Dvar Torah for Sukkot

“…the Sukkot festival, the time of our simcha (cheerfulness, joy, happiness)….” (Sukkot liturgy)

“What's the point? Why are we alive?” Very few people ask these questions. Even fewer come up with the correct answer. Why is this so?

Why are we so distant from Hashem (God)? Why don't we bestir ourselves to do more? (By “more” I don't mean the little more that we can't deny that we ought to do, but the significant more, the ratcheting up of our focus on the purpose of life that automatically leads to improved mitzvah-performance.) It's because we don't have yishuv hadaat (equanimity). We are tempted almost constantly, by the body's cravings or by the ego's lusts. The yearning of the real “I”, the soul (Likutey Moharan I, #21), if it is heard at all, is hardly considered an option, let alone a temptation.

Our lack of yishuv hadaat means that we choose incorrectly so often that the spiritual—God Himself!—recedes further and further into the background of our thinking, sometimes beyond the vanishing point. If we had yishuv hadaat we would be able to sift through our options, discard the worthless temptations and live right. With yishuv hadaat we would remember our purpose in life and our potential destiny.

But from where, from where, will come my yishuv hadaat? Simcha. Only from the vantage point of simcha can one view life correctly and perceive the (de)merits of what the components of Creation have to offer. This is because a happy mind is a free mind. (Conversely, a sad mind is a mind in exile.) A happy mind is one that the *real* you can direct as it truly wants.

Rebbe Nachman writes that immediately upon one's committing oneself to being a better Yid (Jew), it is a sin to be sad (Likutey Moharan II, #48). We have just experienced the Ten Days of Repentance in which even the most estranged Yiddish soul feels some stirring of longing for holiness. On the heels of these days comes the festival of Sukkot, “the time of our simcha.” The Tikuney Zohar (#21, p. 59a) teaches: One making the festival pilgrimage must be on guard against sadness, whose name is Lilith, despair….

On Sukkot, though we are not kings, we have much about which to be cheerful. From the spiritual side, we have been cleansed of our sins and given a new chance to succeed. From the physical side we are commanded—commanded!—to enscone ourselves in the sukkah by eating, drinking and sleeping there, as comfortably as in our homes. From this happy perch we can appreciate and recognize the truth of King Shlomo's (Solomon) work, Kohelet (Ecclesiastes).

King Shlomo had it all. He was rich, powerful, intelligent. He lacked nothing. King Shlomo explored and examined all possible purposes of life: wealth, pleasures of the flesh, wisdom, power, fame, etc. His conclusion: Utter futility! All is futile (Ecclesiastes 1:2)! After all is said and done: Fear God and keep the mitzvot. This is the purpose of mankind (ibid. 12:13). This is the target of our yishuv hadaat.

How does one achieve simcha? One of the best ways is to thank God for His gifts, in particular the gift of having been chosen and allowed to provide Him with the pleasure of doing mitzvot. Even if most of your mitzvot are shoddy, a mitzvah that you did “accidentally”—almost without being aware that you were doing it, that you didn't have a chance to spoil—is a mitzvah that you can be happy with. If that doesn't work, doing anything within the bounds of halacha is legitimate: eat a piece of cake, stand on your head, listen to music, dance. Fake it if you must! It will become real (Rebbe Nachman's Wisdom #74).

agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!

agutn Yom Tov!
Chag sameach!