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Speech

March 12, 1996

Nature and Beyond Nature: The Difference between Pesach and Sukkot

Sukkot Pesach

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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

Article

Pesach and Sukkot: Two Ways of Looking at the World (1996)

The festivals of Pesach and Sukkot are located almost exactly at opposite ends of the calendar, one in the Spring, the other in the Fall. Both have the identical cause – the exodus from Egypt, זכר ליציאת מצרים. Yet they are significantly different from each other. In a most interesting commentary on a major verse concerning Pesach, the Sages (ספרא אמור פרשה ט ד״ה פרק יא) say the following: "ובחמשה עשר יום לחודש הזה חג המצות" – יום זה טעון מצה ואין חג הסוכות טעון מצה. והלא דין הוא, ומה אם זה שאין טעון סוכה טעון מצה, זה שטעון סוכה אינו דין שטעון מצה? ת״ל זה, חג המצות זה טעון מצה, ואין חג הסוכות טעון מצה. A special word is inserted by the Torah to indicate that, contrary to what one might expect, the proper observance of Passover does not require that we observe as well all the mitzvot peculiar to Sukkot, such as the dwelling in a sukkah and the ארבע מינים. Undoubtedly, the same assumption and opposite conclusion can be worked the other way around, namely, that Sukkot does not really require eating matzah and refraining from chametz. The underlying idea behind the assumption is quite reasonable: since both holidays are motivated by the theme of זכר ליציאת מצרים, all observances of the festivals should be identical. However, the conclusion, based upon the דרשה, restricts matzah to Pesach and the sukkah and ארבע מינים to Sukkot, because while both memorialize the Exodus from Egypt, each emphasizes a completely different dimension of the fundamental experience of such remembering. The Zohar (23a), on the verse אל אברהם אל יצחק ואל יעקב בא־ל ש־די ושמי ה׳ לא נודעתי להם, focuses on the word וארא, "and I appeared," and teaches that there are two ways of viewing the world. Before the Patriarchs, the world was there but people were spiritually blind: they could not see what they were looking at. The Patriarchs arrived at the high level of גוונין דאתחזיין, a way of penetrating the visible world – by which is meant that they could contemplate the natural scene and find in it the…
Sukkot Pesach Character Development Torah Umadda