Q:
What are the important points to gain tomorrow night in the sukkah?
A:
I already told you a few things tonight. You want some more points? As you’re sitting in the sukkah, think how happy you are that Hakodosh Boruch Hu chose you as His people; because the sukkah is a sign of choosing. Hashem kept the Bnei Yisroel in the sukkos for forty years in the midbar in order that they should have no connection with goyim. In the Midbar they had no connection with gentiles at all. Nothing at all. That’s a great brachah.
So you want to know an important point to learn from the sukkah? Here’s one: If you possess a TV, throw it out of the window right away. Smash it! Some fools even spend money on a satellite bowl; they want even more tumah into their houses. That’s the opposite of the sukkah. As you’re sitting in the sukkah – probably you don’t take a TV with you into the sukkah, do you? And so the sukkah is a wonderful opportunity to start a new career.
Newspapers too. All the newspapers of the goyim, if you see them on the street, you can take a look at the headlines, but that’s all. Don’t bring it in the house. לא תביא תועבה אל ביתך – Don’t bring the abomination into your house. Because the sukkah says isolation; how important it is to be isolated from the goyim.
And so the sukkah, among other lessons, teaches us hibadlu; ואבדיל אתכם מן העמים – I separated you from the nations. I took you into the Midbar in order to teach you you’re My beloved people and you have no connection with the nations of the world.
Like Bilam said when he saw us in the midbar, הן עם לבדד ישכון – Behold a people that dwells alone, ובגוים לא יתחשב – a nation that is not counted among the nations. Bilam was excited over that. And we should be more excited than Bilam.
Now, how do you work on that? When you come into the sukkah, immediately try to remind yourself of these things; and while other people are just talking divrei chol, you think these ideas in the sukkah. Even if you do it a little bit you’re successful because you’re superior to anybody else.
The sukkah by the way is a lesson of bitachon too. If you’ll think 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 sukkah. השם מעון אתה היית לנו – You’re a dwelling for us. 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 Hakodosh Boruch 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 בטחו בהשם עדי עד – Trust in Hashem forever, כי בך השם צור עולמים – because in Hashem, that’s the everlasting rock. 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. And there’s a very great reward for that. כל התולה בטחונו בהקדוש ברוך הוא – Anybody who puts his trust in Hashem, הוה לו מחסה בעולם הזה ולעולם הבא – 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.
And so at the end of the week you bring home your pay that you worked all week and you say, “I thank You Hashem that You gave me the pay.” Hashem gave you the pay, not the boss. Just like the farmer. The farmer plows the ground and plants seeds, and all summer he’s busy taking care of the crop. Then he reaps the crop, and then he has to thresh the grain. He has to winnow it. Then he has to grind it. Then he takes the flour and bakes it into bread. Now the bread is on the table. He did all the work, and then he says ברוך אתה השם…המוציא לחם מן הארץ – “I thank You Hashem for giving me this bread. You’re giving me the bread. I didn’t take anything. I just went through the motions. It’s only motions. You’re the one, נותן לחם לכל בשר. You gave me the bread.”
If we live with bitachon it’s a very big achievement, and among the other symbols the sukkah is also a symbol of bitachon.
(October 1989)
