Home Home / Ideas for Talk at Erev Hoshana Rabbah i…

Note

September 28, 2006

Ideas for Talk at Erev Hoshana Rabbah in Jerusalem (2006)

Sukkot
View The Text

This content is currently available in its original PDF format. As we expand the library, we plan to add a text version as well.

RELATED CONTENT

Outline

Lecture on Eve of Hashanah Rabbah (2006)

First: New of YU... 1. Introd: coming to end long/wondrfl Yom Tov season: RH/YK/Sukkot 2. Understand RH→YK – ימי דין/רחמים – sprt of Awe (Wohlberg: Aweful days). But what connects YK→Sukkot? Surely, >coincidence that all fall in תשרי! 3. My interp YK (אכילה ושתייה/רחיצה/סיכה/סנדל/תשמיש) – senstvty to others... And Sukoot = הרגש של גלות, homeless... 4. הרב: סיפר על ר' אלי' חיים מייזל, רבה של לודזש – הגביר פרזננסקי...שירגיש בקור... 5. now Q: is this teachg of senstvty reservd for js only? All ppls? 6. Will divide in 2 parts – a) attd Jsm t nn-J in gen; b) to specfc nn-J religions
Sukkot

Outline

Lecture on Hoshanah Rabba-YU/OU (2005)

Brief introduction on the halakhic source of Hoshana Rabba, and then a discussion of two or three (depending on time) strange images or passages relating to this day. Succah 44a – It was stated: R. Yohanan and R. Yehoshua ben Levi disagreed – one said the taking of the willow is a prophetic institution (יסוד נביאים), and one said it is a prophetic custom (מנהג נביאים). Rashi: “יסוד נביאים” – an ordinance of the last prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, who instituted practices during the era of the Men of the Great Assembly. “מנהג” – they merely introduced it as a custom but not a formal enactment. The practical difference: if it is a takkanah, one recites a blessing (“ve-tzivanu”), but if a minhag, no blessing is said, because “even under the general rule of ‘lo tasur’ it is not included.” The Gemara concludes: one takes [the willow] and beats it, but does not recite a blessing – implying it is minhag nevi’im. Yet the implication remains: if it were a yesod, one would recite a berakhah. Still, most halakhic authorities rule that it is a minhag. However, Rambam in his Peirush ha-Mishnayot writes that the prophetic minhag was precisely not to recite a berakhah.Rema, Orach Chaim 664 – “The early authorities wrote that there is an omen in the moon’s shadow on the night of Hoshana Rabba for what will happen to a person and his relatives that year...” To this day, there are still some who furtively check whether... shadows appear. But let me first complete the Rema: “...and some have written that one should not be exacting in this... and it is better to be wholehearted and not investigate the future.” The origin of this is the strange customs of the Hasidei Ashkenaz, all centered on the shadow on Hoshana Rabba – in particular, if one does not see a shadow (either of the head or of the entire body), it is a bad omen. This is connected to the verse from the episode of the spies (Shelach): “אך בה' אל תמרדו ואתם אל תיראו את עם הארץ כי לחמנו הם צלם מעליהם וה' אתנו אל ת…
Sukkot

Note

Sermon Idea for Sukkot (1975)

The primary meaning of Sukkah is to emphasize that insecurity; that the strength of our homes is merely an illusion. We can find security only in the hands of God. But there is also a secondary theme which goes in the opposite direction: that going into the Sukkah is a reminder of how lucky we are to have home. In this sense, the exodus to the Sukkah is a kind of "exile" or . Indeed, this is the special prayer we recite upon entering the Sukkah when we say יי׳/ער y)׳P/v may this be accounted as if I had gone into . This leads to another idea: the tendency of young people, young singles, to go to their own apartments when there is no necessity for it. Of course, there are times that work or study or sometimes difficult conditions at home make it mandatory. But generally, it is not a good idea.
Sukkot