As it is still the holiday of Succot, we will try to give another Bitachon related thought about Succot.
First, an introduction: In working on one’s Middot/character traits, you can start from different angles. For example, as we mentioned a few days ago, when a person wants to work his Bitachon, he can start by working on humility. If you are humble, it’s easier to have Bitachon. On the other hand, if you work on Bitachon, and strengthen your belief that Hashem controls everything, that will bring you to be more humble.
So, you can work from different angles. This concept is based on the analogy of the human body, as compared to spiritual body. Just like when you strengthen your heart, it’s good for your lungs and visa versa, and if you work on your knees, it’s good for your ankles and visa versa, because person is one big organism, the same applies to one’s spirituality as well.
A person may want to work on shalom/being at peace with people. But it may be hard to work on being at peace, when, for example, your neighbor is very exacting, never lets anyone park within an inch of his driveway, and puts big yellow, “Do Not Park” markers on either side. It is hard to have good feelings towards a neighbor like that.
If you work on Bitachon, however, and work on realizing that Hashem is in charge of everything, that this neighbor has nothing to do with your inconvenience of looking for parking, that can bring you to shalom.
So Bitachon is an area that if you work in it, will spill over into many other areas.
As we’ve mentioned from the Bet HaLevi, if a person has Bitachon, he won’t lie, he won’t be jealous. If he has Bitachon, he won’t hate people. There are endless areas that are strengthened by one’s work on Bitachon.
With that in mind, we come to the holiday of Succot. The phrase is used,
ופרס עלינו סוכת שלמיך
Spread upon us your Succah of shalom/peace.
In fact, we hear the term shalom/peace in connection with Succot in many places.
The reason for this is that if one has that strong level of Bitachon, it’s easier for him to be at peace with people, because he realizes that nobody is really doing anything to him. Like David HaMelech said when Shimi cursed him, ה׳ אמר לו לקלל G-d told him to curse”
That’s why, as we’ve mentioned before, the Succah is connected to Aharon HaKohen.
In to understand what great traits we can reap from the holiday of Succot, we have to look at Aharon HaKohen. Aharon HaKohen was the Kohen Gadol. He was totally connected to G-d. He was “the” Baal bitachon/ “the” relier on G-d.
He was able to go through all of life’s challenges without falling apart or losing it. Furthermore, he was
אוהב שלום ורודף שלום
Loving peace and chasing peace
If you want to be a student of Aharon HaKohen, you have to love peace and chase peace. That means you don’t wait for the peace to come to you. Sometimes you have to make the first move.
All of this is rooted in Aharon Hakohen’s bitachon. That’s where it comes from, and it’s the Succah that’s the source for shalom.
Therefore, this is the holiday to work on shalom. Rav Chaim Pilaggi says that the Succah is a segula for shalom bayit. Any complaints that you have about your spouse are really complaints about you yourself. For example, if your wife takes a long time to dress and prepare for weddings, and you’re always late, this has nothing to do with her. If you’re late to the wedding, you’re late. It has nothing to do with her. (this is a trivial example and has nothing to do with my wife).
Using this bitachon lens helps in shalom.
Therefore, it’s no coincidence that one of the main themes of the holiday is how the four minim- Etrog, Lulav, Hadasim and Aravot represent the four types of Jewish people.
There are people, who are like the etrog, which has both taste and smell, (representing people with Torah and mitzvot) people like the lulav, with only taste (Torah) or like the hadas with only smell (mitzvot) and there are some people, like the Aravot, who have neither taste nor smell (neither Torah nor Mitzvot).
But what do we do?
We take them all together, and we connect them. People that aren’t like us, people that have different outlooks than us...
What gives us the power to do that?
It’s the Succat shalom that is rooted in the middah of Bitachon.
So once again, when we work on Bitachon, we aren’t just working on Bitachon. We are working on the entire spiritual health, of our entire spiritual body.
B’ezrat Hashem, the holiday of Succot will bring with it the blessings of Succot shalom.
Have a Hag Sameach.