Sukkos: 5784 - Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld of Nachlah, with ideas and short stories for the Sukkos holiday. Delivered at the conclusion of the Daf Yomi class by Rabbi Betzalel Mizrachi in Nachlah. Watch:

00:00 Speaker 1 A blessing. We are on the eve of Sukkos. Tonight we enter Sukkos, the season of our rejoicing. Of joy it is said, “For you shall go out with joy.” When a person is happy, that joy can help him get out of all his troubles—“for you shall go out with joy.” There is a halacha that someone who is distressed is exempt from sitting in the sukkah. One of the great Chassidic figures explained it this way: If someone is distressed—whether over children, health, or livelihood—if he has troubles, how can he be freed of them? Through the sukkah. Through the mitzvah of sukkah, he can be freed of them. “The distressed person is freed through the sukkah.” Another special thing about Sukkos is that other mitzvos involve part of the body. When I put on tefillin, I put them on my arm. But with the mitzvah of sukkah, the entire person, shoes and all, enters the sukkah. He is completely surrounded by the mitzvah. That is what is special about Sukkos. And regarding the four species, we know that the Hebrew letters of esrog are the initials of “Let not the foot of pride come upon me.” There are many—sometimes a person is genuinely prepared to spend money and do everything, but it is so that everyone in shul will see his esrog, that his esrog is the most beautiful. We say, “Let not the foot of pride come upon me.” That is just pride. As someone who deals with the four species, I know it is written that a person’s character can be seen in three things: his cup, his pocket, and his anger. I think we can add one more: his esrog. The way he buys his esrog can show you exactly what kind of person he is. A great deal depends on it. I want to end with a story, a true story I know firsthand. There was a Jew here in Nachlas Har Chabad who had come from Russia. He had no family; he was alone. He was a very, very unfortunate man, and his health was not so good either. He lived here for years. He is now in the World of Truth. There was

02:39 Speaker 1 one time when he came to me and said, “I want the most beautiful set of four species, the finest you have, whatever it costs.” I gave him the finest, most beautiful set. He asked me the price, how much he had to pay. I told him. He took a bundle out of his pocket: shekel coins, little bundles of ten shekels each. He had collected them and taped each bundle together. Ten shekels. Then another bundle, and another. He had done the same with half-shekel coins. That was how he counted out the entire amount I had quoted. In other words, throughout the year he had collected shekel after shekel, coin by coin, so he could have the four species. A Russian Jew. I don’t know—he could hardly even speak Hebrew. I don’t know whether he davened, or knew how to daven. But what he put into this, how much he put into it! I was astonished. A simple Jew. We don’t know how to appreciate a Jew. And we’ll finish with a story told about the Baal Shem Tov. There was a chossid of the Baal Shem Tov—I think his name was Rabbi Dovid—who saved money all year to buy a beautiful esrog. All year he set aside one coin after another. When Sukkos arrived, he went to the esrog dealer and asked for the most beautiful esrog. The dealer gave it to him, and he paid. He came home with this very beautiful esrog. His wife asked him, “How much did you pay for the esrog?” He told her, and she became very angry. She had been asking him for all sorts of things the household needed, and he kept saying he had no money, no money, no money. There had been nothing. Yet for an esrog he had so much money. She was very angry. She took the esrog and threw it on the floor; the pitam broke, and the esrog became invalid. But he did not get angry. He did not say

04:40 Speaker 1 a single word. He said, as if to himself, “All right, I don’t have an esrog. So what—should I get angry now too? Should I commit another sin?” He did not answer her or react at all. The Baal Shem Tov said, “Since the trial of Avraham Avinu, there has not been such a trial that a Jew has withstood.” By not reacting, by not saying anything, he had withstood a trial unlike any a Jew had faced since then. May we all truly have a happy Yom Tov, and may we all sit in the sukkah. If all of Israel sits in the sukkah—

05:12 Speaker 2 Amen.

05:14 Speaker 1 A happy Yom Tov, a happy Sukkos.