Q:
I saw in a sefer that the sukkah is bitachon, that it means bitachon. What does that mean?
A:
Now, I’m not responsible for everything that every mechaber writes in every sefer but there’s no question that the sukkah teaches us the lesson of bitachon. After all, when you go out into the sukkah it’s not a protection at all. Two walls and a tefach. Two walls and a flimsy roof?! That’s a very weak protection; you’re not too safe out there.
So if you’ll think, as you’re sitting in the sukkah, that you’re sitting under the protection of Hashem, that’s an important lesson we practice when we go out of the house into the flimsy little hut. ה’ מָעוֹן אַתָּה הָיִיתָ לָּנוּ – You’re a dwelling for us (Tehillim 90:1). We live in You; we’re being protected by You all the time. We think that it’s our efforts that protect us but it’s wrong. Certainly we have to try to be safe against accidents, against predators, against robbers and so on, but we have to know Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the One Who guards us.
I once went home at night and I locked up the door – I made sure the door was locked – and then I went to sleep for the night. I slept safe and sound all night. I got up in the morning and couldn’t find my keys. I went outside, and the key was sticking in the keyhole, on the outside, all night. Anybody who wanted could have taken out the keys and opened up the door. It was a lesson min haShamayim. I was thinking, “You were safe all night. Is it because you locked the door? No, you didn’t lock the door. Hashem locked it for you. Hashem is the One Who kept you safe.”
And so the sukkah is a lesson בִּטְחוּ בַה’ עֲדֵי עַד – Trust in Hashem forever, כִּי בְּיָ-ה ה’ צוּר עוֹלָמִים – because in Hashem, that’s the everlasting rock (Yeshaya 26:4). It’s very important to learn how to trust in Hashem. It doesn’t mean you should be careless with your safety but no matter what you do, no matter what precautions you take, always remind yourself Hashem is the One Who is guarding me.
So even though you may live in your brick house all year long and you bolt your doors every night, sitting in the sukkah for seven days teaches us that our brick walls and our iron doors are all just imagination. Because really it is only Hakadosh Baruch Hu Who is protecting us. That’s what we’re thinking about in the sukkah.
And there’s a very great reward for that. כָּל הַתּוֹלֶה בִּטְחוֹנוֹ בְּהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא – Anybody who puts his trust in Hashem, הֲוָה לוֹ מַחְסֶה בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה וְלָעוֹלָם הַבָּא – Hashem becomes to him a trust in this world and the Next World (Menachos 29b). The reward for bitachon in the Next World is even greater than in this world. It’s a very big mitzvah to trust in Hashem. If we learn to live with bitachon it’s a very big achievement. And so, yes, among the other symbols the sukkah is also a symbol of bitachon.
(October 1989)
