Don't Smell The Hadas

 The Gemarah Sukkah (9a) says that we learn from the possuk 'חג הסוכות שבעת ימים לה that כשם שחל שם שמים על החגיגה כך חל על הסוכה to tell us one is prohibited to benefit from the sukkah.  Tosfos asks that the Gemarah Betzah (30) indicates that the issur is a rabbinic issur because the sukkah is designated for the mitzvah.  Tosfos explains why we need both sevarat of being an issur Torah learned from the possuk and the rabbinic issur of muktzah.  

The Gemarah (37b) says one is allowed to smell an etrog on sukkot since it is designated for eating but not smell a hadas for that is what it is designated for.  Rashi explains that the issue with smelling the hadas is that we learn from sukkah that there is a prohibition to benefit from something designated for a mitzvah.  We see from the Rashi that the yesod of the issur of שחל שם שמים is the issur of הוקצה למצותו not like Tosfos that learns they are two different dinim.  According to Tosfos the issur of שחל שם שמים is a unique issur of hekdesh on a sukkah, according to Rashi it is an issur of being designated for the mitzvah.  This machlokes and נ"מ are further elaborated on in Moadanay Moshe siman 70. 

There is a third approach to the Gemarah (37b) as well.  The Shach (Yoreh Deah 108:22) cites a Mordechai in Pesachim that says we see from the Gemarah that issuray hanah are only prohibited to smell from if they are generally used for smelling.  The Shach asks what is his proof, the Gemarah is an issur of huktzah limitzvato, that is why it is only muktzah for the normal usage but issuray Hanah are always prohibited?  It must be the Mordechai learned the Gemarah is an issur Torah like Rashi but he held the geder of the issur of שחל שם שמים is not like Rashi, a geder of huktzah limitzato, rather like Tosfos that it is an issur of kedusha and yet the Gemarah says it is only assur if it is the normal usage so we see that prohibited things are only assur to smell if it's the normal usage.  The issue is the Rashba Teshuva 849 suggests like the Mordechai.  However, in Teshuva 189 (cited in Aruch Lenair,) he understands that we do not learn out from sukkah to hadas.  So, how did he entertain bringing a prof to issuray hanah from this Gemarah, וצ"ע. 

Lulav And Hallel

In the past, my father discussed the opinion of the Gr"a that one can say a beracha on the lulav without turning the esrog over.  In fact, the Gr"a holds it doesn't help to turn the esrog over since the beracha is on the lulav and the law is one does not need to hold all the species together (651:12,) one has already fulfilled the taking of the lulav before the beracha.  

The Gra (646:1) says the reason the Shulchan Aruch says to take the lulav right before hallel is because the Gemarah Pesachim (117a) says אפשר ישראל נוטלין לולביהן ואין אומרים הלל.  Therefore, one should fulfill their obligation of lulav at the time of hallel.  In the Maaseh Rav with miluim in the back they want to suggest a chiddush based upon this Gra that if one did not have a lulav when saying hallel, when one obtains a lulav they should have to say hallel because lulav is its own מחייב of hallel irrespective of the hallel of the yom tov.  

Holiday Of The Future

למען ידעו דרתיכם כי בסכות הושבתי את בני ישראל בהוציאי אותם מארץ מצרים.  The fact that it says תדעו means that they will know in the future, why do we sit in the sukkah so the future generations should know, we should sit so we should know?  Why is Sukkot a holiday of such joy?    בסכת תשבו שבעת ימים כל האזרח בישראל ישבו בסכת, why use the term אזרח?  Why is sukkah the mitzvah that the gentiles will be tested with? 

Sukkot is the holiday where we appreciate the journey to the end.  The sukkah is a temporary hut reminding us that our time is this world is just a temporary gateway to the ultimate world.  We are on a journey and it is a process to reach the end.  My great-grandfather wanted to say that is what Kohelet means הבל הבלים , not that the world is meaningless which seems to contradict what the Torah says elsewhere, but that everything must be realized a just a means to the end, not an end in it of itself.  

Sukkot is the holiday which embodies the times of Mashiach.  That is why we offer korbanot even for the gentiles for they will become included in our service in those times. That is why the Torah uses the term אזרח which refers to the shine of the soul because it is those times the soul will radiate.  That is why the Torah stresses the knowledge of the future generations for that is when Sukkot can fully be appreciated.  The great joy of sukkot is that we recognize even now that we have not reached that stage, in our hut outdoors we are able to contemplate that we are on the journey toward reaching that goal.  The gentiles will be tested with sukkah because the message is you want a quick fix, there is a process that must be gone through to appreciate the times of the Mashiach.  Can you appreciate the temporary stages to get there, can you go out in a sukkah?  The gentiles don't want to build up toward the end and they fail the test.  We do understand that we are gazing at the stars looking toward a bright future.  

Raise Yourself Up

The Sifri (306) says ד"א יערף - ר' אליעזר בנו של ר' יוסי הגלילי אומר: אין יערף אלא לשון הריגה, שנא' (דברים כא) וערפו שם את העגלה בנחל. מה עגלה מכפרת על שפיכות דמים - כך דברי תורה מכפרת על שפיכות דמים:

There is another derash later in the Sifri ד"א יערוף כמטר לקחי - היה ר' בנאה אומר: אם עשית דברי תורה לשמם - דברי תורה חיים הם לך, שנאמר (משלי ד) כי חיים הם למוצאיהם ולכל בשרו מרפא; ואם לא עשית דברי תורה לשמן - דברי תורה ממיתים אותך, שנא' יערף כמטר לקחי. ואין עריפה אלא הריגה, שנא' וערפו את העגלה בנחל,  The second derash is understandable that that מטר, referring to the Torah, will יערף, kill someone who doesn't learn lishma.  But how does the first derash make sense in the possuk, how does it fit in the words that the Torah atones for killing? 

The Shem MiShmuel (5678) cites his father that the Torah is called לקח because how much you get out of it depends on how much you put in, how much you take.  His father also said it is called לקח because it raises a person up like ולקכתם לכם by lulav where the Gemarah says one fulfills the mitzvah by merely picking it up. The S.M. says the two interpretations go hand in hand.  According to how much one puts in, one is raised up.  

With he explains how learning Torah is מכפר.  When one raises themselves, the evil forces sustaining life form the averot one has done get left behind and cut off from their life force.  With this idea he explains the Gemarah Rosh Hashana (18a) בחטא בני עלי בהא דכתיב אם יתכפר עון בית עלי בזבח ומנחה, ואמרו ז"ל בזבח ומנחה אינו מתכפר אבל מתכפר בתורה.  Why does Torah work but nothing else?  Because the decree can't be removed through means of atonement.  However, Torah works from a different angle.  One doesn't try to clean up the evil within themselves but moves above them.  This form of nullifying the decree does work.  

That is what the Sifri means.  By killing the evil forces within one's self, one obtains a כפרה. (The S.M. interprets the שפיכות דמים of the Sifri as to the sin which the Gemarah Niddah (13a) equates to שפיכות דמים.)  

יערוף כמטר לקחי תזל כטל אמרתי.  The S.M. says according to his peshat it is read as when one kills the evil forces within themselves, then one awakens the חיות within a person just as dew brings out the water inside the plant. 

These two types of atonement may be the transfer between the first half of Tishre and the second.  The first half we focus on repentance, on cleansing our sins.  Sukkot is the time we start to move on to the kapparah of Torah.  The ניסוך המים is the celebration of Torah as the mefarshim say on the possuk ושאתם מים בששון and obviously the culmination of the entire holiday is Simchat Torah.  It is a time where we focus on ולקחתם לכם, raising ourselves up above any sins. 

Two Types Of Yom Kippur

The Alter Rebbe notes a few distinctions in the pessukim of Emor discussing Yom Kippur vs. those of Acharei Mot.  In Emor (23:32) it says שַׁבַּ֨ת שַׁבָּת֥וֹן הוּא֙ לָכֶ֔ם וְעִנִּיתֶ֖ם אֶת־נַפְשֹֽׁתֵיכֶ֑ם בְּתִשְׁעָ֤ה לַחֹ֨דֶשׁ֙ בָּעֶ֔רֶב מֵעֶ֣רֶב עַד־עֶ֔רֶב.  Compare to Acharei (16:31) שַׁבַּ֨ת שַׁבָּת֥וֹן הִיא֙ לָכֶ֔ם וְעִנִּיתֶ֖ם אֶת־נַפְשֹֽׁתֵיכֶ֑ם חֻקַּ֖ת עוֹלָֽם.  Why the switch from היא to הוא?  Why does it say בתשעה לחדש it one and not the other?  And why does it say חקת עולם is Acharei but not in Emor?  Why does it say בתשעה לחדש, it should have said בתשיעי לחדש?  This alludes to the idea that it means one has complety vanquished the 9 traits of the נפש הבהמית.  Just as a fast weakens the body, one has used the 9 days of repentance before Yom Kippur to weaken the animal traits of the soul.  The focus of the parsha in Emor is the avodah one has done to prepare him/her self for Yom Kippur.  That is why it is says הוא, masculine, because one is an active participant in the avodah.  The parsha in Acherei is the Yom Kippur taharah that Hashem provides.  Even though there was no avodah on the traits of the soul, it is חקת עולם, even when we are not deserving, that Hashem provides taharah.  That is why it uses the feminine terminoligy, היא, for we are accepting the taharah from Hashem. 

The last Mishna in Yoma says אָמַר רַבִּי עֲקִיבָא, אַשְׁרֵיכֶם יִשְׂרָאֵל, לִפְנֵי מִי אַתֶּם מִטַּהֲרִין, וּמִי מְטַהֵר אֶתְכֶם, אֲבִיכֶם שֶׁבַּשָּׁמַיִם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (יחזקאל לו), וְזָרַקְתִּי עֲלֵיכֶם מַיִם טְהוֹרִים וּטְהַרְתֶּם. וְאוֹמֵר (ירמיה יז), מִקְוֵה יִשְׂרָאֵל יְיָ, מַה מִּקְוֶה מְטַהֵר אֶת הַטְּמֵאִים, אַף הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מְטַהֵר אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל.  Many seforim point out that there are two different questions addressed in the Mishna.  One is לפני מי and the other is ומי מטהר.  The question of לפני מי presupposes a person in trying to purify themselves and the question is before whom.  The question of מי מטהר אתכם is who purifies you even when you don't purify yourself.  The Mishna answers with the possuk of וזרקי עליכם, which is a sprinkling of water on a person.  That is an act of Hashem to purify the person.  Even if a person doesn't properly prepare themselves for purification, Hashem purifies the person.  The other question is answered with the possuk of מקוה ישראל ה, just as one needs to enter a mikvah, one who enters into the purification process is purified before Hashem.  (The only thing that bothers me is why the Mishna answers out of order, the second question before the first.)  Even beyond what we can do ourselves, Hashem purifies us, וזרקתי עליכם.

Close It In

The Midrash on Shir Hashirim (7:2) says בנעלים. שתי נעלים, נעילה בפסח ונעילה בסכות, אמר הקב"ה לישראל, אתם – נועלים לפני בסכות ואני נועל לפניכם בפסח  

The Sfas Emes Pesach (5637) says  כתיב מה יפו פעמיך בנעלים דרשו חז"ל על הרגלים נעילת החג ונעילת הפסח כו'. כי נעל הוא שמירת הרגל. כמו כן הקב"ה פורס סוכת שלום ברגלים הללו על בנ"י להצילם מהתערובות שנמצא בעולם השפל הזה. כמו ששומרין הרגל מטיט ושאר דברים ע"י שהוא תחתון שבאדם. [ואיתא ברמב"ם (פי"ג מה' אישות) שצריך כל איש ישראל לעשות לב"ב מנעלים חדשים בכל רגל והיא רמז לסוד הזה].  That is what we are doing in נעילה on Yom Kippur.  During Yom Kippur we are on the level of angels.  That has to be able to be locked into ourselves.  Therefore, we have an added prayer of נעילה to lock in the prayers into ourselves.  The prayer serves as a נעל to illuminate even the lowest part of our body, the feet and imbue it with kedusha that will let us rise above the tumah of the world.  After thar we are able to bring that kedusha into the world which is celebrated during Sukkot where we go out into the sukkah.  

A halachik thought on נעילה I saw in the name of Rav Soloveitchik.  He said that just as in Shemone Esrai there is a beracha of שמע קולנו that our prayers should be accepted, so to נעילה is a prayer that our prayers that our prayers should be accepted and therefore he ruled that if one had not prayed the earlier prayers in the day, one cannot pray נעילה.  This goes in line with the above thought.  נעילה functions as a prayer to fuse the loftiness of the day into the person, without that experience, נעילה would not have any energy to lock in. 

Return to Yourself; Return to Hashem

Harav Hagaon Shmuel Wolman Shlita

White seems to be a very strong theme of the Yamim Nora’im. The minhag of Klal Yisrael is to wear white during the Yamim Nora’im. Almost everyone wears a kittel on Yom Kippur; some wear one on Rosh Hashanah as well. In shul, we deck the sifrei Torah, the bimah, and the aron kodesh in white.  We know that minhag Yisrael Torah, and every minhag has deep significance. The poskim explain that we wear a kittel because we resemble the malachim, and to remind us of the day of death, but perhaps we can add another dimension to the significance of wearing white.  The Rema emphasizes that we should wear a בגד פשתן לבן ונקי.  Not only should it be white, but it should be clean.

We find the color white associated with kapparas avonos, as the passuk states: אִם יִהְיוּ חֲטָאֵיכֶם כַּשָּׁנִים כַּשֶּׁלֶג יַלְבִּינוּ. The Radak explains that “snow white” is a metaphor for the whitening of the neshamah. Similarly, on Yom Kippur, the lashon shel zehoris tied onto the entrance to the Beis HaMikdash turned white, symbolizing that Klal Yisrael had merited kapparah.  Why is the color white so closely linked with kapparas avonos?

To understand this, I think we need to go back to the basics, and appreciate what teshuvah is, and what the avodah of Aseres Yemei Teshuvah — which climaxes with Yom Kippur and Neilah — is all about.

Teshuvah, as we know, involves various elements and steps, as delineated by the Rambam and Rabbeinu Yonah. Rectifying all our chata’im and achieving kapparah is a long, arduous process, and that’s the avodah of teshuvah in the sense of the actual details of the mitzvah. But what is the essence of teshuvah?

Furthermore, what does the word teshuvah mean?We understand what the word תטהרו means: It’s a purification process, one that the Rishonim compare to the purification conferred by a mikvah. But what is the meaning of the word teshuvah, which implies “returning”? What are we returning to? Where are we returning from? The Mabit, at the beginning of Shaar Hateshuvah, asks this question.

Some understand that we’re returning to the derech hayashar, since when we do an aveirah, we veer off that path. Perhaps that is true, but the passuk, cited by the Mabit, says something else: וְשַׁבְתָּ עַד ה' אֱלֹקֶיךָ, which means we are returning to Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

How were we away from the Eibishter? The meforshim explain that when a person does aveiros, he distances himself and erects barriers between him and the Eibishter. Teshuvah involves breaking down those barriers and returning to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, going back to kirvas Elokim and to the level of dveikus that is possible only in the absence of aveiros.

In a couple of places, however, R' Yerucham writes clearly that the concept of teshuvah is lashuv el atzmo — to return to one’s inner self. What does that mean, and how does teshuvah accomplish that? Moreover, how does that idea fit with the Mabit’s explanation that teshuvah means returning to the Eibishter? Am I returning to Hashem, or to myself?

In describing the state of a baby in its mother’s womb, the Gemara in Niddah says: ונר דלוק לו על ראשו וצופה ומביט מסוף העולם ועד סופו. What is that “lit candle” above the head of the fetus, which gives it that supernatural power of gazing from one end of the world to the other? The Maharal explains that this candle is the נֵר ה' נִשְׁמַת אָדָם. Every one of us has a ner — the נשמה שנתת בי טהורה היא. That neshamah is incredibly holy and illuminating, because it is taken from beneath the Kisei Hakavod. There’s a piece of the Eibishter, kivyachol, that exists in every single Yid — וַיִּפַּח בְּאַפָּיו נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים — and that is represented by the lit candle above the head of an unborn child. That ner is unbridled and limitless, enabling the baby to gaze from one end of the world to the other, because it hasn’t yet experienced the struggles and limitations of being part of this physical world. As long as the baby is inside its mother, it is a neshamah that is untarnished by the guf, which tries to drag it to places it never wanted to go. That ner dolek is our innermost self, and that chelek Eloka mimaal exists in every human being.

This, apparently, is what R’ Yerucham is referring to when he says that teshuvah means returning to ourselves. We are not attaining a new level that we never had and never experienced, but going back to our inner self. We were born with a neshamah tehorah, and we wake up every single morning with that neshamah tehorah. But then our life starts, and our day starts, and we begin dealing with all the distractions and difficulties and temptations and influences of this world. And that ner dolek, with all of its clarity, gets dimmed by this world.

When the baby is inside its mother, it learns the entire Torah, because that limitless neshamah is able to absorb kol haTorah kulah without any distractions or restrictions. When we come into this world, says the Maharal, we automatically forget all of our Torah, because this world is in direct opposition to everything about Torah and dveikus to Hashem. Our job is to get that Torah back — to constantly look to return to that inner self, to our neshamah. Teshuvah, then, is a return to both oneself and Hashem.

When we’re trying to return to the Eibishter, we’re going back to the chelek Eloka mimaal that exists within ourselves, and thereby rebuilding our relationship with the Eibishter and our ability to cleave to Him. The Gemara teaches (Yoma 86a): גדולה תשובה שמגעת עד כסא הכבוד, שנאמר (הושע יד ב) שובה ישראל עד ה' אלקיך. But it’s not the teshuvah that reaches the Kisei Hakavod; teshuvah is the vehicle that allows the person to get back to the Kisei Hakavod. How? By returning to himself, to his own neshamah, and thereby getting back his relationship with the Eibishter. This is the kirvas Elokim that teshuvah provides.

There is another recurring theme when we talk about teshuvah: לפני ה' תטהרו — we are coming “before” Hashem. Similarly, when the Rambam discusses teshuvah, he writes: והוא שישוב החוטא מחטאו לפני ה' ויתודה. How does teshuvah place a person before Hashem?

This physical world tries to distance the neshamah from its Source. The neshamah desperately wants to connect to the Eibishter, but when we are lured into believing that the world of aveiros is more enticing, and offers a better or easier way to live, we create mechitzos between us and the Eibishter, and deprive the neshamah of the connection it craves. Instead of accessing our true, intrinsic self, we are giving in to everything around us.

Teshuvah reverses that. It brings us back lifnei Hashem, back to that state where we feel the שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד, which is harder to feel when we’re under the influence of aveiros.

When Rabbeinu Yonah discusses the avodah of Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, he talks about both teshuvah and tefillah. We know that tefillah is very important, but why is it an inextricable part of the avodah of Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, to the extent that teshuvah and tefillah seem to be synonymous?

R' Yisroel Salanter famously notes that when the Gemara in Bava Kama teaches that “maveh” means “adam,” the passuk it cites relates to davening and beseeching the Eibishter. That is the very definition of an adam: a being that is connected to the Eibishter through tefillah. Tefillah is not just something we do — it’s an expression of what we’re all about. Our neshamah craves that connection, and wants to relate to the Eibishter through tefillah.

Rashi, in Sefer Bereishis, explains that the word tefillah is related to the word psil, connoting a bond with the Eibishter. Rav Chaim says that the most basic concept of tefillah is that the person is standing before the King — that idea of lifnei Hashem.

Teshuvah and tefillah go together; they’re one and the same. Teshuvah and tefillah repair that connection, bring us back into ourselves and finding the self of ואני תפילה, the pure neshamah within ourselves that will, by definition, reach the Kisei Hakavod — וְשַׁבְתָּ עַד ה' אֱלֹקֶיךָ. This is the goal of teshuvah, and this is what we’re looking to accomplish.

Of course, we have to open up a Rambam and a Rabbeinu Yonah and discover all the various difficult steps that it takes to accomplish teshuvah. But before starting those steps, let’s understand what teshuvah is all about. It’s not about getting to new places that we never imagined. Rather, it’s simply about returning to ourselves, which means going back to our neshamah, to square one. It’s a reset of sorts. It’s not easy, but it’s not something that we never experienced.

We can now better understand the concept of “whitening” aveiros, and why white is used as a metaphor for the kapparah of teshuvah. Obviously, white conjures up the symbolism of something pure and pristine. But I think that when we talk about the color white, we mean going back to the source, back to our original state in this world, a state of pure neshamah. White implies having no additives, nothing that is trying to change or add to the neshamah. The neshamah at its baseline is represented by the color white. It’s the shoresh that lies inside every one of us.

During Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, when we’re trying to pick ourselves up and live on a higher level, let’s remember what teshuvah is all about. It’s not just tikkun hamaasim — it’s what we’re looking to eventually accomplish through all the tikkun hamaasim: to get back to the Eibishter. But the way that we get back to the Eibishter is by pressing reset, going back to white, and returning to our original state when we came into this world: נשמה שנתת בי טהורה היא.

The Eibishter should give us the siyatta d’Shmaya to utilize the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah for this dual avodah of teshuvah and tefillah, to feel the ואני תפילה, to get back to ourselves, and through that, to be zocheh to true teshuvah that reaches the Kisei Hakavod.