September 26, 2023 · 01:35:08
From Isolation to Attachment: Re-Creating Rapture In Our LivesThis class was presented by Rabbi YY Jacobson on Tuesday, 11 Tishrei, 5784, September 26, 2023, at Bais Medrash Ohr Chaim in Monsey, NY. Sukkos is called the “Festival of Joy”, but what exactly is so joyful about it? The other major holidays are named after their very essences: Passover is the “Festival of Our Redemption,” and Shavuot is the “Festival of the Giving of Our Torah.” What’s the deep connection between joy and Sukkot? And how can we understand the mystery of the four plants we shake on Sukkos? If someone unfamiliar with our tradition were to stop you today walking down the street with your four species and say, what are you holding in your hand? You would say: “This is my ritual bouquet!” Then they ask: What do you do with it? “Well, we shake it.” Hu? What is more, the Torah states that when you take these four plants, “you shall rejoice before your G-d seven days.” Why? How does holding on and shaking these four plants generate happiness? Who was the first person to take a fruit from a beautiful tree? Of course, Eve and Adam. What fruit was it? The Midrash says: the Esrog. It would appear that on Sukkos we are repeating the same story: we are again taking the Esrog off the tree, but this time around, we take it, shake it, swing it, but don’t eat it. It is almost like G-d is telling us, I want you to do this over again.