Pick Up The Sins

The Torah’s example of סכך is to use פסולת גורן ויקב.  We generally encourage the idea of beautifying and enhancing mitzvot, why here would we use garbage for the mitzvah?  The great simchas beis hashoaveh according to Rashi is because of the drawing of the water for the ניסוך המים, what is so great about the ניסוך המים that it demands such celebration?

The possuk says Emor (23:40) ולקחתם לכם ביום הראשון.  Why is it called the first day if it’s the fifteenth of the month?  The midrash explains it’s ראשון לחשבון עבירות.  The simple interpretation is that during the days between Yom Kippur and Sukkos one is busy preparing the mitzvot so there is no time to sin, only when one finally can sit down it the sukkah, there is time to sin.  Why would the midrash (and possuk,) focus on the return to sin on the onset of the Yom Tov?

The first piece in the Rodamsker on Sukkos explains that the holiday of Sukkos is the time to uplift the fallen sparks of holiness.  That is why the Torah commands to make the schach out of the garbage, for it’s specifically even that which seems cast away that we are trying to elevate.  This can help us understand the great rejoicing of the water.  On Rosh Hashana we go to water to symbolically throw our sins into the water.  We dispose of them as garbage.  Once a few weeks have past and we are able to have been separated from our averos, we now can have a different perspective and appreciate even that which we can gain from the averos.    In halachik terms this would be called the difference between תשובה מיראה  and תשובה מאהבה. 

In a similar vein, Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev says that is the meaning of the midrash.  During the ימים נוראים, the scary days, it’s the time of תשובה מיראה and the averos become absolved.  It is only on Sukkot, when we are able to fulfill many mitzvot, that we can demonstrate תשובה מאהבה and the averos turn into mitzvot.  That is the cheshbon averos the midrash is referencing, it’s not a negative count of averos, on the contrary, it’s the count of the averos that are now turned into mitzvot.