We are now in a sukkah (booth), about to celebrate Sukkot (Feast of Booths). Of course, on Sukkot, you have two holidays in one. You have the sukkah, but you also have the four minim (four species): the etrog (citron), the lulav (palm frond), the hadas (myrtle), and the aravah (willow). Naturally, you would think that I’m going to talk about the etrog. But today I have a surprise for you. I’m going to talk about another kind of citrus: the orange. Why am I going to talk about the orange? Very simple. If you take this orange and squeeze it and squeeze it and squeeze it, what is going to come out of it? Orange juice, of course. Now I ask you a simple question: Why is apple juice not going to come out of this orange? Hacham, of course, it’s not going to come out of this orange because it’s an orange. If you squeeze the orange, orange juice is going to come out because inside the orange there is orange. When you squeeze it, orange juice will come out.
And now the following is important. People constantly come and squeeze us and squeeze us and squeeze us. Sometimes they say something malicious, make us angry, make us feel uncomfortable, and we get irritated. Many times, how do we react? We get angry. We get upset. We say the wrong things. What does that say about what’s inside of us? They squeeze us, and what comes out? What comes out is what is inside. If what comes out of us is anger, that means that inside I have anger. If what comes out of us is bad words, it means that inside of me I have some bad words, too. This is very scary. But there’s a big, important lesson that I think we can learn from Sukkot.
During the high holidays, Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), we have constantly said, HaMelech HaKadosh, God, you’re the king of the universe. On Yom Kippur, we said, “Hashem, Hashem, El Rachum VeChanun (The Lord, the Lord, compassionate and gracious).” We get close to God. We also said, Hashem Hu HaElokim, Hashem Hu HaElokim: God, we crown you as the divine power of the universe, etc., etc., etc. The question is: Were these mere words, or were they true expressions of what I truly feel inside of me? When I say, “God, I’m so sorry; I want you to forgive me,” is it because we want to be written in the book of life? Or is it because we truly feel that we want to be Avdei Hashem, that we want to serve God the way we’re supposed to? That question is really the only way to find out: What comes out when we squeeze ourselves? What comes out of us will tell us what is inside of us.
Now let me tell you something: For those who live in Florida, you know exactly what I mean. Celebrating Sukkot in Florida is not easy. Number one, it’s very hard. Building this sukkah could take weeks. It’s challenging. But there’s something that God just loves to do to all Floridians: make it rain every single year, without exception. It’s going to rain the days before Sukkot. Then, miraculously, on the night of Sukkot, while the sukkah is completely wet, you’ve already put the table and taken it back out because you said, “No, we’re not going to eat inside.” Then, miraculously, right before we’re supposed to eat, it stops raining. Even more annoying, because if it were raining, we’d be staying inside. But now it has stopped raining. According to halacha (Jewish law), I have to go in the sukkah. It’s all wet. The chairs are wet, the tables are wet. You get to a point where you don’t know anymore. It rains constantly on Sukkot, on and off. It’s really a challenging holiday. You come out of your dirat keva to go into dirat arai (temporary dwelling). You come out from your house and your comfort to go into the sukkah. That’s for the whole... For Floridians, it’s even more challenging than that.
But how do we relate to the Chag (holiday) with happiness? How do we relate to the Chag with happiness? Well, we’re happy to do it. We pray that it stops raining. One would say, as I just mentioned before, that if it’s already raining, you should pray that it continues raining. Nobody wants it to rain. We accept the challenge, and we’re okay with it. And we do it with happiness. That sacrifice that we make shows that in the most pressing moments, in the most challenging moments, our true colors are: “I want to do the Retzono Shel Makom (will of the Omnipresent).” Even if it’s challenging, I’m up for the challenge. And that’s what we celebrate on Sukkot: Zman Simchateinu (time of our joy). We know our true colors are what comes out of us, because what comes out of us is a reflection of what is inside of us. And what comes out is happiness and full dedication to the Torah. We’re happy to do this. Chag Sameach to everyone.