Over the holiday, while learning with the men in the Yad Yosef congregation, we came away with a certain clarity that I'd like to share, that has an impact on our Emuna and Bitachon. It begins with a bit of a halachic implication: There's a concept called Mitzta’er Patur Min HaSuccah which means someone who is in pain is absolved from the Succah, provided the pain is coming because of the Succah. If someone has a headache, and they’d have a headache whether in or out the Succah, that's not a reason to be absolved from the obligation. But if a person is caused pain by the Succah, for example, there are bees in the Succah stinging him, he’s patur/ absolved.
There's also a Halacha that says that when it rains in the Succah, you’re patur. The Mishna brings a mashal that when it rains, it’s compared to a king who throws the water that his servant is serving him ( or diluting his wine with) into the servant’s face. So rain is a bad sign on the holiday. How are these two halachot connected? Does this mean that every time a person is in pain, it’s the same omen as rain?
Clearly not. So what exactly is the difference between rain and flies in the Succah that make me leave? In both cases, I have to leave the Succah.
Why is rain more of a spoiler or a bad omen than flies in the Succah? The Sefer Safnat Paneach, from the great rabbi known as the Rogatchover, who lived in the early 1900s, explains that when a person is Mitzta’er/ in pain, the Succah is still a Succah, but you don't have to sit in it. But he says that when it's raining, the Succah is not even considered a Succah. It's like you're not in a Succah; it has lost its Succah status.
Why? What is it about rain? When the Mishna talks about rain, it says that it ruins your food.
And this rabbi explains that the main point of the Succah is eating in it. Of course, we sleep there as well, but we make the Beracha when we eat. That’s the main fulfillment of the Succah, and he brings many proofs for this. And therefore, he says, when I can't eat in my Succah, then it’s no longer considered a Succah. So if God makes it that you can't eat in your Succah, it's like the master telling the servant, “I don't want you to serve me,” whereas if there are some bees or flies bothering you, but inherently you are able to eat, that doesn't have the same bad sign. There's an added point: The Gemara discusses a rabbi named Rabbi Yosef who was sitting in his Succah when wind blew pieces of twigs into his food. He said he was leaving, and the rabbi next to him asked why. He answered, “I'm very finicky, and for me, this is like rain.”
The Rogatchover Rabbi says that the point is his food got ruined. The twigs fell into his soup, and since he's finicky, it was like rain for him. So we see from here that the concept of raining is very specific. Of course, this doesn’t mean that it will rain on one person and not the other, but it could be that one person's food is ruined while another person's isn’t.
You could have one house on the block where there are flies falling into the soup, but another house doesn't have that.
There was one year where these odd bugs were falling all into the food. That one house was thrown out of their Succah, but the other houses weren’t. So we see that the Succah experience is very personalized. This means that when it's not raining, and there are no flies falling in your soup, you should view it as if God is saying, “I want you in my Succah. Please come to the Succah. I'm enjoying your service to Me in the Succah.”
How does this specifically relate to eating?
We see from here, and another rabbi, the Malbim, explains that the main point of the Succah is to take the physical world, our food and everything, and uplift it. The Succah is like an Olam Haba. We take the most mundane, most physical pleasure that we have, our food, and lift it up, making it into something special on the holiday. Simchat Yom Tov, we're lifting it up. Everything in the Succah becomes uplifted, and that's the Avoda of Succah-we're serving our Master.
The Ramban says that the purpose of making your service of God the main thing, and everything else secondary (which is the lesson of the Succah, that our service to God is the main thing and our home is secondary), is to reach the level of
“Everything you're doing is for the sake of God,” and God is accepting your service.
This is a very Hashgacha Pratit type of message- when I'm sitting in my Succah and all is well, and my food is doing well, God is telling me, “Welcome to serve Me , continue serving Me. I'm enjoying your service.”
And of course, the opposite is true. But Baruch Hashem, at least in the New York area, we had beautiful, beautiful weather. Everyone enjoyed eating in the Succah, and this is a wonderful sign that God is saying to us, specifically and personally, “I like your service.”
Have a wonderful day and a
Hag Sameach.