Jewish Life Digital Edition September 2015 | Page 78

SUKKOT 5776
and they would designate an area for men
just below it. At the end of the first day of
the festival and thereafter on each and every day of chol hamoed (the intermediary
days), they would begin to rejoice following
the afternoon offering and they would rejoice the rest of the day and all of the night.
The Talmud explains that no one had a
proper night’s sleep throughout this time,
as between the daily offerings, the daily
prayers, the daily Torah study, the eating
and drinking, and the rejoicing all night
long, they only managed to doze o n each
other’s shoulders here and there!
And the entertainment was provided by
none other than the Sages themselves,

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And this is part and parcel of how Hashem
designed the mitzvos to work: to harness our
existing desires and emotions and to enable us
to choose to channel those desires and
emotions towards His service.
And, it’s the same idea here: Hashem is
providing us with an opportunity to serve
him through joy by commanding us to be
joyful precisely at a time of year that we
are naturally inclined to be so.

A WEEK-LONG PARTY

It may be hard to imagine, but in the times
of the Beis HaMikdash (the Temple), Sukkos amounted to being a seven-day, nonstop celebration, where no one had a proper night’s sleep the entire week! In fact, the
Talmud teaches11 that a person who never
witnessed this rejoicing, known as the simchas beis hashoeva (the festival of the water drawing), has never seen joy in his life!
Never. Ever. And yes – the logical jump is
correct – we simply can’t know true joy in
the absence of the Temple. Same reason
why we break the glass at the chuppah; no
matter how profound our joy in this world,
it’s always missing something so long as we
lack a Temple.
So, how did it work? Just before the start
of Sukkos, they would erect a balcony in the
Temple which was designated for women,

with the rest of the nation watching
them. There was music, singing, and incredibly elaborate dancing. The Talmud
describes how certain of the Sages would
juggle things such as eggs, torches,
knives, and even glasses of wine to entertain everyone. It was a profound expression of joy at a time that Hashem commands us to be joyful.
May we all merit to fulfil the mitzvos of
Hashem b’simcha (with joy) and, please
G-d, live to see true simcha, to witness
personally the festival of the water drawing in the Temple speedily in our days! JL
Avoda Zora 3a
See Shulchan Aruch O.C. 630:1
3
See Shulchan Aruch O.C. 639
4
See Shulchan Aruch O.C. 639:3
5
See Devarim 16:14 “And you shall rejoice
on your festival…”
6
See eg Sefer HaChinuch 488 citing
Pesachim 109a
7
Pesachim 109a
8
488
9
See the Gra’s peirush to Shir HaShirim 1:4
(close to the end of that long comment)
10
Makkos 23b
11
Succah 51a
1
2

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smaller? How is that a reward? “Gee, son,
I’m so proud of your schoolwork that I’d
like to reward you – now cut the grass,
take out the rubbish, eat your broccoli,
and get to bed early.” This is a reward?
Our Sages explain that Hashem made
things into mitzvos that we would naturally be inclined to do or naturally inclined
not to do. For example, people do not normally have a desire to eat the blood of animals. So Hashem took something that we
would normally not be doing anyway and
made it into a negative commandment in
order that we could be rewarded for not
doing it; all we have to do is change the intention behind why we don’t do it. Instead
of refraining from eating the blood of animals because we’re repulsed by such a
thing or have no desire for it, if we just
have in mind that we are refraining from it
because Hashem said not to do it, we will
be rewarded. So too in other areas, such as
what are known as Mishpatim (the laws
dealing with relationships between men);
people naturally want to establish civil
laws to govern their associations, laws like
“do not steal”, etc. If we have in mind the
proper intent – that we’re following them
because G-d said so and not just because
someone, somewhere enacted these things
as law, we can be rewarded for doing
things we would have done anyway. This is
one aspect of what it means to say that
Hashem wanted to reward us so He made
His Torah and His mitzvos abundant.