Sukkot – 2015

· It’s a Biblical obligation to live in a Succah for 7 days – to move out of our regular house with a strong roof and walls, a door that locks, and move into a flimsy shack with sticks for a roof.

· In the story of the 3 little pigs, the big bad wolf would just blow it right down.

· Why? – what’s a possible meaning behind the symbol of the Succah?

· One message might be that normally we feel safe and secure behind the strong structure – we’re well defended – and that in some ways we need to let down our walls, reduce the separation of the mechitzas

· This applies to both Bain Adam Le Makom (with Hashem), and Bain Adam Le Chavero (our fellow man)

· Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch talks about reducing the Mechitsas that separate us from Hashem.

· He mentions the Haftorah we read on Succos about the war of Gog and Magog

· He points out that Gog means roof – that the non-Jews trust in their roofs – we don’t need our roofs – we trust directly in Hashem – and that’s the significance of the flimsiness of the Schach, the roof of the Succah

· There is less Chatziza – separation - between us and Hashem.

· It actually feels that way – when we sit outside under the Schach, we feel closer to Hashem’s creation, we feel closer to Hashem – and we are more vulnerable

· We have to let down our defenses, and feel our vulnerability – our utter dependence on Hashem, and that brings us closer to Him

· This is also true with Bain Adam Le Chavero – our relationship to our fellow man

· Normally we are protected behind our strong walls and locked doors

· We move into a temporary house that can be knocked down with a baseball bat, without any locked door.

· This message is that we should let down our defenses against our fellow man – especially the defenseless – open our door and houses to them – to feel our vulnerability – to welcome them to our meal.

· In Parsha Re’eh – Dvarim 16:14 –Ve Samachta Bechagecha – you are to rejoice on your festival…with your son and your daughter … and the orphan and the widow”.

· Rambam (Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Yom Tov, 6:18) When a person eats and drinks, he is obligated to feed and give drink to the … orphans, widows and other despondent, poor people. Anyone who closes the doors of his home, feeding only his family but not the poor and depressed has not attained the joy of performing a mitzvah, but only of stuffing his stomach.

· Yishiyahu – Haftorah on Yom Kippur – “This is the fast I desire...It is to share your bread with the hungry, and to take the wretched poor into your home...Then shall your light burst through like the dawn”

· So a message of the thin walls and open door of the Succah is that we should reduce the Mechitzas, the separation – between us and our fellow man – especially those in need, physically and psychologically,

· We must welcome them into our Succot, our table, our hearts

· Share with them our food and our Simcha, rejoice with them,

· Don’t be aloof from them from behind the security of our house’s walls.

· So a message of the Succah is that we should reduce our mechitzas – between us and Hashem and other people

· But there’s a very real problem with this idea

· We actually learn from Messechet Succah – 51b – the importance of Mechitsas – where we learn the requirement for having Mechitsas in a shul

· The Gemarah talks about the Simchat Bais Hashoaiva, that there was Kalas Rosh – light headedness – between men and women, so that they had to build a balcony for the women – so that the men and woman would not mingle with each other

· So this lesson is the opposite – we have to strengthen, build up our mechitsas

· We also know the importance of the Mechitsas of Hallachah – we are ruled not by our feelings – even if it’s compassion – we must be ruled by the walls of Halachah

· Hallachah forms a mechitsa between what is mutter and what is usser – and we have to constantly strengthen those mechitzas

· Chagiga 13 says that at one point the world was flooding with water – water represents Taiva, desire. The world was about to be destroyed – when Hashem said Dai, enough! – Then the Mechittsas of dry land appeared.  This put boundaries on the water by having dry land – these Mechitsas allowed the world to exist

· So wch way is it?

· Should we reduce our Mechitsas – as represented by the Schach and our flimsy succah walls –

· Or should we build up and strengthen our Mechtsas – as represented by the Mechitsas in shul and the importance of following Halachah?

· The answer, of course, is both

· It depends on the situation

· We have to know when Mechitsas are required, and when they get in the way

· This takes great Chachma

· So much of Judaism is this way – depending on the situation.

· For example, cooking on Friday afternoon for Shabbos is a Mitzvah

· A few hours later, on Shabbos – it is Chayiv the death penalty

· Another example is Yevamos

· The issur of Ashes Ach – brother’s wife – is Chayiv Korase

· But when the brother dies without children, living with the brother’s wife is a Mitzvah

· So there’s a tension between the two sides –

· Sometimes Mechitzas are good, sometimes bad

· This dualism is shown clearly in the first Mishnah of Messechet Shabbos

· The Mishnah describes an Ani, a poor person, knocking on your door on Shabbos

· What’s he asking for – not money, it’s Shabbos

· Obviously he’s hungry, and doesn’t even have enough food for his Shabbos meal, for him and his family

· The Mussar of this Mishnah is that even though your heart goes out for the Ani, the issur of carrying from domain to doman – from the Reshus Hayachid of your home to the Reshus Harabim where the Ani is – makes it totally prohibited to give him food

· You have all this delicious food in your house, and you want to give the food to the poor person

· But you can’t pass the food to him

· The requirements of Hallachah is paramount – the hallachah can’t be discarded because of compassion –

· You cannot pass the food to the poor person to bring back to his family – Hallacha absolutely prohibits it – Compassion cannot overrule Hallacha!

· But the message does not stop there

· What are you going to do?

· You can’t turn the Ani away without food – It’s Shabbos – how could you send him away empty handed to sit with his family without food at their Shabbos table?

· There is only one solution.

· You can tell the Ani to go back and get his family, and JOIN YOU AT YOUR TABLE FOR THE SHABBOS MEAL

· As a result of the Hallachah, you can’t just give him the food and go back to your family at the Shabbos table

· Halacha encourages you to invite him and his family into your home to share your Shabbos meal!

· It is crucial for us to understand which Metchitsas are to remain strong like steel

· And which Mechitsas need to be reduced – such as those that separate us from Hashem and from those who are needy – as symbolized by the Succah