In the Gra al HaTorah Pinchas it brings:
What does this mean?
The Targum Yonason on the possuk of בַּיּוֹם֙ הַשְּׁמִינִ֔י עֲצֶ֖רֶת תִּהְיֶ֣ה לָכֶ֑ם (Pinchas 29:35) explains that you shall gather yourself in your house and leave the sukkah, ביומא תמינאה כנישין תהוון בחדוא מן מט(יל){לי}כון לבתיכון. Why does he emphasize the leaving of the sukkah, it is a mitzvah and we generally leave mitzvot with sadness? Rashi in Sukkah (48a) also says that Atzeret is a רגל in its own right means that you don't have to sit in the sukkah, again emphasizing leaving the sukkah, why? As we wrote last week, the yesod of the mitzvah of sukkah is to leave aside the plesures and pursuits of this mortal world and pursue ruchniut. However, Atzeret is a higher level than that. While it is of course necessary to reject the הבל הבלים present in this world, to completely reject the physical world is not the ultimate goal either. The greatest kedusha if found hidden specifically in the physical world. After we have inbued the lesson of Sukkot and have learned to reject the הבל הבלים, we are now ready to find the kedusha that is present in the earth. That is why the Targum and Rashi emphasize that we leave the sukkah, because ultimatly we must learn to come into our house, enter the physical world and find the kedusha inherint in it. That is the power of Atzeret and that is maybe what the Gra means it is נגד הארץ, present in the earth, the mostr base matirial, we have to find and bring kedusha. With this we can understand why the possuk says עֲצֶ֖רֶת תִּהְיֶ֣ה לָכֶ֑ם, why does it not say 'עצרת לה, as it says in Reah about the last day of Pesach? Because we find the kedusha in the לכם, in the actions of your own mundane world.
It seems that you have conflicting approaches to the purpose of the holiday of sukkos. Last year under the title eretz yisrael and mikdash sukkkos and shemini atzeres, you argue based on sifsei chaim that sukkos is about imbuing mundane things with spirituality. This year in Earth Holiday and in shade for the soul, you argue that sukkos is about rejecting physicality, and only shemini atzeres is about returning to physicality and imbuing it with kedusha. Perhaps these two approaches to sukkos are reflected by the two approaches to koheles which you posted last year Rav itzele peterberger understood that it meant that the only way you can come to simcha was through being mevatel the hevel whereas the alter of slabodka held that the simcha was that you can holiness from hevel. Just a haarah on this year's approach. The mitzvah of simchas yom tov requires one to eat a korban shlamim and nowadays at least to drink wine. This applies both during sukkos and shemini atzeres, so how can we distinguish between sukkos and shemini atzeres that only shemini atzeres is about bringing about kedusha from the chol, sukkos also requires chol activities to bring about kedusha
ReplyDeletetoo much bekius in emrei eliezer for me.
DeleteRegarding the haarah - Yes, simcha involves a gashmiout involvement but the point of it is not for the gashmi its to enhance the ruchniout, the true simcha is because of the ruchniout, the gashmi is so thar your guf doesn't complain like the Rambam explains the rewards the Torah gives for this world