Rebbetzen Tziporah – Enveloped in His Light

 

Enveloped in His Light

Dear friends,

What an amazing joyous holiday Succos is. Even after last year’s horrors, the inner message of what simchah is remains with you. The Talmud says, “There is no joy like the resolution of doubt”. 

The combination of this year’s out and out miracles together with a war that has no real end in sight that began with atrocities that echo the holocaust, and most bizarre of all, the unspeakable deaths of a thousand noncombatants and the kidnapping of hundreds more, led to a worldwide rise in anti-Semitism.  

The stories of absolutely unbelievable miracles ranging from the fact that thousands of missiles fell without any of us facing death. The first time an attack was made, my husband and I went to the interior lobby of our building as we were instructed to do. 

A girl who was staying over, looked out from the window of her room which faced an open porch. She saw the mixture of vicious brutality and surreal beauty as the sky lit up with hundreds of messengers of destruction. What all of this tells you is that we are far from alone.

The succah surrounds you with Hashem’s presence. In the desert it was tangible. The seven clouds of glory that surrounded them were visible, which changed everything. Hashem can be seen in your heart, (to quote Orchot Tzadikim), but not with your eyes. 

Hashem is always in response to you. He knows your inner life, your challenges, and your successes and failures. He judges you as you are, and from that perspective has far more compassion than you will ever have. He sheds His light wherever you let it in. He does the same thing for the rest of us, and for every other person in the world. 

There is another way in which He lets His light reach you. It is called Makif, or encompassing light. It’s there because it’s there, and is not related to your choices. Humans long for good, and the good and light that we are all drawn to is there just because Hashem surrounds all reality with His light. 

In general, the mitzvos that we do relate to the specifics of life, time, place, objects, abilities etc. There are two mitzvot that surround us; they envelope us without our doing anything to bring them in. One is succah, and the other one is being in Eretz Yisrael. You are surrounded with His light whether or not you are aware of it.

 

Who do I mean when I say “you”?

It’s hinted in the 4 species that we take on Succos.

 

To those of you who are like the lulav, who live to connect your minds to your bodies and thrive off the process of rational interpretation of life,

To those who are like the hadassim, shaped like eyes, who live to explore Hashem’s world, examine possibilities and to discover,

To those of you who are like the aravot, shaped like lips, who live to communicate and build verbal bridges,

To those of you who are like Etrog, which is shaped like the heart, who live to make every moment one in which they are bringing vitality and life to others.

You are all in Hashem’s image and are surrounded by His light.

 

Love,

Tziporah