Rain or Sukkah
The Sukkah conveys an overarching message of faith and trust in G-d exclusively. The Sukkah reorients our egocentric way of thinking into a G-d centric manner of thinking. The Sukkah reminds us of the way our own understanding and our own initiatives are inherently limited. The Sukkah is the antidote to self-serving rituals that often masquerade as religious devotion. SHUVAH SHUVAH
Protection from the Rain
This week’s parsha features the special song of Ha’azinu, which opens with a description of Torah as rain and dew that G-d showers on us.
In Hebrew there are two words for rain. One is geshem and the other is matar. Why does the Torah use the word matar when discussing the Torah’s teachings that flow down to us?
This week’s parsha coincides with the Festival of Sukkos. There is always a connection between a holiday and the Torah portion read in close proximity to the holiday. What connection can we find between the idea of rain and the holiday of Sukkos?
When the Talmud discusses the commandment to dwell in a Sukkah, it cites the Biblical prophecy that G-d will act as a protective Sukkah. This Sukkah, the prophet Isaiah declares, will be “for shade in the day-time from the heat, and a refuge and for a covert from storm (zerem) and SHUVAH from rain (matar).” Here, too, the word matar is used for rain.
However, the references to rain in these two sources are diametrically opposite. In the parsha, rain is a positive metaphor for the Torah, which nurtures like rain, whereas in the citation from Isaiah, the Sukkah protects us from the rain.
248, not 247 or 249
To reconcile these two sources and to better understand the role of the Sukkah in relation to rain, there is an interesting commentary by the great Kabbalist, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson (the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s father) that the word for storm and rain in the abovementioned verse, zerem and matar, have the numerical value of 247 and 249, respectively.
There are 248 positive commandments (i.e., the commandments of the Torah that tell us what to do as opposed to the negative commandments that detail the prohibitions of the Torah). The Torah commands us not to add on to the commandments or subtract any of them. Thus, the deeper significance of the Sukkah discussed in Isaiah is that it protects us from 247—subtracting a Mitzvah—and from 249—adding on a new Mitzvah.
SHUVAH
It is also interesting to note that the very word Sukkah, when spelled phonetically (samach, vav, chaf, hei), numerically adds up to 248!
The Sukkah thus represents and underscores the integrity of the Divine commandments; there are no less than 248 and no more than 248.
What is it about the Sukkah that is so protective?
To understand the protective quality of the Sukkah, we ought to first understand what could be wrong with adding on a new Mitzvah? If 248 are desirable, one would think that a 249th mitzvah would be even more desirable.
The truth is that the difference between 248 and 249 is the difference between doing a Mitzvah for G-d’s sake or for our own sake.
Who are we Serving?
A simple analogy to illustrate this point is the person who gives a gift to show affection to a loved one, but brings him or her something that the giver enjoys but the recipient does not. If one starts to think about that gift, one will come to the honest realization that the purpose of the gift is to assuage the giver’s own feelings and make him or her feel comfortable. Rather than giving a gift, one is merely patting one’s own ego. If the gift is ostensibly SHUVAH motivated by love, one has to question whether the gift is an expression of love for the recipient or is actually evidence of self-love.
[To be sure, there are times when giving of a gift is not really to benefit anyone, but rather as a gesture on the part of the giver to show that he or she is thinking of the recipient. This is the “theory” behind the offering of sacrifices to G-d who, obviously, does not need our sacrifices.] In the context of serving G-d it assumes an even more ominous tone. When we give G-d a gift He did not ask for, we have to ask ourselves: Are we serving Him or are we serving ourselves? Who is it that is truly the object of our love—G-d or ourselves?
And once we degenerate into a mindset of spiritual independence by adding on to G-d’s commandments, we could just as easily go from 249 to 247; we will invariably find ways of decreasing the number of commandments that do not sit well with our spiritual comfort zone.
When our religion is based exclusively or primarily on our own understanding and how it resonates with us, we are likely to focus on “what is in it for me.” With that mindset, we begin to search for independence from authority [ as we] self-righteously looking for ways to add on commandment number 249. We let our spiritual passion SHUVAH “rain” down on us and seek other unauthorized and inauthentic avenues to express our spirituality.
The Sukkah conveys an overarching (pun intended) message of faith and trust in G-d exclusively.
The Sukkah reorients our egocentric way of thinking into a G-d centric manner of thinking.
The Sukkah reinforces our faith in G-d as the only one upon whom we can depend even when all the signs point in the opposite direction.
The Sukkah reminds us of the way our own understanding and our own initiatives are inherently limited. It therefore helps to free us from our delusional insistence that we can devise our own rituals to take the place of the ones ordained by G-d.
The Sukkah is the antidote to self-serving rituals that often masquerade as religious devotion.
Whose Home are You In?
There is another way of explaining how the Sukkah assists us in ridding ourselves of the pitfall represented by the numbers 249 and 247.
It’s like a person who is invited as a guest to someone’s home. While they may feel free to do things in their own SHUVAH home, they are more respectful, reticent and cautious before doing things in their host’s home.
While we dwell in the Sukkah we feel that we are dwelling in G-d’s home and we act accordingly. Our focus becomes G-d oriented rather than oriented on the self.
The Sukkah is thus the protective home that is permeated with G-dly awareness that helps us escape the obsession with self.
Why does Sukkos Follow Yom Kippur?
Perhaps this provides a reason why the Holiday of Sukkos follows Yom Kippur. During Yom Kippur—and the forty days preceding Yom Kippur—we are required to engage in soul-searching. We are preoccupied with our selfhood. Introspection and soul searching are not only appropriate but indispensable for this time of the year. This is the path to purification and catharsis.
However, there is a drawback to this type of approach. We can get so obsessed with self-examination that everything we do begins to revolve around ourselves. We could then cease serving and loving G-d. Instead, we begin to serve and love ourselves in the guise of serving Him.
We therefore have the Holiday of Sukkos to allow us to undergo a paradigm shift from living in our own cocoon of SHUVAH self-absorption to dwelling in G-d’s Sukkah and becoming G-d-centric.
Good Rain and Bad Rain
There is, however, a major caveat to all of this.
While we have a commandment not to add on, we know that the rabbis have instituted many additional rituals and observances. In addition, Jewish customs have blossomed and given us important holidays. Chanukah and Simchas Torah are examples of Holidays that are rooted in rabbinical law and Jewish custom, respectively. Moreover, the Chassidic movement added so much more to Jewish life than just compliance with the 248.
How do we reconcile this with the prohibition of adding on any commandants?
This question has been addressed by many, including Maimonides. Maimonides’ simple answer is that the rabbis did not claim to be adding another Biblical command. They made it clear that their commandments were of a rabbinical nature. And, it is the Torah itself that instructed the rabbis to add on these rabbinical ordinances and to respect Jewish custom.
Chassidic thought goes a step further. All of the rabbinical commandments are merely offshoots and extensions of the SHUVAH original Biblical ones. All innovative customs are designed, not to add on to any of the Mitzvos, but to enhance them and express their inner soul.
The criteria to adding on to the commandments are:
(a) Recognition that the 248 are G-d’s sacrosanct domain, and we may not tamper with them. And whether or not we like them, we dedicate ourselves to their observance. When we enter the Sukkah of G-d’s commandments, we are entering into His turf and we do them on His terms;
(b) Recognition that the additional measures are intended to preserve, enhance and embellish the 248. The 248 must be nurtured by the 249; and, (c) Recognition that these additional measures are ultimately also G-d’s will, and although they may express a certain subjective spiritual dynamic, they are first and foremost expressions of G-d’s will.
We can now resolve the question that was asked at the beginning of this essay: How do we reconcile the reference to matar in the parsha which refers approvingly to the Torah as rain with the citation from Isaiah in which the Sukkah is depicted as the structure that shields us from the matar?
SHUVAH
In truth, matar, with its symbolism of 249, is a positive phenomenon when it is in the context of the entire verse that reads: “My teachings shall drop as the rain… as the small rain on the tender grass… For I will proclaim the name of the L-rd, ascribe you greatness unto our G-d.” Upon close examination, all three criteria are indicated here.
When we emphasize that the matar is: (a) “My teaching”, (b) nurturing like “rain on the tender grass…”, and (c) when we bless G-d for this rain and that the rain (matar- 249) for which we express our gratitude is also from G-d, those additions, symbolized by rain-matar-249, are positive and holy.
No Raining on our Party
The Messianic Age is, in the abovementioned verse from Isaiah, likened to a Sukkah. In the Messianic Age we will have no worry about the harmful additions or subtractions, but we will simultaneously reap the benefits of novel levels of observance and understanding. Hence the prophet declares: “A new Torah shall emerge.” This does not mean, G-d forbid, that the Torah will change, but that we will enjoy heretofore concealed dimensions of knowledge and observances that will be fully revealed at that time.
SHUVAH
And since we will be dwelling and fully ensconced in the ultimate G-dly Sukkah, which symbolizes the 248 MItzvos, we will have no fear of the additions (read: Matar) raining on our feast.
SHUVAH
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Haazinu by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
