Sukkos in the Geulah - Rabbi Menachem Cohen shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You’re listening to “Lemaan Yishme’u,” a podcast of Machon Halacha Chabad.

00:09 Speaker 2 Chag sameach! Happy Sukkos. “You shall rejoice on your festival, and you shall be only joyful.” We know how central joy is to Sukkos. The mitzvah of the day is to rejoice and bring joy to others, and that is connected to the Geulah. In the Geulah, joy will reach its fullest expression. Then, “Our mouths will be filled with laughter and our tongues with song.” We will thank Hakadosh Boruch Hu for the joy, for the Geulah through which He redeemed us, and for His saving us. That will be the greatest joy of all. What could be happier? What greater blessing, what greater cause for joy, could there be than the true and complete Geulah? Today, with Hashem’s help, we’ll talk about Sukkos, its halachos, and their connection to the true and complete Geulah—what Sukkos will be like in the complete Geulah. There are three things we have on Sukkos. One is joy, which is expressed in several ways. As we said, Sukkos has several aspects of joy, and that is one of the things that connects it with the Geulah, when there will be the greatest joy of all. First, there is the joy of the festival, the joy of Yom Tov. That is why one should drink a revi’is of wine each day and be happier than on ordinary days: “You shall rejoice on your festival.” Another thing is taking the lulav. About taking the lulav, it says: “You shall take for yourselves the fruit of a beautiful tree, palm branches, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before Hashem your G-d.” Besides that, we have Simchas Beis Hashoeivah—the celebration when people would rejoice and dance, as they indeed will in the true and complete Geulah. Today we also try to celebrate it, but the joy was at the time of drawing the water—drawing water to pour afterward on the altar during the festival. So when they drew the water,

02:15 Speaker 2 it was accompanied by tremendous joy, with a flute and more. So much so that “whoever did not see Simchas Beis Hashoeivah never saw joy in his life.” Joy is really the central theme of Sukkos. But we also have other halachos, as we said. We have taking the lulav, which is also part of “you shall rejoice before Hashem your G-d.” And we have the mitzvah of dwelling in the sukkah. These are the main mitzvos of Sukkos: dwelling in the sukkah and taking the lulav. About this, our Sages say: “As a reward for three ‘firsts,’ they merited three ‘firsts.’” What does that mean? Our Sages say in Tractate Pesachim that, as a reward for three mitzvos in which the word “first” appears, the Jewish people merited three things also described as “first.” As a reward for refraining from work on the first day of Pesach, and for the other mitzvos we’ll mention in a moment, they merited three “firsts.” The three mitzvos we observe are refraining from work on the first day of Pesach; refraining from work on the first day of Sukkos, which is a holy day; and taking the lulav on the first day: “You shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of a beautiful tree, palm branches.” As a reward for these three “firsts,” we merit three “firsts.” What are they? First, the destruction of Amalek’s descendants, about whose ancestor it says, “The first emerged ruddy, entirely like a hairy cloak.” Second, the building of the Beis Hamikdash, of which it says, “A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our Sanctuary.” Third, we merit the name of Moshiach, of whom it says, “Behold, I will first announce to Zion: Here they are.” The Maharsha explains the connection between the three mitzvos and the three promises. He says: The descendants of Esav constantly seek to destroy us, and then we come to Pesach. We observe Pesach properly. On Pesach we were saved from the Egyptians, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu will

04:14 Speaker 2 also save us from Amalek, from his descendants. The descendants of that “first,” the ruddy one, will be cut off in the complete Geulah. As a reward for observing Sukkos and sitting beneath the sukkah, we also merit the Beis Hamikdash, which is like a sukkah. About it, the verse says, “His shelter was in Shalem, and His dwelling place in Zion”—referring to the Beis Hamikdash. And through the four species, with which we rejoice before Hashem, we receive the reward of the name of Moshiach. What is Moshiach’s name? Menachem: he will comfort us and bring us joy after the suffering of exile. And that is the Rebbe shlita, Melech HaMoshiach, whose name is indeed Menachem, the name of Moshiach. So he explains that there is a mitzvah to rejoice throughout Sukkos, as we said—“You shall rejoice on your festival.” But the joy with the four species is a joy connected with unity and with physical objects. Through that joy, we will merit the coming of Moshiach, who will unite and connect the entire world with an awareness of the presence of Hakadosh Boruch Hu in everything, including physical objects. So through rejoicing with the four species—physical things brought together—we merit the revelation of Moshiach, who is called Menachem. He will unite and connect the entire world, including physical things, with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Here, then, we see the connection between the mitzvos of Sukkos that we observe today and the true and complete Geulah. How will the mitzvos of the festival be observed in the Geulah? This is very interesting. Since the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash, we have followed the enactment of Rabban Yochanan ben

06:19 Speaker 2 Zakkai. He instituted it. In the time of the Beis Hamikdash, outside the Beis Hamikdash we would take the lulav for only one day: “You shall take for yourselves on the first day.” We would take it only on the first day, not on the other days. Even today, taking it on the remaining days is only a rabbinic mitzvah. On the first day it is a Torah mitzvah; on the other days it is rabbinic. But in the third Beis Hamikdash—and in the Beis Hamikdash generally, including the First and Second Beis Hamikdash—they would take the lulav on all seven days of the festival. That is what the verse says: “You shall rejoice before Hashem your G-d for seven days.” Before Hashem, in the Beis Hamikdash, it was seven days; everywhere else, one day. That was in the time of the Beis Hamikdash. So the difference is that today we take the lulav throughout the week: on the first day by Torah law, and for six days by rabbinic law. In the Geulah, outside the Beis Hamikdash we will take it only on the first day, but in the Beis Hamikdash we will take it for seven days. And there is something else. On weekdays we take the lulav, but on Shabbos we do not. We do not perform the mitzvah of lulav on Shabbos, whether Shabbos falls on the first or second day of the festival, because of the concern that someone might carry it four cubits in the public domain. In the future, in the true and complete Geulah, we will take the lulav on Shabbos too. Just as on Rosh Hashanah we will blow the shofar even when Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbos, so too on Sukkos we will shake the lulav even when Sukkos falls on Shabbos, because those decrees will no longer apply. There will be no concern that someone might carry it four cubits in the public domain. There will not be

08:19 Speaker 2 There won’t be any more situations like that. There won’t be people who might commit transgressions. The very possibility of a transgression won’t exist. As we said, there’s a well-known [unclear] about the Geulah. That [unclear] says that then a person won’t commit transgressions. So there will be no concern that someone might carry the lulav four amos. People will also be very wise and will know exactly how to—how to shake a lulav, so there will be no need to take it to a sage. They’ll be able to shake it. We’ll actually fulfill the mitzvah in its original form. We’ll all take the Four Species on the first day, even if it falls on Shabbos, because in the time of the Geulah there will be no concern that we might commit any transgression. In the Beis Hamikdash alone—and according to the Rambam, throughout the city of Jerusalem—the Four Species will be taken on all seven days of the festival. By the way, this has a practical bearing even today. Many times, when the first day of Sukkos falls on Shabbos, some people say, “You can come and bind the Four Species after Shabbos. We don’t take the lulav on Shabbos anyway.” But we know that the Beis Hamikdash may be rebuilt speedily, and that is why the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, has the custom of arranging the Four Species before Shabbos, even when the first day of Sukkos falls on Shabbos. As we said, there are also halachic reasons for this—reasons unrelated to the Geulah—but there is also an explanation connected with the true and complete Geulah: so that if the Beis Hamikdash is rebuilt speedily, we’ll already have the Four Species ready. Of course, with Hashem’s help, we’ll merit to shake the Four Species in the true and complete Geulah. Then everyone may want the Four Species of Melech HaMoshiach, but in any case,

10:04 Speaker 2 each person will come with his own Four Species too. There is something else very interesting that is also connected with the true and complete Geulah. The mitzvah of sukkah in general has a prominent place in [unclear] of the Geulah. The Gemara relates that in the time of the Geulah, the nations of the world will come and ask to be given mitzvos too, because they also want to merit a reward. Hakadosh Boruch Hu will say to them: “You want mitzvos? No problem. I have an easy mitzvah, and its name is sukkah. Go and do it; let’s see you.” Each one immediately goes and makes himself a sukkah on his roof. Then Hakadosh Boruch Hu makes the sun blaze down on them, like the heat of Tammuz, and each one kicks his sukkah and leaves, as it says, “Let us break their bonds and cast their cords from us.” Immediately Hakadosh Boruch Hu sits and laughs at them, as it says, “He Who sits in the heavens laughs; Hashem mocks them.” Of this Rabbi Yitzchak said that Hakadosh Boruch Hu has no laughter in His world except on that day alone. They’ve only just asked for a mitzvah, and right away you see that they don’t fulfill it properly. Also, the mitzvah of sukkah was instituted in remembrance of the Clouds of Glory that surrounded the Jewish people in the desert. We know that the sukkah commemorates the Clouds of Glory. This is one of the things we should have in mind even today when we enter the sukkah: that we sit in it in remembrance of the Clouds of Glory with which Hakadosh Boruch Hu accompanied us when He took us out of Egypt. It is, in fact, a remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt. Those were the Clouds of Glory that accompanied us. It is written that in the true and complete Geulah, the manna, the pillar of cloud, and the well are all destined to return. The pillar of cloud is the Clouds of Glory, as it says, “They shall neither hunger nor thirst, nor shall heat or sun strike them.” That is written in the Book of Yeshayahu. “They shall neither hunger” refers to the manna; “nor

11:57 Speaker 2 thirst” refers to the well; and “nor shall heat or sun strike them” refers to the pillar of cloud. Targum Yonasan also says this about the verse “And everlasting joy shall be upon their heads”: “A cloud of glory shall rest upon their heads.” Now this special situation, in which we will all be surrounded by the Clouds of Glory in the true and complete Geulah, raises a certain halachic difficulty. How will we fulfill the mitzvah of sukkah? After all, if the Clouds of Glory are over us, we can’t sit beneath a sukkah, because we are already sheltered by the Clouds of Glory. How can you make a sukkah beneath a sukkah? This was also a question when the Jewish people were in the desert. How did they sit in a sukkah, and how did they build one? Would you say that they went out from under the Clouds of Glory and made a sukkah there? That doesn’t really fit.

12:45 Speaker 2 To leave the Clouds of Glory just to build a sukkah out of the waste of the threshing floor and winepress is extremely forced, as the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, shlita, says in the sicha of Parshas Tetzaveh 5767. So the Rebbe says that there may be two explanations, two possibilities. One possibility is that, because of the Clouds of Glory, people really will be exempt and won’t need to fulfill the mitzvah of sukkah in the ordinary sense, because they already have a sukkah. More than that, the Clouds of Glory themselves—as it says in the responsa Binyan Shlomo—may enable us to fulfill the mitzvah of sukkah. Why? Because you are sitting in a sukkah. A sukkah made of clouds has kosher s’chach, which grows from the earth. After all, clouds are described as “a mist rose from the earth.” All the laws we know about s’chach having to be kosher and made according to halachah are learned from the Clouds of Glory. You can look in Tractate Sukkah: it explains why s’chach must be something that cannot become ritually impure. We learn it from the Clouds of Glory, from “a mist rose from the earth.” So if the Clouds of Glory accompany the Jewish people, and they are less than twenty amos high—not too high—we can sit beneath the Clouds of Glory and recite the blessing “to dwell in the sukkah.” That itself can count as fulfilling the mitzvah of sukkah. The obligation would then be that from 15 Tishrei through 21 Tishrei, we must sit beneath the Clouds of Glory and eat and drink there as required. That is how they fulfilled the mitzvah of sukkah in the desert, and how we will fulfill it in the true and complete Geulah, immediately, right now. Another matter connected with the Geulah concerns the walls. A kosher sukkah must have walls, and there is a dispute about how many walls it needs. Rabbi Shimon’s view

14:43 Speaker 2 is that every sukkah must have four walls: three complete walls and one small wall. According to the Sages, two walls and a small third wall are enough, and that is the accepted halachah. But the book Ginzei Yosef says that although today the halachah follows the Sages, in the Geulah the halachah will change and follow Rabbi Shimon: three walls and a tefach of a fourth will be required. This idea—that in the future the halachah will follow Rabbi Shimon—is brought in several places, including the books Tiferes Shlomo and HaTorah VehaMitzvah. They explain that today the halachah does not follow Rabbi Shimon because he was such a great sage that others could not fully grasp his reasoning, so the halachah follows the majority. In the future, everyone will be very wise and will be able to rule in accordance with Rabbi Shimon’s view. So it follows that in the future, the halachah will require three walls and another, open fourth wall. This fits with what the Gemara says: this world is like a portico, and its northern side is not enclosed. In other words, the northern side is associated with kelipah. It says, “From the north, evil will open,” and “I will distance the northern one from you.” “The northern one” refers to the yetzer hara. Today that side is not protected, but of the future it says, “I will say to the north, ‘Give.’” The northern side, too, will come and assist in the Geulah, and so there will be a need for it. That is why today the halachah follows the Sages: three walls, one of them small—a total of three walls. In the future, by contrast, there will also be a fourth wall. “I will say to the north, ‘Give’”—even the yetzer hara will assist in the Geulah, and so there will be four walls. The sukkahs built then will therefore have four walls. There is another reason why the halachah in the Geulah will require four walls. By the way, even today, according to Chabad practice, Sefer Haminhagim says that we try to have four walls. Our custom now is to make four walls for a sukkah. Now

16:41 Speaker 2 There’s another reason why—what is the connection between four walls and the Geulah? It says that there are four exiles: the Babylonian exile, the Median exile, the Greek exile, and the exile of Edom. When a person enters a sukkah with three walls, he is expressing his gratitude to Hashem for taking us out of the Babylonian, Median, and Greek exiles. But what about the exile of Edom? We haven’t left it yet, so three walls are enough for us. In the future, we will leave the exile of Edom as well, and therefore there will be four walls. That is the reason given in the sefarim for the need for four walls. It is brought in the sefer Ginzei Yosef and elsewhere. According to this, we can also understand why the Gemara in Sukkah cites, as support for Rabbi Shimon’s view that four walls are needed, a verse about the complete Geulah: “And a sukkah shall provide shade by day from the heat, and a refuge and shelter from storm and rain.” From this he learns that four walls are needed: shade, refuge, shelter from storm, and shelter from rain. This verse in Yeshayahu speaks about the complete Geulah, and it fits with the fact that in the future Geulah, the halachah will indeed follow Rabbi Shimon’s view that there should be four walls. There is another connection between Sukkos and the Geulah. In many places, people give a blessing and express a wish—the Rebbe mentioned this several times too. The main mitzvah is to dwell in the sukkah on Sukkos, to eat and drink there, as it says, “You shall dwell in sukkos for seven days.” But we also express the wish for the future, as is brought in a number of sefarim—this isn’t part of Chabad custom, but it is said in many places—that we should merit to sit in a sukkah made from the skin of the Leviathan. This is stated in the Gemara: Hakadosh Boruch Hu will make a sukkah for the righteous from the skin of the Leviathan.

18:34 Speaker 2 As it says, “Can you fill his skin with sukkos?” Now, sitting in that sukkah made from the Leviathan’s skin will not necessarily be on Sukkos, nor will we fulfill the mitzvah of sukkah with it. Halachah requires us to sit specifically beneath s’chach from plant material—or, as we said, from something that grows from the ground, which is also valid s’chach—not from an animal. So the Leviathan’s sukkah will not be a kosher sukkah, and nowhere does it say that we will be able to fulfill the mitzvah of sukkah with it. Rather, the Leviathan’s sukkah will express the great revelation of G-dliness that will come in the future, when all the Jewish people will sit in one sukkah. Yes, “All who are native-born in Israel shall dwell in sukkos.” “Native-born” refers to the essence of the soul, to the bond that every Jew has. All the Jewish people together will be able to sit in sukkos, because on Sukkos there is a revelation that continues the revelation of Yom Kippur. On Yom Kippur, the essence of every Jew’s soul was revealed, and on Sukkos this will be expressed fully: it will be revealed that all the Jewish people are truly one. They sit together. So on Sukkos we reveal that unity that began on Yom Kippur, when the yechidah of every Jew’s soul was revealed. We take the four species—the lulav, hadassim, aravos, and esrog. These four species represent four kinds of Jews, and we bind them together. In the same way, we sit together in the sukkah, as it says, “All who are native-born in Israel shall dwell in sukkos.” It is said that in the future, all the Jewish people will sit in one sukkah. Today we don’t feel it, but in the true and complete Geulah, we really will feel it, and everyone will sit together in one sukkah. Why? Because the oneness within each

20:21 Speaker 2 and every person will be revealed—the essence of every Jew’s soul. And so everyone will unite and sit together in one sukkah, beneath a lofty and complete revelation of G-dliness that will be manifest in the true and complete Geulah. After all, we know that a sukkah is not just an ordinary structure. It is explained that it represents the encompassing lights of binah, a lofty level. That is why one must not do undignified things in a sukkah, and so on. A sukkah is holy. It is a revelation of the Clouds of Glory that accompanied us when we left Egypt. That revelation will encompass all the Jewish people together. All the Jewish people will sit in one sukkah—and most importantly, may we truly merit this immediately, in the complete Geulah, right now. We should note, although this is not directly about Sukkos, that it relates to Simchas Beis Hashoeivah. Simchas Beis Hashoeivah, too, took place in the past and will be experienced in its fullness in the true and complete Geulah. It is specifically a celebration with water. Why celebrate with water? Usually, joy is associated with the pouring of wine. “Wine gladdens the heart of man.” On Sukkos there is a special celebration with water—the water brought and poured on the altar. And it says, “Whoever did not see the rejoicing of Simchas Beis Hashoeivah never saw rejoicing in his life.” Why does it say that? Wine really does bring joy. But when does wine bring joy? When you want something enjoyable to drink, you drink wine. But there are times when you specifically need water. When a person is thirsty, he needs water, and nothing quenches his thirst like water. Likewise, Sukkos reveals the Jewish people’s thirst for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is why the water poured on the altar reveals the very greatest joy and brings a Jew

22:16 Speaker 2 to the very greatest joy. Why? Because here Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself is revealed, beyond all levels and beyond all the things we can understand intellectually. Here there is a revelation of Hakadosh Boruch Hu beyond intellect, beyond the ordinary reasoning through which we understand things—something far, far higher than anything we can imagine. And this will be experienced in its fullness. That is why it is experienced in its fullness in the Beis Hamikdash, at Simchas Beis Hashoeivah. And most importantly, may we merit this immediately, right now.