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I saw a beautiful thought from Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, the Rosh Yeshiva of Slobodka, one of the elder Gedolim of today. It’s a beautiful thought on Succot as it connects to humility. He says that the Midrash Raba in Naso says that because Avraham Avinu took care of the angels, Hashem paid us back with the clouds of glory in the desert, the Mitzvah of Succah that we currently have, and the Succah in the future of the times of Mashiach -all because the, he put them under the tree, which is like a Succah.
But the Succah also symbolizes God's dwelling amongst us. The Shechina comes down, as it says, we're in God's shade. What is the exact connection? Why is it that Avraham Avinu’s taking in the guests brought down the Shechina of the clouds of glory and the Shechina that comes into our Succah?
He explains that Avraham was an old man. It was the third day of his Brit Milah and he was sick. But, in his words, he was totally Mevatel himself/ he annulled himself to the needs of his guests. He didn't take care of his own needs. That's called annulling your needs for somebody else. And Rav Hirsch says, this comes not only from Hessed necessarily, which it does as well, but deep down, it comes from humility, because what stops us from really loving our friend and doing for him is the arrogance that we feel- We make ourselves more important; that it's beneath us to do for them. Or sometimes, we take care of that Hazit guy, (or Nebach in Yiddish) that poor guy, to make us feel upgraded.
But when I mevatel/annul myself to somebody important, or someone that looks more important than me, that's difficult for my arrogance.
So the fundamental of Avraham Avinu’s care of the guest was Anochi Afar V’Efer/ I am dirt and ash-it was humility.
And, as we've mentioned in the past, the humbler a person is, the more he makes himself as receptacle for God to dwell in him. That is exactly why the Shechina came down, and that's what happens when we go into the Succah. When we go into the Succah, we're annulling our own needs. We are becoming less self-centered, less arrogant. That’s why the Succah is called Succat Shalom, because that humility and that annulment of our own desires brings peace and it brings God’s Shechina down into us. Rav Hirsch quotes a beautiful Chafetz Chaim says on a pasuk in Vayikra 9,6, where it says,
זֶ֧ה הַדָּבָ֛ר אֲשֶׁר־צִוָּ֥ה ה׳ תַּעֲשׂ֑וּ וְיֵרָ֥א אֲלֵיכֶ֖ם כְּב֥וֹד ה׳
This is what you should do, and God will be revealed to you.
What exactly is the pasuk telling us? The Chafetz Chaim says, in his commentary on Torat Kohanim, that whenever a person does anything, he should ask himself, “Is this God's will or is it not?” And if it’s the right thing to do, he should dedicate what he's doing Leshem Shamayim. Then, God’s Shechina comes down, because he is humbling his own will. We have to think, “I have a will, and God has a will. I humble my will to the will of God.” That's what brings the Shechina down, and that is what's going on in the Mitzvah of Succah.
And it comes from Abraham Avinu’s humility. With this, Rabbi Hirsch explains the additional teshuva process of Sukkot, as we know it's all one long process until Shemini Aseret.
He explains, based on Rabbenu Yona in Shaare Teshuva (gate 1, letter 42) where it says it's possible for a person's sins to be forgiven, but that still doesn't mean that God is ready to dwell with him and come back to him. In order for that to happen, you need to have a further level. Rabbi Hirsch explains that this further level comes from the humility of the Succah.
Therefore, he says, in order to fulfill the Mitzvah of Succah properly, you have to think about it when you walk inside. You have to think, “I have my will and God has his will, and I'm going to annul my will and humble myself to God.”
This is humility. We think know what we need to do here. He quotes a beautiful Chazon Ish, from one of his letters, that says, “Everything that I do, I am Anoos/I am coerced. I'm not in control. I always have to advise with the Shulchan Aruch.”
When a person that lives his life like that, with that humility, whether it's to God or to people, this is someone that the Shechina comes down upon. And that's the final piece in the process of teshuva, that we're ready to receive the Shechina.
And again, humility is not just to God. Humility is to people, as we see from this midrash-Avraham Avinu’s putting these Arabs under a tree, brought the Shechina down on him and us as well.
B’Ezrat Hashem, we will go through the motions and thoughts necessary to bring us to humility.
Have a wonderful day.