Rabbi Males commented during his shier, that Sukkos occurs at the time it does because we want to remember that good times come from Hashem. One of the reasons we shake the lulav in 6 directions, east, west, north, south, up and down, to remind us that Hashem is everywhere within the space of our world.
We discussed the mitzvot of Succos, from the Shulchan Aruch. It is a mitzvah to dwell in a succos, but only for things which are pure, so we still use the restroom in our homes, for example. We also do not use the succos as a kitchen, however we may barbecue a meal in the sukkos if it is not a fire hazard. It is very desirable to have meals in the sukkos. And weather permitting, it is desirable to sleep in the succos.
We discussed what we should be thinking of as we dwell in the succos. We want to think of our ancestors who wandered in the desert living in huts but were protected by Hashem. We want to realize that Hashem is our ultimate protection. And we want to have gratitude for the things we have in life, such as our homes and shelter. This as well as everything else, ultimately comes from Hashem. We want to enjoy this holiday, and dwelling in the succos with family and friends.
We discussed some exceptions to the mitzvah of dwelling in the succos. Anything that is a fire hazard, such as having lights in the succos, should not be done. If the weather is bad, for example if there is a thunderstorm, we not only can, but we should move indoors. In harsh climates, we skip sleeping in the sukkos. A husband and wife may sleep indoors, if they would like privacy from the rest of the family. We discussed if the succos is really small, we may have to take turns being in the succos.
Harold Katz, a regular reader of these notes, commented that the weather has been very nice this year which enables us to do more dwelling in the succos. We have not experienced rains or very cold temperatures.
We discussed how Hashem can reward us, and help us, if we do our part to follow his Torah and perform the mitzvot. David has shared thoughts in the past about how if we want divine intervention we must do our part. We discussed how the Torah refers to these rewards as “rain for your crops”. We discussed how we interpret “rain for our crops” in a much broader sense, to mean help for whatever business we are in, and for whatever our goals are in our life in general.
We discussed how the Torah refers to us when we are being “punished”, as having our “rains withheld”. My thoughts based on our past learnings, are that Hashem may actually not punish us, he just doesn’t help us, and we end up living life on our own.
Howard brought up a very interesting question for discussion, as to why we can be so severely punished for sins which were committed many generations ago. We discussed specific examples of people under- going extreme suffering having done nothing to warrant such treatment. And of course, we are all facing the consequences of what happened in the Garden of Eden with respect to eating the forbidden fruit, which is a sin that none of us from this generation committed. Rob shared a thought that it was up to each generation to do as well as it could, which would result in the sins of prior generations having diminishing effect as we go through time.
My thoughts are that even if we are destined to have harsh conditions based on factors outside of our control, we should focus on what is in our control and do the best we can with that. I think of kids born into terrible families, with poverty and absentee parents who don’t care. These kids are not going to have as much as kids growing up in better homes, but they do have some control over their lives based on decisions they make. We have also discussed the virtuous response to suffering, in previous learnings. But having said all this, I think this is a very hard question to answer when the suffering is very extreme, and was not warranted by someone’s actions. We should continue discussing this.
We discussed parsha Haazinu, and how Moshe communicates a prophecy through a song. Rob commented how Moshe was asked to do three things, speak, write things down, and put words in our own mouths. We discussed how the prophecy foretells that we will sin and be dispersed from our land.
We discussed a very interesting question, which is how these things can be foretold, in particular sins and punishment, while at the same time we have free will. Rob suggested a possible answer in that there are so many of us, that it is inevitable that we will not all make perfect decisions. None of us are hashem, so none of us are perfect. It makes sense to be reminded that we will always have room to grow because none of us will ever be perfect.
Howard brought up a very interesting question, as to why during our recent Yom Kippur service we confess sins and ask for foregiveness during Maariv, seconds after having already done this in a previous Yom Kippur prayer. Rob commented that perhaps the reason is that we had the sin of wanting the Yom Kippur service to be over as quickly as possible so that we could eat. Howard commented that we were created to have hunger, so this does not make sense. Perhaps, our sin isn’t being hungry, but wanting the Yom Kippur service to be over as a solution to our hunger. I am not sure we answered this question.
This is a summary of what we discussed. No halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred.
No comments:
Post a Comment