Torah Table Talk A New PaRDeS

Why Sukkot is the Season of our Rejoicing

Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret, Leviticus 23:1-44, Deuteronomy 14:22 16:17
This week Torah Table Talk is sponsored by my colleague, Rabbi Ronald Roth In honor of the Jewish Theological Seminary In our liturgy, Sukkot is referred to as Z'man Simchateinu, the Season of our Rejoicing. Each of the pilgrimage festivals has its own liturgical name: Passover is Z'man Heiruteinu, the Season of our Freedom, and Shavuot is referred to as Z'man Matan Torateinu, the Season of the Giving of our Torah. The name attributed to Sukkot in the prayer book is the only one that comes from the Bible; it is derived from the Torah portion for the first days of Sukkot in which we are commanded "to rejoice" before the Lord during the week of Sukkot. While simchah, rejoicing, is understood to be part of all three festivals, there appears to be an added dimension of simchah on Sukkot. What is it about Sukkot that makes it different from the other holidays in the Jewish calendar? Why are we told to 'rejoice' specifically on this holiday? And how does one 'rejoice?' For contemporaries, joy and happiness are externally produced qualities; we have an entire industry whose purpose is to make us laugh and happy. It seems to me that the nature of simchah, as it is described in the Bible in later Jewish literature, is different. Let us see what we can learn about simchah from the sources below. Leviticus 23:33-44 On the fifteenth day there shall be a feast of Booths to the Lord, to last for seven days.Mark, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the yield of your land, you shall observe the festival of the Lord seven days: a complete rest on the first day and a complete rest on the eighth day. On the first day you shall take the product of hadar trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of a leafy tree, and wills of the brook and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven daysyou shall dwell in booths seven days, all the citizens of Israel shall dwell in booths, in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelites dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt; I am the Lord. Deuteronomy 16:13-14 After the ingathering from your threshing floor and your vat, you shall hold the Feast of Booths for seven days. You shall rejoice in your festival, with you son and daughter, your male and female slaves, the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow in your communities.

PaRDeS
1. Pshat Understanding the plain sense meaning of the text
You shall rejoice before the Lord your God: This is the only festival prescribed in chapter 23 on which rejoicing is explicitly commanded. In the festival calendar of Deuteronomy 16, rejoicing is also mentioned in connection with the Feast of Weeks. Elsewhere we read that sacrificial worship in the Temple is an occasion for rejoicing. It is not clear just why the Sukkot festival is singled out here, although it may be because Sukkot was the most prominent of the ancient pilgrimage festivals. (Baruch Levine, The JPS Torah Commentary, Leviticus) My Commentary: While the prominence of joy on the festival of Sukkot is certainly clear from the biblical passages above, I found Professor Levine's suggestion that Sukkot is, "the most prominent of the ancient pilgrimage festivals," to be surprising. Was Sukkot really more 'prominent' than Passover? While Simchat Beit Hashoeva, the ceremony for the drawing of water, was certainly one of the most joyous celebrations in the Jewish calendar, each of the pilgrimage festivals had a colorful ceremony which set it apart from the rest of the year. In the Second Temple period Simchat Beit Hashoeva was a major part of the celebration of Sukkot. The Sages noted that "Whoever never witnessed the Simchat Beit Hashoeva has never in his life seen true joy." In this ceremony a gold pitcher of water was brought up from the Siloam pool in lower Jerusalem to the Temple Mount where it was used as an offering. In some ways this ceremony was replaced by Simchat Torah as one of the high points of the year. But this ceremony was not the only memorable moment of rejoicing in ancient times: it was paralleled by the offering of the Pesah offering on Passover and the Bikkurim, the first fruit ceremony on Shavuot. In the end, we are left with the textual emphasis on Sukkot rejoicing but no real explanation for the emphasis on joy on this festival.

2. Remez Allusions: Finding meanings hidden in the text

The Kotzker Rebbe maintained that joyfulness follows as a by product of holiness. It is therefore natural after Yom Kippur, when we are cleansed of sin and sanctified to celebrate Sukkot, which is called Season of Our Rejoicing. (from the Sukkot and Simhat Torah Anthology by Philip Goodman) In many ways, Sukkot has become the model for this worldly enjoyment, which is why it is called the time of rejoicing. The depth of the joy also grows out of its relationship to Yom Kippur. Sukkot comes just four days after Yom Kippur, the most ascetic, self-denying, guilt-ridden, awesome holy day of the Jewish year. On the Day of Atonement, Jews reenact their own death, only to be restored to life in the resolution of the day. Only those who know the fragility of life can truly appreciate the full preciousness of every moment. The release from Yom Kippur leads to the extraordinary outburst of life that is Sukkot. On this holiday, Jews are commanded to eat, drink, be happy, dance, and relish life to the fullest in celebrating the harvest and personal wealth. But making joy holy means being selective in the enjoyment of God's gifts, not worshiping those gifts or those who own them. The first and foremost expression of this insight is to share the bounty and the joy. Gifts from the harvest were given to the poor: "You shall rejoice before the Lord, you, your son and daughter, your male and female slave, the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, the widow in your community." (Deut. 16:11). (Rabbi Irving Greenberg, The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays) My Commentary: Sukkot is doubly connected in the Jewish calendar. On the one hand it is one of the Shalosh Regalim, the three pilgrimage festivals and, on the other hand, it is part of the High Holy Day season. The Yamim Noraim do not end with Yom Kippur but continue with the joyous celebration of Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret. Both the Kotzker Rebbe and Rabbi Irving Greenberg suggest that Sukkot is a response to the solemnity and intensity of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. For the Kotzker, joy is a response to holiness; cleansed of sin we respond by rejoicing before the Lord. Greenberg suggests that confronting our mortality. After standing in judgment on Rosh Hashanah we receive our decree on Yom Kippur: who shall live and who shall die. Our lives come to a halt. We dont eat, drink or engage I the normal activities of life and we even put on a kitel, the white robe which is actually a burial shroud. And then in the eleventh hour, we are given a reprieve we are given our life for another year. It is no wonder that our response is to rejoice and celebrate life. Of course, the Yamim Noraim remains a leitmotif until the final day of Sukkot which we call Hoshanah Rabba. According to tradition this is when the book of life is finally sealed. Once again, we don our kitel on this day as we do the following day on Shemini Atzeret when we pray for rain.

3. Din Law: Applying the text to life

Lamentations and fasting are forbidden during the seven days of Pesah, the eight days of Sukkot, and the holydays. One is required to rejoice and be cheerful on those days, along with his wife, children, grandchildren, and all his dependents, as it is written: You shall rejoice at your festival, you, your son and daughter, your male and female slaves (Deut. 16:14) although festivity here refers to the peace offering, as we are about to explain in the section concerning the rules of pilgrimage offering, it includes the appropriate rejoicing of each man and his children and the members of his household. The children, for example, should be given parched grain, nuts, and sweets; the women should be presented with pretty clothes and trinkets according to ones means; the men should eat meat and drink wine, for there is no rejoicing without the use of meat and wine. While eating and drinking, one must feed the stranger, the orphans, the widows and other unfortunates. Anyone who locks the doors of his courtyard, and eats and drinks along with his wife and children without giving anything to eat and drink to the poor and desperate, does not observe a religious celebration but indulges in a celebration of his stomach. (Moses Maimonides, Mishneh Torah Shevitat Yom Tov, 6:17-18) My Commentary: Lest we think that the rejoicing in which we are commanded to engage is something completely spiritual, Jewish law codes make it clear that there is something earthy and very concrete about the way we rejoice before the Lord. The Rambam suggests that we rejoice by providing people with the things that give them pleasure: sweets for children, nice clothing and jewelry for women, and meat and wine for the men. But the rejoicing must be shared with others, including those who are less fortunate in society. To do otherwise is to indulge ones appetites rather than celebrating the gifts which God has given us. Real joy, then, must be shared with others. It is through the sharing, that it becomes sanctified. In the context of the Bible, Sukkot was the season of rejoicing because it was the end of the harvest. Rather than simply sitting back and

feeling self satisfied with ones accomplishments, Maimonides suggests we need to take some of the goodness and share it with others in society. This idea was carried on through Jewish law which suggests that we need to open our homes and Sukkot to others as a way of experiencing the true joy of the festival.

4. Sod The Meaning and Mystery of Faith

The story is told of a man who was deeply depressed. He went to see his doctor and after describing his despondency, the doctor said to him: "I cant solve your problems but I might be able to ease your pain. I prescribe that you go to the circus to see Grimaldi the Clown. If nothing, else, for the brief few hours that you are there, Grimaldi will make you laugh and allow you to forget about your troubles." A solitary tear dropped from the man's eye as he sighed "I can't, Doc....you see, I am Grimaldi." At the risk of sounding a bit preachy, I have to say that happiness is overrated. I often hear people say, I just want my children to be happy, or I just want a little happiness out of life; is that too much to ask? Even our Declaration of Independence focuses on this difficult: we are guaranteed, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But thats the rub, isnt it? Happiness is something we constantly pursue but dont often catch. In our Torah portion this holiday we learn that happiness is commanded. We are to rejoice before the Lord. No matter ones state of mind, we are to celebrate the holiday with joy: through song, by giving thanks for lifes blessings, by enjoying the simple pleasures of life and sharing them ones family and with the needy, by taking stock of life and by cleansing ones soul. What we learn above is that happiness is not something we get but a product of how we live. It is also a goal that we can strive for not simply by self-gratification but finding a balance between satisfaction and aspiration. It is also a product of seeing the world in context. Maybe that is why Sukkot is Zman Simchateinu. It is the beginning of the year but also the end of the year. Although it follows soon after Rosh Hashanah, it also marks the end of the harvest and the coming of winter. We can sit back and enjoy of the product of our labor. We can give thanks for the goodness of Gods earth. Greenberg describes Sukkot (and Shemini Atzeret) as the coda, lifes postscript of joy. We have not spent the year pursuing happiness, but looking back we have gained it by choice and by the grace of God. I suspect that if happiness is what we set out to gain, we never would have found it.

Questions to Ponder
1. Why are we told to rejoice on Sukkot and Shavuot but not on Passover? What is it about Sukkot that makes it different from the other holidays? 2. What is the connection between Israels wilderness sojourn and happiness? What is the connection between happiness and the harvest? 3. Why are most Jews more likely to celebrate Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur which are somewhat somber holy days rather Sukkot which is a celebration of joy? 4. How is Sukkot connected to the High Holy Days and how is it connected to the larger Jewish calendar? 5. What makes you happy? How do you experience happiness on the festival of Sukkot?
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All it takes to study Torah is an open heart, a curious mind and a desire to grow a Jewish soul.
Copyright 2011 Rabbi Mark B Greenspan