The Secret Joy of Sukkos, and Special Memories of Sukkos with the Rebbe | Rabbi Chaim Zilber #007

00:00 Speaker 1 Welcome. I’m happy to open our seventh farbrengen here on “Chabad Education,” this time ahead of Sukkos. I sat down for a farbrengen full of memories with Rabbi Chaim Zilber, a shliach of the Rebbe and a lecturer at the seminaries here in Tzfas. This episode is dedicated in the merit of Reb Moishe ben Chana. If you’d like to dedicate a farbrengen in someone’s merit or in memory of someone here on “Chabad Education,” you’re welcome to contact me privately. L’chaim, l’chaim, and a happy Yom Tov. Rabbi Chaim Zilber. L’chaim, l’chaim.

00:26 Speaker 2 To life and blessing.

00:27 Speaker 1 Blessed are You, Hashem, our G-d, King of the universe.

00:30 Speaker 2 To life, to life and blessing. A good final sealing.

00:33 Speaker 1 Yes, we’re recording this already ahead of Yom Kippur, but we want to start talking about Sukkos, the festival of Sukkos.

00:41 Speaker 2 Well, it’s the season of our rejoicing. All the festivals are times of joy and gladness, but Sukkos is the—

00:49 Speaker 1 Why?

00:51 Speaker 2 So, the explanation in Chassidus is very surprising. Broadly speaking, you could say there are two explanations that appear throughout the maamarim. The first is the ascent that follows a descent. In other words, on Pesach we were born anew. That’s the joy of beginnings, of a new birth. On Shavuos we reached another stage: we became a people, and—

01:18 Speaker 1 The giving of the Torah.

01:18 Speaker 2 But the Jewish people had been climbing higher and higher without stumbling. Then came the great rupture, the sin of the Golden Calf, followed by Moshe Rabbeinu’s ascents, until Yom Kippur and “I have forgiven, as you have spoken.” And then comes the joy.

01:36 Speaker 1 In fact, that’s genuine joy.

01:38 Speaker 2 That’s genuine joy. The essence of joy isn’t simply that a person celebrates. The essence of joy is that his innermost self is revealed: he discovers that, despite everything he’s been through, no matter what happened in the past, he has the essence of his soul, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu always invites him into His sukkah as a guest. There’s no greater joy than that.

02:04 Speaker 1 So it’s precisely because of everything the Jewish people go through that Sukkos is defined as the season of our rejoicing. That’s the point.

02:12 Speaker 2 Exactly.

02:13 Speaker 1 And really, what is the significance of the sukkah? In Chassidus, we—let’s try to take things that happen during the festival and give them a little of the depth, the dimension, the deeper layer that Chassidus reveals to us about them.

02:25 Speaker 2 So here’s something interesting about Sukkos. When I was a child learning in cheder, our teacher told us—

02:32 Speaker 1 Outside of—in...

02:32 Speaker 2 Abroad, yes. In Skver. We had a teacher who always told us good little Torah insights. The Polish chassidim are strong on those.

02:38 Speaker 1 Yes, little Torah insights.

02:39 Speaker 2 Little Torah insights. He said: It’s written, “His sukkah was in Shalem, and His dwelling place in Zion.” You know the verse from the niggun, “His sukkah was in Shalem.” So he said in the name of one of the great Torah sages: “His sukkah was in Shalem”—which mitzvos do we perform completely, with our whole selves entering into the mitzvah? “His sukkah, and His dwelling place in Zion”: the sukkah that surrounds us, and living in Eretz Yisroel. Of course, there’s also the well-known saying that there are two mitzvos we perform with our whole selves, sukkah and mikveh. But it’s a good insight.

03:16 Speaker 1 So the point of the sukkah is that it...

03:19 Speaker 2 Yes, there’s something unique about being entirely inside a mitzvah. There’s nothing else like it. You’re inside the mitzvah, and there you eat and drink and rejoice. It’s a wonderful kind of unity that you really don’t find in any other mitzvah. Chassidus emphasizes that “all of Israel are fit to sit in one sukkah.”

03:43 Speaker 1 Yes.

03:43 Speaker 2 Because it’s not just that you can sit and rejoice; all of Israel really are united in that one sukkah, and that makes a Jew simply want to get up and dance. Hakadosh Boruch Hu has invited us into His home, too: “Spread over us the sukkah of Your peace.” He surrounds us on every side. [unclear] And you live there in your natural way: you eat and drink and rejoice.

04:19 Speaker 1 Beautiful. Now, Sukkos is seemingly one of the mitzvos called “testimonies.” There are statutes and ordinances, and there are mitzvos that are testimonies. Some mitzvos are statutes, and some I can understand, but testimonies combine those elements. Sukkos, after all, is based on the idea that “I had the Children of Israel dwell in sukkos” along the way. The Jewish people traveled with sukkos, so we sit in sukkos. Right? That’s the basis of the mitzvah.

04:44 Speaker 2 “Your following Me into the wilderness.”

04:46 Speaker 1 Yes, through all those stages. So what is the point of the sukkah? Seemingly, it’s something we can understand: we sit in sukkos to remember those sukkos. What does Chassidus reveal to us about the sukkah? All right, there’s something special about it: it’s a mitzvah I can perform with my whole self. As you described earlier, I enter it; my whole self is surrounded by the mitzvah. But what does Chassidus reveal about Sukkos and sitting in the sukkah?

05:14 Speaker 2 If we look at the festivals as they appear originally in the Torah, their connection to working the fields is strongly emphasized. Pesach is in the month of spring. Spring is connected with barley; then Shavuos is the wheat harvest, the Festival of Harvest. And finally we reach Sukkos, the Festival of Ingathering. Of course, today we aren’t farmers. We don’t experience it in that sense, but everything in the Torah also represents spiritual work. If we consider the three pilgrimage festivals as a whole, we understand the great significance of Sukkos. In principle, Sukkos should have been on Pesach. When did Hakadosh Boruch Hu take us out of Egypt and have us dwell in sukkos? In the month of Nissan. Halachah does give a reason: if it were in Nissan, people wouldn’t recognize that we’re doing it because Hashem wants us to, since that’s a pleasant time of year [unclear]. Right. But of course, everything also has an inner reason. Chassidus explains that everything has a stage when it first sprouts. Pesach is the birth of the Jewish people. So on Pesach, our relationship with Hakadosh Boruch Hu is also at the level of infants. We follow with our eyes closed, like a newborn child. When Shavuos arrives, we receive the faith. We received the Torah; it’s already like—let’s call it—a bar mitzvah. In a person’s development, there’s birth, and then Shavuos—I’m putting it in my own words—is the bar mitzvah: you’ve received the Torah and now have commandments. But when Sukkos arrives, it’s the Festival of Ingathering. Ingathering is when you actually bring the produce home and truly enjoy it. Because when does a person—when you become bar mitzvah, you’ve received all the mitzvos, but you haven’t yet put them into practice. You haven’t yet reached true joy. Simply put, a person’s real joy is when he sees

07:25 Speaker 2 the produce of all his work, after all his effort.

07:29 Speaker 1 He sees the results.

07:30 Speaker 2 He sees the results. That’s the joy of Sukkos. A person enters the sukkah after all the work of beginnings—all beginnings are hard—and after all the practice, after he’s reviewed what he’s learned and begun putting Torah and mitzvos into practice. Sukkos is about enjoying the fruits, just as ingathering means in its plain sense. And after all the work of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, which really is a service of awe, a movement of drawing inward, of work from below, on Sukkos we’re guests of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What we felt on Rosh Hashanah in a way of awe, when the moon is concealed, reaches Sukkos as “the day of our festival.” Sukkos is revelation, when Hakadosh Boruch Hu reveals Himself to us in all His splendor. “His right hand embraces me.” In contrast to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, when “His left hand is under my head,” Sukkos arrives and “His right hand embraces me.” You feel embraced by the wings of the Shechinah. When someone reflects on where we are on Sukkos, he’s simply overwhelmed. I come from America; I have expressions that are hard to say in Hebrew.

08:54 Speaker 3 Hard to say, yes.

08:55 Speaker 2 Or you’re supposed to be absolutely elated that Hakadosh Boruch Hu forgave you for everything on Yom Kippur, and after four days of preparing for Sukkos, the high point arrives: you’re a guest of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and now everything is revealed. Every moment of joy brings you closer to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Chassidus says that the joy of Sukkos and Simchas Torah is the test of all the work of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. In other words, if on Sukkos a person just rests and has a good time, without expressing his joy, it shows that all his work and prayers on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur were out of fear—who knows what might happen to him? But if a person rejoices at Simchas Beis Hashoevah and with the Torah scroll with all his heart, then—as it says in the sichos—that is the test. It’s a sign that his work on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur also came from the joy of being close to Hashem. He saw that Hakadosh Boruch Hu loves him and wanted to be close to Hakadosh Boruch Hu: “Seek Him when He is near.” So now, too, when he has the opportunity, he uses these days to draw closer and rejoice. As we know, every moment of dancing breaks through waves.

10:19 Speaker 3 That’s what I wanted to get into.

10:20 Speaker 2 Let’s go.

10:20 Speaker 3 One second. The first thing I want to ask about the years you spent with the Rebbe is this: Was that conduct visible in the Rebbe during this time—the joy that serves as the test of all the work that came before it? And first, a little about you. You actually grew up in...?

10:36 Speaker 2 Well, as a young child, I really grew up in a different world—in Satmar. I even sat on the lap of Reb Yoelish of Satmar at my upsherin.

10:46 Speaker 3 The one who now—

10:47 Speaker 2 Reb Yoelish passed away nearly fifty years ago. Yes, at my upsherin they brought me to him. He was already quite weak. He sat me on his lap and curled my peyos for half an hour.

11:01 Speaker 3 So how did you get from there to...?

11:02 Speaker 2 Oh, well, it’s a long story, but I’ll tell it briefly. The point is that although my father was close to Satmar, the kana’im, and Neturei Karta, he was also a grandson of Rabbi Chaim Naeh—literally his grandson. His mother was Rabbi Chaim Naeh’s daughter. As is well known, Rabbi Chaim Naeh was a devoted Chabad chossid, a well-known halachic authority in Chabad and throughout the world, and the Rebbe showed him great warmth. When my father, as a young married man, had to visit New York, he went to see the Rebbe as Rabbi Chaim Naeh’s grandson, and the Rebbe really showed him special warmth. My father had written in his pan that he was Rabbi Chaim Naeh’s grandson. So the Rebbe first said, “Oh, in that case, we’re relatives.” After all, the Rebbe had called him “my relative by marriage.” I looked into it; the family connection is very distant. But once the Rebbe told my father that they were relatives, the Rebbe showed him warmth at every opportunity. He came through a line for a blessing, and the Rebbe gave him a bottle of vodka—which, as you know, was reserved for a select few. And whenever he came for dollars, the Rebbe would give him another dollar and speak to him about Rabbi Chaim Naeh, and so on. My father really did grow close; it worked. He was drawn to the Rebbe, even though he had been with great rebbes—the Beis Yisroel of Ger, the Belzer Rebbe, and other truly towering Torah figures. He was drawn to the Rebbe with bonds of love, and— So then you moved from those institutions to others? Yes. I personally also had a mashpia who reached me at a certain crossroads in my life and brought me into Lubavitch. His name was Rabbi Nochum Wilhelm, a"h, the father of Rabbi Eliyahu, who publishes the Dvar Malchus, Rabbi Nechemia—

12:51 Speaker 2 —in Thailand, and Rabbi Boruch. He was in Sea Gate, in our neighborhood, while he was ill, and sadly he passed away afterward. But at the time he really drew me in and sent me to study in Lubavitch. Wow. I named my youngest son Benzi—Menachem Ben Tzion—after him. I see. Because I really owe it to him that I became close to Lubavitch in a deep way: I came to study, not just to visit. Mm-hmm. Wait, which years were you with the Rebbe for Sukkos? Well, when I was a child, my father would take me to the rallies. That was in the ’80s; I was already at a Sukkos rally here, and sometimes they would hold a carnival in the streets. But I was there regularly starting in 5751 and 5752. By then I was studying at Oholei Torah, and I experienced the entire Sukkos holiday with the Rebbe. It was truly unforgettable. What do you remember? What can you share with us? Well, l’chaim, l’chaim. L’chaim. So it doesn’t turn into a lecture. All right. We have to start by saying that Sukkos, as we said, is the revelation of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. After we had gone through Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur with the Rebbe—with all the crying before the shofar blasts and the profound seriousness in the Rebbe’s eyes. The Rebbe was concerned for the entire Jewish people. These are the fateful days when “all the inhabitants of the world pass before You like a flock.” You could see it in the Rebbe: he pulled his tallis over his entire face and wept for the whole Jewish people, and sometimes the shofar blasts came with difficulty. That was Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. We felt the tremendous tension in the air, that the fate of the world was being decided in that place. The whole world depended on it; everything passed through that building. Then, suddenly, Motzaei Yom Kippur arrived—

14:50 Speaker 2 —with the “Gut Yom Tov” the Rebbe proclaimed, and [unclear], we entered a different world. On Sukkos you saw the joy, the Rebbe’s shining eyes. At the end of the first evening’s prayers on Yom Tov, the Rebbe turned to the crowd: “Gut Yom Tov!” And we all answered, “Gut Yom Tov!” “Gut Yom Tov!” And a third time, “Gut Yom Tov!” That’s it. You didn’t need anything more. I’ll tell you an episode. As you know, the Rebbe very much wanted to take part in the Simchas Beis Hashoevah dancing, which the Rebbe began in 5741. The Rebbe announced that people should go out into the streets. Until then they had danced inside the shul; now the joy would go out into the streets. The Rebbe said, “For various reasons, I’m unable to participate in the street, but I will participate every day.” From then on, every night of Sukkos, the Rebbe delivered a sicha in the shul after Maariv as his participation in Simchas Beis Hashoevah. You can indeed notice that those sichos always mention something about joy and dancing. It was, in a way, the Rebbe’s participation. The dancing began with the Rebbe’s sicha, which lasted between thirty and forty minutes on the first days of Yom Tov, and ten to fifteen minutes on the other nights. Thanks to those sichos, we have all the teachings about the ushpizin and everything else. It’s all based on those twelve years, from 5741 through 5752—twelve years, multiplied by seven sichos. That’s the book Mayanei Hayeshua [?], which anyone can read. Yes, it’s arranged by ushpizin. Right. Part of the book is arranged by ushpizin, part deals with the dancing; they organized it very nicely by topic. What’s interesting is that the Rebbe delivered those sichos standing. Why? Because the Rebbe’s practice was to sit when he held a farbrengen, at a table in the center of the shul. Sichos were delivered standing. Rebbes have their own ways of taking pleasure, which we don’t understand. But when 5752 came—remember, the Rebbe—

16:51 Speaker 2 He was close to ninety, and the Rebbe was having trouble with his leg at the time. We knew the Rebbe had erysipelas already in the summer, and we saw that he was walking more slowly, even with a slight limp. I remember that in those early days of Tishrei 5752, we would say Tehillim for the health of the Rebbe’s legs. That was what everyone knew in the yeshiva. I studied at Oholei Torah. They told us to say Tehillim to strengthen the Rebbe’s legs. And then, as Sukkos approached, the secretaries were worried. Why? Because on Sukkos the Rebbe stands every night. That’s a long time to stand on the first nights of Yom Tov—thirty, forty minutes at the lectern. They saw the effort it took and decided that this year they would do something different and surprise the Rebbe. Before Yom Tov, they arranged the entire shul as though for a farbrengen, so there would be places to sit. They set up the Rebbe’s table and chair in the center. Of course, at the front it was like it was for every davening, but the rest of the shul was arranged for a farbrengen. Then they built a special walkway, a bridge, from the place where the Rebbe davened, in the southeastern corner. They built a bridge from there over the benches. There are benches behind the Rebbe. Yes, right. So they built a long bridge alongside the women’s section, so the Rebbe could walk straight after davening across that bridge to the farbrengen area. From the davening platform to the farbrengen platform. That way the Rebbe could sit instead of standing, and it would help the crowd too. Instead of everyone pushing toward the front, everyone would be in their farbrengen places. They’d be spread out more, and everyone would benefit. They worked hard on it. The carpenters built a wide bridge, and we all waited to see what would happen. Davening ended, and as usual, the Rebbe turned around after the final Kaddish and wished everyone “Gut Yom Tov,” waving his hand.

18:55 Speaker 2 We answered, “Gut Yom Tov, Gut Yom Tov, Gut Yom Tov.” Then the Rebbe turned to Rabbi Groner and gave him a questioning look, as if to ask, “Where’s the lectern for the sicha?” Rabbi Groner gestured toward the bridge. Toward the bridge—go across the... No, the Rebbe made a gesture like, “Well?” And the Rebbe began walking across the bridge. It was majestic. Anyone who wants can see it; there’s a video from after the second day of Yom Tov. In other words, there’s a video from the third night of Sukkos showing the Rebbe walking across that bridge. Wow. The Rebbe reached the farbrengen area and began speaking with Rabbi Groner. He gestured toward the chair, asking what it was. Rabbi Groner explained that they had prepared a chair. Again, we couldn’t hear, but we understood that there was a little disagreement, very briefly. In the end, the Rebbe’s wishes prevailed, and they moved the chair. The Rebbe went up to the table, leaned on it with both his holy hands, and began speaking. The Rebbe spoke that way for about thirty-five minutes, leaning on the table. Leaning on both hands—that’s exactly how it was. Everyone’s heart went out to him. They had wanted the Rebbe to be more comfortable, rather than leaning on the lectern like that, even though the lectern had some kind of cushion. But the Rebbe stood there, leaning on both hands on the table throughout the entire sicha. People were beside themselves. The next night they brought the lectern over there, because the shul’s new arrangement really was more comfortable. But it was as though the Rebbe was saying, “You don’t know my rules. You’re not going to change my practices for one reason or another.” That was an episode from 5752.

20:36 Speaker 4 We spoke a little about Simchas Beis Hashoeivah—you described it a bit. Today it really belongs to all the Jewish people. Simchas Beis Hashoeivah is something you see today in every community, throughout the country and around the world.

20:47 Speaker 2 The Rebbe’s innovation was really to take it out into the street, because it had been—

20:51 Speaker 4 What was it like before? I don’t know what it was like before.

20:53 Speaker 2 I wasn’t there before; in 5741 I was a seven-year-old child.

20:58 Speaker 4 No, but what was the practice around the world?

20:59 Speaker 2 Around the world, Simchas Beis Hashoeivah was held inside shuls, like Simchas Torah, and that’s how it was in Lubavitch too. Going out into the street to dance, bringing singers and music, bringing joy into the street—that’s something else. You’re dancing with Hakadosh Boruch Hu under the open sky. I don’t know how to explain it. As children from [unclear], we came to Lubavitch. Everyone in Seagate knew that you had to come to Lubavitch for Simchas Beis Hashoeivah at least once. There was something electrifying about the dancing in the street, and there still is today.

21:31 Speaker 4 Yes.

21:32 Speaker 2 That’s it.

21:33 Speaker 4 So it was the Rebbe who took it from the shuls out into the street.

21:35 Speaker 2 Yes. The Rebbe called it [unclear]—that the street should dance too. The Rebbe even added that Sukkos is the festival of “Praise Hashem, all nations,” corresponding to the seventy bulls. The Rebbe emphasized that the non-Jews participate too: they close off the street and help with security. There was something spiritual about it, but you can see that it worked in practical terms too. There are things the Rebbe did for spiritual reasons that proved themselves in practice as well. You could say the Rebbe won everyone over. It brought everyone together in wonderful unity. Everyone talks about the effort that goes into this event, the unity, how people from every community come to dance all night. In Seagate, they used to say, “Joy and unity—you’ll find that only in Lubavitch.” That was what everyone knew.

22:23 Speaker 4 And what’s the Chassidic explanation? I mean, dancing and rejoicing—I think many of us enjoy that, and it’s always good. But what’s the idea? All right, we’re rejoicing in the joy of Yom Tov. It’s a festival of joy. Why do we need to go outside and dance in the street?

22:37 Speaker 2 This is where, I think, we see one of the differences between the usual understanding of the festivals, particularly Sukkos, and the insight Chassidus brought. The usual understanding is that the Torah tells you to rejoice, so you should make use of every physical means: eat meat, drink wine, be happy, go on outings with your family. Chassidus revealed another dimension. It asks: Why do we celebrate Simchas Beis Hashoeivah specifically with water? What is water? It’s the thing with the least flavor. How does that bring joy? Chassidus revealed a deeper point here. A Jew’s joy has its outward expressions, which of course also awaken joy. But at the heart of it is precisely simple joy. Beyond our joy over everything we’ve received, materially and spiritually, beyond everything we spoke about earlier concerning Yom Kippur, there is joy in the very fact that I am a Jew. Hakadosh Boruch Hu chose us as His people, and I am a Jew regardless of my qualities, what I’ve learned, what I have or haven’t done. I’m a Jew, and that awakens a joy that needs no reason. That is “You shall draw water with joy.” The maamarim discuss this at great length, and you see it when you start dancing. At first you dance because you feel you have to, but at some point—sometimes in the middle of the night or toward morning—suddenly it clicks, and you dance with tremendous joy. I think everyone has moments when they say, “Wow, at this moment I touched the essence of my soul.” That’s where you’ve reached. If you’ve reached that point, know that you’ve touched the essence of Sukkos itself, “the season of our rejoicing.” You’ve peeled away all the layers—even the good layers of meat, wine and family. But Chassidus wants you to reach “We will exult and rejoice in You.” We rejoice

24:38 Speaker 2 in Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “Let Israel rejoice in its Maker,” and “Hashem will rejoice in His works.” That’s from the telegrams the Rebbe sent before Sukkos. The Rebbe was very concise; in a telegram, you couldn’t fit a river of words. Often the Rebbe included those words, “Let Israel rejoice in its Maker” and “Hashem will rejoice in His works,” because perhaps they sum up the point of Sukkos.

25:06 Speaker 5 Joy. Joy expressed in—

25:08 Speaker 2 Pure joy, joy that comes when you peel all of that away. That’s what we’re after. You reach a certain point in the dancing. For me, it usually happened toward morning, when all the singers had left, along with everything else—even the outward things that... And suddenly you’re dancing. You feel you’re dancing with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Your feet dance on their own, together with everyone, in pure unity and pure joy. Sometimes I miss my yeshiva years, when I didn’t even have worries about tomorrow or about getting home. There was nothing else. You had joy itself.

25:46 Speaker 5 Just to rejoice.

25:47 Speaker 2 Just to rejoice.

25:48 Speaker 5 Well, l’chaim, l’chaim. Thank you so much.

25:51 Speaker 2 L’chaim. May we truly merit real joy. Perfect joy will come only when we see the light of the King’s countenance. May we truly merit to see the Rebbe again, and may it already be in the Third Beis Hamikdash. Then we’ll celebrate Simchas Beis Hashoeivah itself, speedily in our days.

26:08 Speaker 5 Amen. L’chaim, l’chaim.

26:09 Speaker 2 [unclear] freilach zain, as everyone has already written.

26:13 Speaker 5 5787.

26:14 Speaker 2 Yes.

26:15 Speaker 5 L’chaim, l’chaim. Rabbi Chaim Zilber, thank you.