Baruch-Hu, as being like the joy of the return of the prodigal son - whose transgressions have separated him from His father- by his tshuva out of love.
‘Could there be greater rejoicing from both sides - the joy of the son, that he can now be reunited in the Sukka, with his Heavenly Father, now that he has repented from the transgressions that separated them.
‘And the simcha of the Father, that his son has returned ‘from afar’, to be reunited with Him - in the Sukka.’
A parting gem from Rav Avigdor Nebenzahl, on the festivals of Tishrei, culminating in Sukkot: ‘the time of our simcha’.
Expounds the Rav:’We are accustomed to think, that of the holidays of Tishrei, the most important and weighty are Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, whist Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret appear to be of lesser importance - as days of relief and respite, to enable us to recuperate from the heaviness of the Days of Awe.
‘The truth, however, is totally opposite - the simcha of Sukkot is the objective of the Days of Awe! ‘The purpose of the work of repentance in the early part of the month, is to rid us our worries and to purify us - so that we can rejoice on Sukkot, as how can a person rejoice whilst he is worried over his livelihood and fearful of his enemies?
‘Therefore on Rosh Hashanah we remind ourselves, who is the real ruler of the world - from whom alone we have to have fear, and Who is the only One who can ensure that we should not have any enemies.
‘Then, once we have internalized that we are the subjects of the omnipotent King, we have no reason to fear any mortal rival, and we can deal with the spiritual barriers to our happiness - the weight of out sins, on our souls.
‘To enable us to achieve this, come the Ten Days of Repentance which culminate in Yom Kippur, on which Hashem gives us the glad tidings:’I have forgiven you, as you asked’.
‘Now, after all the earthly and spiritual concerns have been addressed - and removed - we can finally rejoice!
‘We can now - at last - be commanded :והיית אך שמח: ‘You shall be’ only ‘happy’, for the ensuing seven days, with heart-felt gratitude to Hashem, for the physical bounty of the abundant crops - and for the spiritual gift of purification.
‘This is the true structure of the beginning of the New Year: to emphasize the simcha, in our service of Hashem - and so that simcha should continue to be the foundation stone, of all that we do in the coming year.’
לרפואת נועם עליזה בת זהבה רבקה ונחום אלימלך רפאל בן זהבה רבקה, בתוך שאר חולי עמנו.