Chag HaSukkos - the sechach of the sukkah - loving a fellow Jew!

00:00 Sukkos is a continuation of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The Midrash says: When two people come to court and no one knows what the verdict will be, as they leave the courthouse, the one holding the verdict in his hand is known to have won. Similarly, the Jewish people and the nations of the world stand in judgment on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and no one knows who won. When Sukkos arrives and Jews walk with their lulavim and esrogim in their hands, everyone knows that the Jews won on the Day of Judgment. This is the meaning of “Sound the shofar at the new moon, at the concealed time for our festival.” Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are “concealed”: the judgment is hidden; the victory was not revealed on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It is still covered—“concealed” in the sense of covered. But “for our festival,” Sukkos, the moon shines in its fullness. The moon represents the Jewish people. Thus it says, “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month”—this is the idea that “the moon stands in its fullness.” The moon is full, representing the Jewish people, and the light of victory is revealed in the world, until the whole world recognizes that they have won. “Praise Hashem, all nations; laud Him, all peoples, for”

01:53 “His kindness has prevailed over us.” This is the victory and joy of Sukkos. We need to understand the deeper meaning of this connection between Sukkos and Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. We can understand it through a story, an interesting story that the Frierdiker Rebbe told the Rebbe. Here [unclear] a story, a teaching of the Maggid of Mezritch that was passed on by the Alter Rebbe and has reached us. It is one of the foundations of Chassidus, explaining the deeper meaning of Sukkos in serving Hashem according to the path of Chassidus. The Rebbe recounts this story in his notes, in his diary. As is known, the Rebbe kept a diary for himself of stories he heard from his father-in-law, the Frierdiker Rebbe, and other stories he heard while he was still in Poland, in the years before the war. In an entry from Sukkos 5693, he writes that the Frierdiker Rebbe told him about the Alter Rebbe. It is well known that the Alter Rebbe was among the closest and most outstanding students of the Maggid of Mezritch. The Alter Rebbe went to great lengths, with self-sacrifice, to travel to the Maggid; it was not at all easy. He faced many obstacles and difficulties in this, as is known from the historical accounts. He relates that the Alter Rebbe showed tremendous self-sacrifice, contended with many difficulties, and wanted to be with

03:41 the Maggid of Mezritch on Sukkos. The reason he wanted to be with the Maggid of Mezritch on Sukkos was that he wanted to see—and this is the wording—something strange, meaning something wondrous, something remarkable: How could a person so inwardly focused as the Maggid of Mezritch sit within the encompassing presence of a sukkah? In simple terms, a sukkah is a structure that surrounds a person. That is what a sukkah is: something encompassing. The word sukkah is related to s’chach, and this, too, is something encompassing. The Maggid of Mezritch was a Jew, a tzaddik, whose entire being was inwardness. In other words, his Judaism, the mitzvos, and his service of Hashem penetrated his very soul. To the Alter Rebbe, it was a wonder: How could the Maggid of Mezritch, whose entire being was inwardness, sit in a sukkah, when a sukkah is something encompassing? It was a remarkable thing. When he came to the Maggid of Mezritch on Sukkos, he was told that when they saw the Maggid of Mezritch sitting in the sukkah, he recalled the cloud of incense of Yom Kippur. Then the whole matter became clear and understandable. What is the significance of the cloud of incense? In the notes he puts it more briefly, [unclear], and says that the cloud of incense, too, is something encompassing—the cloud. The cloud, too, surrounds the entire Mishkan. The cloud of incense appeared between the two poles of the Ark, and the two poles of the Ark represent the Torah, which is the inward dimension of the matter. And I saw there,

05:49 so the Rebbe relates about the Maggid, how he sat in the sukkah and saw the cloud of incense of Yom Kippur in the sukkah’s s’chach. This is the idea of bringing what is encompassing into one’s inner being. And in another sicha, when the Rebbe was in America, in 5727, the Rebbe went into further detail, since it was during Sukkos. There it is related that the Baal Shem Tov was in Mezritch that Sukkos and heard this teaching from the Maggid of Mezritch. In that teaching, the Maggid of Mezritch said that the cloud of incense of Yom Kippur becomes the sukkah’s s’chach. He said that this is the meaning of “I have loved you, says Hashem”: What was revealed in the cloud of incense on Yom Kippur enters the sukkah’s s’chach. This is the meaning of “I have loved you, says Hashem”—Hakadosh Boruch Hu says to a Jew: I love you. And this is the idea of loving simple people, simple Jews. The Baal Shem Tov said that this teaching gave him a new understanding, a new perspective on the whole matter of simple Jews, and he began to involve himself with simple people. Until then, the Baal Shem Tov had kept his distance from simple people. Through the Maggid of Mezritch’s teaching, his conduct changed: He began to draw close specifically to simple people. That is the story, and the Rebbe cites it in his sichos. We need to understand: What does this story mean? What does it mean that the sukkah is something encompassing, and that the point is to bring what is encompassing into one’s inner being? What is the significance of the sukkah’s s’chach, which has its source in the cloud of incense? And how did the cloud of incense lead to this whole idea of loving simple Jews, and how does it relate to our service? As we said earlier, if we look at the maamarim of our Rebbeim, beginning

08:12 with the Baal Shem Tov, and likewise throughout the teachings of all our Rebbeim—from the Alter Rebbe, the Mitteler Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, and the Rebbeim after them—we find many explanations that discuss at length the subject set out and explained in that teaching of the Maggid of Mezritch: What are the encompassing and inward dimensions? To explain it in simple words, in terms of serving Hashem, the encompassing dimension refers to the power of faith and the power of self-sacrifice. Every Jew has faith within his soul. Faith comes naturally, because all Jews are believers, the children of believers. It shines within every Jew as a simple faith that we inherited from our forefathers. And the Alter Rebbe explains in Tanya that every Jew, even the most irreligious and even Jewish sinners, if born to Jewish parents, has the simple faith we inherited from our forefathers. This simple faith shines within every Jew. It is beyond reason and understanding, beyond anything the intellect can grasp; it is entirely beyond comprehension. Because of this simple faith, a Jew does not want to, and cannot, be severed from G-dliness. This is the source of the power of self-sacrifice that exists within every Jew. As we see, even the most irreligious and even Jewish sinners, when their point of faith is touched, stand firm with self-sacrifice and—

09:53 give their lives, ready to endure the suffering of death rather than be severed from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. We see this among the Jewish people throughout the generations. The Alter Rebbe explains this in Tanya, and many places in Chassidus discuss this subject at length—this is the nature of faith. But the faith within every Jew is an encompassing power. What does it mean that it is encompassing? It means that it is beyond understanding, beyond emotion and feeling, beyond reason and anything that can be grasped, understood, or felt by the intellect. It is beyond comprehension and feeling. It comes from the very essence of a Jew’s Jewishness. And as explained in Chassidus, faith can be present in its full strength, yet a person’s day-to-day conduct may be completely at odds with that faith. This is another explanation of what “encompassing” means: Faith remains above. The example given is what the Gemara says: “At the mouth of the tunnel, the thief calls upon the Merciful One.” A Jewish thief believes in Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and as he stands by the door before entering to steal, he asks Hakadosh Boruch Hu to help him succeed in the theft and keep him safe. In other words, he believes; he is a person of faith. He believes in Hakadosh Boruch Hu and believes that Hakadosh Boruch Hu watches over

11:18 Through hashgachah pratis. And yet, why does he investigate the matter of parents like that? Why? Because this is something that exists on a higher plane, something that remains beyond a person. But it exists in every Jew in its full strength: faith. About this it says, “Nourish faith”—tend to it and sustain it. In other words, we must work so that faith shines within us: that we understand it, feel it, and live with it. It must not remain something beyond us, but penetrate every part of a Jew’s inner being. Broadly speaking, this is what the month of Tishrei is about, and what takes place on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkos. On Rosh Hashanah, the main thing is that a Jew crowns Hakadosh Boruch Hu King over the world. Then the cry emerges in the sounding of the shofar. It is a simple cry, as the Baal Shem Tov explains. What does that simple cry mean? It is simple faith crying out, a cry from the depths of the heart. A Jew says, “Father, Father, save me!” It is a cry from the depths of the heart, a cry without words, as the Baal Shem Tov explains. That is the simple faith that shines in Jews when the shofar is sounded. And that is why we say

12:48 after the shofar is sounded: “He will choose our inheritance for us, the glory of Yaakov whom He loves forever.” We ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu to choose, of His own free choice, a Jew simply because he is a Jew. “The glory of Yaakov whom He loves forever”—the essential love with which Hakadosh Boruch Hu loves a Jew is revealed when the shofar is sounded. Moreover, after all the [unclear] involved in teshuvah, Yom Kippur arrives—the “once a year.” Then what constitutes his entire essence is revealed. As is well known, Yom Kippur is the “one.” As explained in Chassidus, “one” relates to “My dove is one.” This “one” is the yechidah. As it says regarding the menorah, “unto one.” They say that he cherished the student “unto one,” and it is explained that this refers to the soul’s yechidah, the yechidah within the soul. In other words, there is one essential Jewish point, and when the “once a year” arrives, the point of faith and the readiness for mesirus nefesh are revealed in every Jew. When a Jew stands, particularly during Ne’ilah, the fifth prayer, which corresponds to the yechidah of the soul—the fifth level: nefesh, ruach, neshamah, chayah, yechidah—the yechidah within the soul is revealed in Jews during Ne’ilah. From that place they cry out “Shema Yisroel,” followed by “Boruch Shem” and “Hashem Hu HaElokim” seven times—the verses proclaiming His oneness. And as it says in the machzor, at that moment a Jew actually gives his life for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, which—

14:17 this is the greatest expression of mesirus nefesh, coming from the essential Jewish point, from the point of faith. This is the significance of the cloud of incense: the moment when the Kohen Gadol enters the Holy of Holies, once a year. It is the one and only day of the year when the “one” in the soul—the yechidah—is revealed. As explained in Chassidus, the Kohen Gadol represents the yechidah of the Jewish people as a whole. In his spiritual standing, he represents the essential point of the Holy of Holies, the Jewish point, the yechidah within the soul, the “she is one” of the Jewish people. He stands there on the “once a year”—on Yom Kippur, when the yechidah within the soul is revealed. And where does he enter? The Holy of Holies, the one unique place. On Yom Kippur, then, three things meet: one in the world, one in the year, and one in the soul. These are the three things on which, as Sefer Yetzirah says, the entire world rests. World means place, year means time, and soul means life. Place, time, and life—world, year, and soul—are the secret on which the entire order of hishtalshelus is built. And that is [unclear]. And that is the [unclear] of the cloud of incense. The smoke of the incense formed the cloud of incense, and within that cloud the Kohen Gadol stood at the moment of connection and closeness—the deepest and greatest connection of the “one” in all three dimensions.

15:54 That is the significance of ketores, incense, a word related to connection. Part of the significance of the incense is its fragrance. As discussed in Chassidus, incense is fragrance, and fragrance can revive a person who has fainted, as we can see. When someone is weak, even among [unclear] Jews, as we see in shul on Yom Kippur, fragrance is used to revive him. If someone on Yom Kippur [unclear] and feels a little weak, they bring a sharp scent, a pungent substance, or snuff close to him, and it revives him and gives him strength. Clearly, then, incense and fragrance are connected to the soul. The yechidah of the soul is awakened by the incense. This is the avodah of Yom Kippur, when every Jew’s essential Jewish point is awakened in the Holy of Holies. After the entire avodah of the incense come joy and rejoicing. In other words, the yechidah within the soul shines, and we bring that light into actual avodah. This leads to Sukkos. We can thus understand what comes next, when we say that Sukkos reveals that which had remained beyond us. This is what the Maggid of Mezritch said: through the incense, the essence is revealed—the essence of the soul, which is

17:21 connected to the Essence and Being of Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. It is revealed on Yom Kippur in holiness, but in a concealed way—in the Holy of Holies, in shul, in the soul, and in the holy avodah of fasting. From that fast, from the fast of Tisha B’Av, it later comes into the open. “On the day of our festival,” in joy, it is revealed. This makes it possible to reveal it and bring it into the world, so that it shines in Jews’ avodah in daily life—in thought, speech, and actual deed. How is this expressed? The first thing is the s’chach of the sukkah. About this, the Maggid of Mezritch said that the s’chach of the sukkah is love for Jews simply because they are Jews. In other words, at a farbrengen, the Rebbe elaborated on the significance of the s’chach of the sukkah, adding to the story we discussed earlier, [unclear] how one can farbreng during the month of Tishrei. The Rebbe explained the point at length: When we say that the incense becomes the s’chach of the sukkah, why say this specifically about the s’chach? First of all, it is said of the sukkah as a whole that “all Jews are fit to sit in one sukkah.” The sukkah encompasses all Jews equally. But why say it specifically about the s’chach of the sukkah? After all, what must s’chach be made from? “The waste of the threshing floor and the winepress.” Not from fruit or other food, but from the waste of the threshing floor and the winepress. And from that is made

18:49 the s’chach. It is something cheap and simple, the waste of the threshing floor and the winepress. Yet the mitzvah is to sit under this s’chach for seven days, throughout Sukkos, and carry out all the activities of daily life there. These are opposite extremes. The cloud of incense is the loftiest thing, in the loftiest avodah, at the loftiest moment of Yom Kippur—when the Kohen Gadol is in the Holy of Holies. It is the loftiest of all. From it then come the clouds, the Clouds of Glory. The s’chach, too, is connected to a cloud; the sukkah commemorates the Clouds of Glory. But how is this expressed? Through the waste of the threshing floor and the winepress. How should we understand and feel this? A Jew who felt his essential Jewish point on the last Yom Kippur—who felt it on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and stood before Hashem, facing Hakadosh Boruch Hu—“Seek My face; Your face, Hashem”—felt his innermost self. What is my innermost self? My essential Jewish point. Not my intellectual insights, not my knowledge, not my wisdom, and not my great accomplishments. The most essential, deepest, and loftiest thing in a Jew is simply that he is a Jew. And this is expressed through the waste of the threshing floor and the winepress: in the way we must look at a simple Jew. He really is a simple Jew; he has no special qualities, no genius, no greatness in Torah and mitzvos. He is a simple person; the Baal Shem Tov

20:25 He said that in the simple person, the simplicity of Hashem’s essence is revealed, and the pintele Yid—the essential Jewish spark—is fully revealed. And as we said, all of this together gives rise to an extraordinary joy on Sukkos. This, quite simply, was the purpose of the Clouds of Glory. They were clouds that came in honor of the Jewish people. As explained, “Clouds of Glory” does not mean the clouds needed for protection. They were not the same clouds used during the day, [unclear], which were simply a means of physical protection. There were also snakes and scorpions, and the clouds killed them, as the Midrash relates. But there were clouds whose entire purpose was truly to honor the Jewish people, to express how beloved they are. And how beloved they are becomes apparent when you look at a simple Jew and see: he is “literally a part of G-d above.” The love for a simple Jew was revealed through the service of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, through recognizing how precious a Jew is. And the Rebbe told us that from what they heard from the Maggid of Mezritch—“I have loved you, says Hashem”—from the Clouds of Glory and the clouds of incense, comes the joy of the sukkah. They spoke in his presence about poverty, [unclear], about the greatness, about how precious a simple Jew is. That is the very essence of the sukkah. And here comes the idea, as we said, that the encompassing light should shine inwardly. That is how they saw the Maggid of Mezritch sitting in the sukkah, and heard how the encompassing and the inward are brought together. As we said, faith that remains only at the level of an encompassing light is not enough. Afterward, one must take that point, the pintele Yid, and

22:10 bring it inward. This is the ultimate purpose of serving Hashem: that the pintele Yid, that point of faith, that self-sacrifice, that essential bond and connection awakened on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur should afterward permeate a person’s intellect, feelings, character traits, and thought, speech, and action. And from here comes the service of the lulav. As explained in Chassidus, we take the Four Species; after the mitzvah of sukkah comes the mitzvah of the Four Species. The mitzvah of sukkah surrounds a person on every side from the very first moment. Then comes the mitzvah of the Four Species, and the service of the Four Species centers on the lulav. “You shall take for yourselves” the Four Species, and you hold the lulav upright. The lulav corresponds to the heart. The lulav, the lulav corresponds to the heart: we draw the entire encompassing light inward. That is why it is written in the sefarim, [unclear], that ideally one should wave the lulav inside the sukkah. For the sukkah represents the Jew’s essence, the encompassing light, faith, self-sacrifice. But we do not want to remain at the encompassing level. We want the encompassing light to be drawn inward, and for that we need the service of the Four Species, so that it permeates every part of a person. That is why we do this in the sukkah: through the lulav, it enters inwardly, amid all the rejoicing. For this is also connected with taking hold of the will. Yes, and so the sukkah is filled with this. And this is the point:

23:48 not to remain with faith alone, but to have faith enter understanding and comprehension, feeling, the inner faculties, and truly become one with the person. In light of all this, we can understand why we find several elements of Sukkos, each connected to this same point: drawing the encompassing light inward. The pintele Yid should shine and permeate the person, every faculty of the soul. And this is what we say: First, regarding the sukkah itself, the Torah says, “You shall dwell”; “dwell in it as you live in your home.” In other words, the encompassing light should become something we dwell in: we must bring it inward, so that it does not remain merely encompassing but permeates our inner lives. “Dwell in it as you live in your home”: we eat in the sukkah, drink in the sukkah, study in the sukkah, and stroll in the sukkah. The encompassing light should permeate us over seven days. The seven days allude to the seven emotional attributes: faith should enter every detail and every activity, even these ordinary activities. That is what we seek in the mitzvah of sukkah, in the service of sukkah: that the service of Hashem, everything awakened on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur—the essential bond, the closeness, the power of faith and self-sacrifice revealed on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur—should enter ordinary activity. Even when I eat or drink, or in “Know Him in all your ways,” I should bring that faith into it and live with it. In this connection there are two more points, further foundations that we find in the service of sukkah, where we see this point in serving Hashem: the [unclear] and the preciousness of simple faith, and of the Jew—the preciousness of a Jew. One of the things we see is the mitzvah of the water libation, and the matter

25:38 of the aravah, the willow. Regarding the water libation, Chassidus explains that specifically Sukkos is the time for pouring water on the altar. What is the significance of the water libation? On all the festivals there was a wine libation. Sukkos comes along and says: No, water. Plain water. They go and draw the water—“You shall draw water with joy”—and make a great occasion of it, with tremendous joy, dancing with great delight. “The Jews had light and joy”—the greatest joy: “You shall draw water with joy.” What does water represent? Water expresses simplicity. Wine represents taste and understanding; water represents simplicity. So the new element of Sukkos is water. There was wine on other festivals too; on Sukkos something new was added: all the rejoicing centers on water. The simplicity of the simple person, the simple sincerity a Jew possesses—both a great Torah scholar and a simple Jew have this sincerity, this water-like simplicity—and from the water comes the greatest joy and rejoicing. At the same time, there is a halachah that the water libation was offered together with the wine. This teaches us that both water and wine were poured, because the point is to bring together the two things we spoke about. And the water must be brought inward. There must indeed be a water libation, with the greatest joy over it, and this is the new element of the month of Tishrei; but at the same time, it must also reach the wine, taste and understanding. The same applies to the mitzvah of the aravah. And on Simchas Torah, all the excitement centers specifically on the aravah. The circuits around the altar were connected with the aravah, as were the Hoshanos, especially Hoshana Rabbah, when we are occupied with the aravah and perform the entire ceremony of striking the aravah. What

27:33 is behind all the excitement about the aravah? After all, the aravah is one of the Four Species, and as the Midrash explains, it has neither fragrance nor taste. Through it, we emphasize the significance of the simple person, the simple Jew. And this is what Sukkos teaches us: how precious a Jew is. This is love for a Jew because of his very essence, recognition of a Jew’s importance. Sukkos teaches us how precious a Jew is, and this is the theme of the entire month of Tishrei: the preciousness of a Jew, love for a Jew because of his very essence, recognition of his importance. That is the meaning of the aravah. And so, when we reach Hoshana Rabbah, a day within Sukkos itself, at the culmination of the observances of Hoshana Rabbah, we perform the beautiful [unclear]. Then we see how precious a Jew is in his very essence; a Jew’s very essence is the most precious thing of all. And the Jews gather together, and with this they go to dance on Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah. Afterward, this must be joined to the Torah, because we must take all of this simple faith and self-sacrifice and bring it into Torah, into knowledge and practical service in daily life. The encompassing light must not remain merely encompassing; it must enter inwardly. That is why it says of Shemini Atzeres, on the day of Shemini Atzeres, “It shall be an atzeres for you”—it must enter inward. As brought in Chassidus, atzeres means absorbing: then we absorb all these things and bring them inside ourselves, and a Jew lives with them throughout the year, so

29:11 that these will be lives of joy, lives of love for Hashem, lives of Ahavas Yisroel, lives of love for the Torah. And the Baal Shem Tov said that the three loves—love for Hashem, Ahavas Yisroel, and love for the Torah—are all one. This is revealed on Sukkos, when everything comes together as one [unclear], and a Jew lives with it throughout the year, so that his life can be a life of Torah, a life of G-dliness, of holiness and of Yiddishkeit. May this strengthen us in all these matters, and may the Rebbe grant that it be a year of light, a year of blessing, a year of Geulah, with the entire alef-beis, a year of Torah, prayer, teshuvah, praise and salvation for the entire Jewish people, with the true and complete Geulah.