Very Special Time to Daven for Children

The Incredible Moment of Binding the Lulav to Pray For Righteous Children {Sukkos}

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The Satan Still Off Between Yom Kippur & Sukkos - The Great Revelation of Rav Yonasan Eibeshutz

Eliezer Meir Saidel – Seasonal Bread – Sukkot

Each of the שְׁלֹשֶׁת הָרְגָלִים have their own "seasonal bread". The special bread for Pesach is obviously – matza. The special bread for Shavuot is the Shtei HaLechem, a special korban of two loaves made from the newly harvested wheat.

 

Sukkot also has its own seasonal bread. No, it is not pita, the ubiquitous bread everyone eats while out on tiyulim during Chol HaMoed. The special bread of Sukkot is none other than … the Lechem HaPanim.

 

Lechem HaPanim? Sukkot? Lechem HaPanim was made every week in the Beit HaMikdash, not only on Sukkot. So, what does the Lechem HaPanim have to do with Sukkot specifically?

 

No other bread more embodies Sukkot than the Lechem HaPanim, as we will soon see.

 

On Sukkot there are numerous mitzvot – Sukkah, the אַרְבַּעַת הַמִּינִים, Simcha (זְמַן שִׂמְחָתֵנוּ).

 

 Let us examine each of these in turn and we will discover that they apply equally to Sukkot as to the Lechem HaPanim.

 

Firstly, the mitzva of Sukkah. The ideal Sukkah has four walls and סְכָךְ above. Incredibly, the Lechem HaPanim on the Shulchan are "sitting in a Sukkah!". The two stacks of breads are flanked by four "snipim", uprights, that support them from the sides. 

On top of the Lechem HaPanim is סְכָךְ ! You don't believe me? Look at the passuk. The Lechem HaPanim are covered from above by half pipes called מְנַקִּיֹּת, as it says in the passuk וּמְנַקִּיֹּתָיו אֲשֶׁר יֻסַּךְ בָּהֵן ... (שמות כה, כט). Rashi on that passuk says שֶׁהָיוּ עָלָיו כְּמִין סְכָךְ.

 

Why do the Lechem HaPanim sit on the Shulchan, like we sit … in a Sukkah? (true the materials to make the walls and the סְכָךְ are different, but the configuration is identical).

 

The reason is because the Sukkah and the Lechem HaPanim achieve the same purpose. By us leaving the comfort of our homes, going outside to sit in a ramshackle Sukkah and placing our bitachon in HKB"H, we are מַמְתִּיק אֶת הַדִּין, we move HKB"H from מִדַּת הַדִּין to מִדַּת הָרַחֲמִים. Similarly, the Lechem HaPanim on the Shulchan, symbolizing our bitachon that HKB"H is the Provider of all our parnasa, is מַמְתִּיק אֶת הַדִּין.

 

The next mitzva is אַרְבַּעַת הַמִּינִים. What does the Lechem HaPanim have to do with the אַרְבַּעַת הַמִּינִים? Each loaf of Lechem HaPanim is made from 2 isaron measures of solet. שְׁנֵי עֶשְׂרֹנִים in gematria is "אֶתְרוֹג לוּלָב הֲדַס וַעֲרָבָה". However, that is not all. 

The Arava resembles a mouth – so too does the Lechem HaPanim resemble a smiling mouth. The Hadasim resemble eyes – so too do the two bowls of Levonah resemble eyes. The Lulav resembles the spine – so to do the upright "snipim" flanking the Lechem HaPanim resemble vertebrae of a spine. 

The Etrog resembles the heart – so too does the Shulchan represent the "heart" of the Korban Lechem HaPanim, it is like the tree that bears the "fruit" (the loaves of bread) and comes to atone for the עֵץ הַדַּעַת. According to one opinion the עֵץ הַדַּעַת was an Etrog.

 

But it does not end there. The אַרְבַּעַת הַמִּינִים symbolize the different groups in Am Yisrael, all held together in one "bundle", representing unity. Similarly, the 12 loaves of Lechem HaPanim, symbolizing the Twelve Tribes, all sit together in perfect unity on the Shulchan.

 

The next mitzva is Simcha. Just as Sukkot is called זְמַן שִׂמְחָתֵנוּ, so too is the Lechem HaPanim the embodiment of Simcha. Each loaf of Lechem HaPanim is shaped like a smiling mouth. The primary underlying lesson of the Lechem HaPanim is אֵיזֶהוּ עָשִׁיר הַשָּׂמֵחַ בְּחֶלְקוֹ.

 

This last mitzva is worth exploring more in depth, because from the Lechem HaPanim we can learn exactly what type of Simcha we need to exhibit on Sukkot in order to fulfil the mitzva.

 

The Shulchan's dimensions are 1 amah wide, by 2 amot long, by 1½ amot high. Why is the height a fractional (incomplete) measurement, while the others are integers (complete)? Meir Panim says that this comes to teach us that in our business dealings we need to be completely and "integrally" honest (the gematria of שֻׁלְחָן is "צֶדֶק צֶדֶק" - the length and width). 

However, when we accumulate wealth (the height), this is an incomplete  measure, because we are required to be שָׂמֵחַ בְּחֶלְקֵנוּ, with what we have, even though it is incomplete. In other words, the Simcha of the Lechem HaPanim is not totally complete.

 

Let us now examine Sukkot. There is no chag more conducive to Simcha than Sukkot. On Pesach we are under stress because HKB"H judges us on the grain produce. Similarly, on Shavuot, HKB"H judges us on the fruits of the trees. 

On Sukkot, however, there is no stress. We have already harvested all the grains (barley in spring, wheat and flax in summer). We have already harvested all the fruit of the trees (and preserved them for the winter by drying, pickling, etc.) 

Our pantries and storehouses are filled to the brim. We have worked hard the entire year - harvesting grains, picking fruits and just prior to Sukkot - planting seeds for the next year's crop and pruning the trees. From Sukkot to Pesach there is no work to be done. We can put our feet up and rest easy.

 

If HKB"H wanted to make our Simcha complete, He could say "You have worked hard. Your sins have been cleansed on Yom Kippur - you are all now complete tzaddikim. I will reward you with a perfect chag. 

Enjoy the fruits of your labor in the comfort of your homes, your comfortable living rooms, your comfortable beds, your comfortable dining room suite, air conditioning on a hot day, shelter if it rains, etc. You deserve it!"

 

But davka on Sukkot, instead of that HKB"H says "You are feeling pretty good about yourselves right now, but I want you to leave the comfort of your home and go live outside for seven days. No lounge suites, no Sealy Posturepedic mattresses, no comfortable dining room chairs and table, no aircon and holes in the roof that the rain can fall through. 

I want you to sit on shaky plastic chairs, crunched up altogether, with your mother in law's elbow in your ribs, with the sun blasting down on the walls of the Sukkah giving you a free sauna, with mosquitos, flies and bees buzzing over your food, and biting you at night while you sleep. I do not want you to have (what you consider) perfect Simcha!"

 

HKB"H says "I want you to be in the Sukkah for seven days, just like the Lechem HaPanim is on the Shulchan for seven days. Just before Shabbat, the Kohanim go into the Heichal and remove the pipes from on top of the Lechem HaPanim in the Heichal on the Shulchan – they remove the "סְכָךְ". 

On Shabbat day the Lechem HaPanim are switched with fresh loaves, which are also placed on the Shulchan without the pipes, without the "סְכָךְ". Only after Shabbat goes out, do the Kohanim go back into the Heichal and put the pipes back on the breads and the breads sit the entire week on the Shulchan under the "סְכָךְ". 

Meir Panim says - this is what the passuk means וּשְׂפוּנֵי טְמוּנֵי חוֹל (דברים לג, יט) in Moshe's blessing to Zevulun in parshat וְזֹאת הַבְּרָכָה. The loaves of Lechem HaPanim are shaped like ships סְפִינָה רוֹקֶדֶת, "dancing" ships (שְׂפוּנֵי), "buried" (טְמוּנֵי) under the pipes, the "סְכָךְ", during the days of the week (חוֹל).

 

There is a reason it is called a סְפִינָה רוֹקֶדֶת. The ship is "dancing", because it is not in calm waters, it is in stormy seas. Physically, the Lechem HaPanim are in "perilous waters" during the week. They are exposed to the elements and the laws of nature. However, miraculously, they emerge at the tails end intact. They defy nature and at the end of the week are as fresh and warm as a week ago, when they were baked.

 

How is this possible? It is because of Shabbat. On Shabbat, when the cycle begins, there is bracha. The bracha of Shabbat permeates the Lechem HaPanim and protects it for the entire week until the next Shabbat, as it says in the Zohar כָּל בִּרְכָּאן דִּלְעֵילָא וְתָתָא בְּיוֹמָא שְׁבִיעָאָה תַּלְיָן (זֹהר, ח"ב פ"ח ע"א).

 

Similarly on Sukkot. Just prior to Sukkot we have "Shabbat", in other words Yom Kippur, which is called שַׁבַּת שַׁבָּתוֹן (ויקרא כג, לב). On Yom Kippur we receive a bracha and are cleansed of our sins, so that we enter Sukkot squeaky clean and pure. 

It is this bracha that sustains us the seven days of Sukkot, out in the middle of the elements, exposed to the laws of nature, so that we emerge at the end (Simchat Torah) as clean and pure as when we entered so that we can celebrate the Torah the right way.

 

If we think only of the physical, then the Sukkah is not a "perfect" Simcha. If HKB"H wanted us to have perfect physical Simcha, he would have left us indoors for the duration of Sukkot. HKB"H is teaching us – there is no perfect physical Simcha! The Simcha of this physical world is, by definition, incomplete, unperfect and fleeting. Similarly, with the Lechem HaPanim, HKB"H is teaching us that there is no perfect physical wealth, it is never complete.

 

There is only one kind of Simcha/wealth that is complete and lasting and that is a spiritual Simcha/wealth.

 

Why is Sukkot 5 days after Yom Kippur? Why do we not celebrate Sukkot in Nisan, in memory of the Sukkot that Am Yisrael dwelled in when they left Egypt? This is a question Chazal ask and the answer is that HKB"H planned it in Tishrei, because in Nisan (spring/summer) people go outside into Sukkot anyway to cool down from the heat (in the days before air conditioners). 

Sitting in Sukkot in Nisan, people might think that it is because we want to keep cool. Placing Chag Sukkot in Tishrei, when it already begins to rain, it is obvious that we are doing it because HKB"H told us, and not because we want to keep cool.

 

However, the real reason why Sukkot is after Yom Kippur is because in order to appreciate the perfection of this perfect spiritual Simcha, we need to be completely clean and pure, which we are – only after Yom Kippur. The "neshama yeteira" of Yom Kippur accompanies us for the seven days out in the Sukkah, like after Shabbat it accompanies the Lechem HaPanim on the Shulchan during the week.

 

The lesson of Sukkot is that the Simcha is spiritual and not physical. If we focus on the spiritual – that we are sitting בְּצִלָּא דִּמְהֵימְנוּתָא, like we are in a Beit HaMikdash mamash, surrounded by HKB"H's Shechina and the Ushpizin, then mosquitos, shaky chairs and mother in-laws' elbows are a non-issue.

 

This brings us to Simchat Torah and how can we possibly celebrate Simchat Torah fully this year, in the aftermath of this past year?

 

What a test it is for us that HKB"H gave us this year on the same day, a joyous celebration of the Torah and the trauma of last year's Simchat Torah massacre. How does one deal with such a day?

 

The answer is above.

 

Many confuse Simcha with dancing, loud music and abandon. To be sure, that is one part of the Simcha. If you have ever been to a dati wedding, you have that in spades. Loud music (most times too loud), youngsters bouncing up and down (as if they had springs in their feet), spinning around furiously and never getting dizzy.

 

But at a wedding there is also another kind of Simcha, the kind you find davka at the chuppah. At the chuppah, it is much more subdued – music is low key, soft and emotional. The parents leading the chatan and kallah up to the chuppah, the kallah circling the chatan seven times.

 

I would like to suggest that the Simcha at the chuppah is of a much higher level than the subsequent Simcha on the dance floor. It is a more spiritual type of Simcha. I believe this is the kind of Simcha HKB"H intended that we have on Sukkot and on Simchat Torah, a Simcha that embodies גִּלּוּ בִּרְעָדָה.

 

On Sukkot, in the Beit HaMikdash the entertainment was not provided by the yeshiva bochrim and the loud band, it was provided by the Gedolei HaDor, like Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel juggling eight torches of fire, Abayei juggling eight eggs, without a single one ever breaking, etc. (Sukkah 53a). Davka the Gedolei HaDor, because only they knew the true meaning of spiritual Simcha and that is what Simchat Beit HaShoeva was – the greatest Simcha imaginable.

 

 Modern Simchat Torah celebrations have deviated from that type of Simcha and more resemble the dance floor at a wedding.

I believe this year HKB"H is telling us to return to the Simcha of Simchat Beit HaShoeva, in the Mikdash - a less raucous Simcha, a more spiritual Simcha, the kind we experience in the Sukkah and the kind that pervaded on the Shulchan Lechem HaPanim. גִּלּוּ בִּרְעָדָה.

 

There is one more important lesson the Shulchan Lechem HaPanim teaches us about Sukkot, that relates to the atmosphere in the Sukkah.

 

The word שֻׁלְחָן in gematria is זֶה שָׁלוֹם. In order for Simcha to permeate the Shulchan (and the Sukkah) there must be peace. All twelve loaves of Lechem HaPanim (representing the Twelve Tribes) were huddled together on the Shulchan and there was perfect peace between them. No fighting in the Sukkah, no anger, no complaining, no resentment - only smiles.

 

In the haftara of Sukkot (Zecharia 14), we read about Gog and Magog and the era of Mashiach. Nothing could be more appropriate this year - it is like reading the daily news on CNN.

 

HKB"H gave a huge "klap" last Simchat Torah, but כָּל מָאן דְּעָבֵד רַחֲמָנָא לְטָב עָבֵד, everything HKB"H does is for our ultimate benefit. He lets us fall so that we will pick ourselves up and reach higher heights than we ever imagined we could reach. בבי"א.

 

Chag Sameach

 

Eliezer Meir Saidel

Machon Lechem Hapanim

www.machonlechemhapanim.org

Reb Ginsbourg: Sukkot: Shemini Atzeret (2023)

SUKKOT:  On the third day, schach was created!

Had it not been for the seeming ‘failure’ of the earth to comply with Hashem’s words when trees were created, we could not have had schach!

On Shemini Atzeret, אם ירצה ה׳, we will again read Parashat Breishit, commencing with the wondrous relation of the Creation of this world. We will read that on the third day:(1:11-13):’G-d said: Let the earth sprout vegetation: herbage yielding seed fruit trees yielding fruit..And it was so. And the earth brought forth vegetation: ..trees yielding fruit..And G-d saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.’

Rashi alerts us to the ‘difference’ between the words of G-d, and the latter part of the passuk: G-d said: ‘fruit trees yielding fruit’; however, as we read, the earth brought forth ‘trees yielding fruit’.

He accordingly comments:’’Fruit trees’: That the taste of the tree should be like the taste of the fruit. The earth however did not do so, but gave forth ‘trees yielding fruit’ but the trees themselves were not fruit. Therefore when man was cursed because of his transgression, the earth too was punished’.

What a wondrous passage! And yet, had it not been for the seeming ‘failure’ of the earth to comply with Hashem’s words, we could not have had schach!

And, to sweeten the conundrum, why then, as we read, did G-d see ‘that it was good’?

To suggest an answer to this, let us first recall the teaching of our Sages:’’Six things were created before the creation of this world..Rabbi Ahva the son of Rabbi Zeira said: Teshuva also.’

The ‘need’ for Teshuva to be created, if we might be permitted to suggest, is found in the words of the wisest man of all, Shlomo Hamelech:(Kohelet 7:20):’For there is no man so wholly righteous on earth that he always does good and never sins.’

Armed with these understandings, let us know attempt to better understand our psukim.

Our Sages have taught us of the great chesed of Teshuva, that one who does teshuvah out of love of Hashem, is singularly rewarded, his very transgressions being deemed as merits. The ‘simple’ basis for this is, that these transgressions were the ‘cause’ for his teshuva, which is so precious in Hashem’s eyes.

Here, you ask: What does this have to do with the creation of schach on the third day of Creation?

Simply stated, had the trees remained as ‘fruit trees bearing fruit’, there would be no schach!

Fruit, as it can ‘receive impurity’: is מקבל טומאה, is invalid as schach- kosher schach, as our Sages teach, must be from פסולת גורן ויקב: the ‘waste of the granary and of the vines- the detached branches of this produce.

Therefore, the trees, by being ‘bearing fruit’- but not fruit themselves - brought into the world, kosher schach!

We can now savor the beautiful insight of Rav Azriel Tauber:’Had Adam Harishon not transgressed, it would have not been possible to perform the Mitzvah of dwelling in the succah, as there would not have been in existence kosher schach! Further, there would also not have been Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, as the exalted level of ‘in the place where baa’lei teshuvah stand, the most righteous can ot stand’.

‘Now, as we sit in our succah, we cast our eyes upwards, gazing at our schach, and reflect: this schach is the ‘waste’, the direct product of ALL transgressions, dating back to Adam Harishon; and yet, it, because of the wonderful chesed of teshuvah, merits that we now dwell in the holy succah, in the shade of the Shechina!’.

And this, to my humble mind, is what was ‘good in the eyes of Hashem’, before Whom all is known, and all of whose thoughts, as David Hamelech exalted, are for us, his children.

Rabbi Winston: Parashas Zos HaBrochah - Chazak!

Dedicated in loving memory of Naomi Bat Chorshid, a”h. A modest person, may her Neshamah have aliyah after aliyah and may she be a meilitz yoshar for all of Klal Yisroel especially at this time of need of the Jewish people. Shimon and Channah Kedar

THE END OF the Torah also means the end of Moshe Rabbeinu’s life. Everyone knows that he was a great person, but it is worth adding a few more words about just how great he was.

Everything about Moshe Rabbeinu since birth pointed to a special relationship with the Ohr HaGanuz, with which all miracles and redemptions occur. That was the supernal light that God created on Day One of Creation and then hid for the righteous in the future. The Gemora says:

It is written here [regarding the birth of Moshe], “She saw that he was good” (Shemos 2:2), and it is written there [regarding the creation of the Ohr HaGanuz], “God saw the light, that it was good” (Bereishis 1:4). (Sotah 12a)

As the Gemora says:

The Chachamim say that when Moshe was born the entire house filled with light. (Sotah 12a)

Kabbalah goes into more detail:

The level of Moshe Rabbeinu was…from the Ohr HaGanuz itself. (Drushei Olam HaTohu, Chelek 2, Drush 5, Siman 2, Anaf 12, Os 2)

This means that from birth Moshe was a conduit for the original light of Creation. Physically born to Amram, the Torah leader of his generation, and Yocheved his wife, his soul was from a very high level in the sefiros. This made him unique from the start:

Fifty gates of understanding were created in the world, and all of them were given to Moshe except for one. (Rosh Hashanah 21b)

Not surprisingly, Moshe Rabbeinu was born exactly thirty-six years after the slavery in Egypt began. His very life was a revelation of this hidden light, something that is always represented by the number thirty-six. And being the channel for the Ohr HaGanuz:

The Torah was given through him, as well as all Torah insights for all time. (Drushei Olam HaTohu, Chelek 2, Drush 5, Siman 2, Anaf 12, Os 2)

It is very difficult to comprehend how a person can know so much, especially knowledge that will only be revealed in the future. Then again, Moshe Rabbeinu had been able to enter Heaven while still alive and, speak with God and angels without dying. He was the greatest prophet to have ever lived.

“Happy is the nation with such a portion” (Tehillim 144:15). [The word for “portion” is spelled] Shin-Chof-Chof-Heh [and] is equal in gematria to “Moshe.” (Drushei Olam HaTohu, Chelek 2, Drush 5, Siman 2, Anaf 12, Os 2)

On a simple level, Dovid HaMelech refers to God and the special relationship the Jewish people have with Him. On a deeper level, it refers to Moshe Rabbeinu who helped build and maintain that special relationship, in his generation and for the rest of time:

Rebi Yosi son of Rebi Chanina said that Torah was only given to Moshe and his descendants, as it says, “Write for yourself” (Shemos 34:27), and “Hew for yourself” (Shemos 34:1). [It is as if to say,] “Just as the [leftover] shavings [from the hewing of the second tablets] are yours [Moshe], so too is the writing yours.” Moshe however acted generously and gave it to the Jewish people… (Nedarim 38a)

The purpose of Creation is the ultimate pleasure in the World to Come. But the pleasure of the World to Come can only be earned through the learning of Torah and the performance of mitzvos, regarding which it says:

For this commandment which I command you today is not hidden from you, nor is it far away. It is not in Heaven, that you can say, “Who shall go up to the Heaven and bring it to us, and let us hear it that we can do it?” (Devarim 30:11)

But once it was. Once the Torah was very far away from us, while the obligation to keep it remained. It was Moshe Rabbeinu who changed that when he went up to Heaven and brought the Torah down for us. We owe our access to the World to Come to him. Had we not abused him, then we would have owed the final redemption to him as well:

Had the Jewish people not sinned Moshe would have entered the land and would have returned the world to the level of perfection of before the sin [of Adam HaRishon, the level of the Garden of Eden]. (Drushei Olam HaTohu, Chelek 2, Drush 5, Siman 2, Anaf 12, Os 2) 

Thus, though Moshe Rabbeinu’s body was of a humbler origin, his soul came from the loftiest of spiritual heights. This made him like no other man on earth, as God Himself testified:

The humblest of all men on the face of the earth. (Bamidbar 12:3)

Furthermore, unlike other prophets, Moshe was able to speak to God face-to-face, and while conscious. God also spoke to Moshe clearly, and not in a riddle like He did with the rest of the prophets. That may sound simple, but the same amount of exposure to God’s light would have immediately killed anyone else.

Moshe Rabbeinu is called Ish Elokim—Man of God. Others have earned this title, but only because they reached a certain level of righteousness. With respect to Moshe Rabbeinu, it meant more: 

If Elohim, then why ish; if ish then why Elohim? Rebi Avin said: From halfway down, [he was an] ish, but from halfway up, [he was an] Elohim. (Devarim Rabbah 11:14).

In fact, if Moshe had erred, it was in being too zealous to complete God’s purpose for Creation. But it led to one of the most catastrophic decisions ever made, the addition of the Erev Rav. For this reason, Moshe Rabbeinu has to reincarnate in every generation to rectify them. Moshiach only does his thing once Moshe has done his. In fact, they will be, in the end, one and the same person. Chazak!

Gmar Tov,
Pinchas Winston