How to experience true joy on Sukkot

Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto’s talks are known throughout the Jewish world. They combine chassidic teachings and philosophy, along with tips for a better life. We have collected pearls from his teachings that are relevant to our daily lives. This week he discusses the holiday of Sukkot.

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The Mishnah brings (Sukkah 3:9): Rabbi Akiva said, "I would watch Rabbi Gamliel and Rabbi Yehoshua, and saw that all the people swayed their palm branches, but they did not sway them except when reciting ‘Please, God, please save!’ [a verse in the Hallel prayer]

Let us try to understand what Rabbi Akiva was saying here and what he meant by the words ‘I would watch’?

Another question the Gemara asks (Sukkah 53a): Rabbi Yehoshua ben Hananiah said, “Our eyes saw no sleep when we were rejoicing during the Beit HaShoeva jubilation." What did he mean  by ‘our eyes saw no sleep’?

We can explain it by noting that there are two types of people who “sleep.” One type lies on the bed and sleeps as per his body’s needs, while the other idles, sleeps his life away and does nothing. He is also considered to be sleeping. When Rabbi Yehoshua ben Hananiah said that “Our eyes saw no sleep when we were rejoicing during the Beit HaShoeva jubilation," he meant that they were not relaxing or idling, but all the time were attaining holiness and purity.

Our sources explain that righteous individuals would experience divine inspiration from the Beit HaShoeva jubilation. The Gemara (Yerushalmi Sukkah 5:1) states that Jonah the son of Amitai was one of the pilgrims visiting the Temple who experienced divine inspiration when attending the Beit HaShoeva jubilation. Jonah did not have a special reason for which he was deserving of having divine inspiration. Joining the Beit HaShoeva jubilation in the Temple and dancing and experiencing the great ecstasy alone gave him the power to attain it.

This explains the story we started out with involving Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabbi Gamaliel. Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabbi Gamaliel were not colleagues of Rabbi Akiva. They were from the generation before the Temple was destroyed while Rabbi Akiva was active primarily just before the Temple’s destruction and its aftermath. If Rabbi Akiva was saying, “I would watch”, it could only mean that during the rejoicing of the Beit HaShoeva jubilation when he soared in great ecstasy, he envisioned with divine inspiration how Rabbi Gamliel and Rabbi Yehoshua would sway their palm branches and etrogs when reciting ‘Please, God, please save!’ Those who experience the holiness and happiness of the Beit HaShoeva jubilation can achieve divine inspiration.

This teaches us a great principle for life. A person who sits in the place of scorners will decline spiritually. He can be truly holy, but if he sits next to a person whose head is full of nonsense, he will deteriorate spiritually. Thoughts are like birds that fly from one garden to another. When two people sit and one has holy thoughts, even if he does not say his thoughts out loud, his thoughts will fly like a bird to the other person. It is the same with a bad person who has negative thoughts. His thoughts will fly like a bird from his head to yours.

That's why the Sages say (Avot 1:7), “Stay away from an evil neighbor, and do not associate with the wicked.” When a person is in a place of frivolity, a place of scorners, he destroys everything good that he possesses. It is the same with the Sukkah. A sukkah is a place of faith, a place of holiness. When a person enters the Sukkah with holiness and purity and works on himself to achieve greater holiness, he can ascend and reach the highest and holiest levels.

During the time of Rabbi Akiva, the Temple no longer existed, the Temple was destroyed, but during the rejoicing of the Beit HaShoeva jubilation, he felt true joy of holiness and purity, a pure happiness for the sake of heaven. Due to this, he was able to "watch Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabbi Gamliel" - to sense with divine inspiration how they would sway the palm branch and the etrog.

A person can experience great holiness on Sukkot and imbibe divine inspiration, just as Jonah ben Amitai did. The verse "Rejoice in your holiday, you and your son and your daughter and your servant and your maidservant and the Levite and the convert and the orphan and the widow who are in your gates" (Deuteronomy 16:10) is said 3 times concerning the festival of Sukkot, corresponding to our 3 patriarchs and the 3 walls of the Sukkah. The holiday joy that one experiences during Sukkot can inspire him for the whole year, just like a bride and groom who are happy during the first week of their marriage are likely to be happy for the rest of their lives. We are commanded to rejoice with the bride and groom because it will help them be happy for the rest of their lives. Like the Sheva Brachot week that follows the wedding, the holiday of Sukkot is for seven days. If a person is completely happy during them, the joy will remain with him for the whole year.

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Another message that the Sukkah teaches us is that a person's life is temporary and not permanent. 

The Gemara (Sukkah 2a) says that the Torah tells us to go out of our permanent home and stay in a temporary dwelling for seven days. All year long, a person lives in his permanent home. Since G-d wants us to feel we are only temporary in This World and not have the confidence that our life is guaranteed, we move out of our permanent home to a temporary dwelling, the sukkah.

On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, our hearts were humbled, we drew closer to God and tried to improve. The holy Torah commands us to follow these holidays with the holiday of Sukkot. Going into the sukkah teaches us to give up our sense of permanence, to realize that our lives don’t only depend on us, and to start feeling that life is temporary and This World is only a corridor. As the Mishnah says (Avot 4:16) “Rectify yourself in the corridor, so that you may enter the palace.”

Another mishnah (Avot 3:1): Akavya ben Mahalalel said, “Look at three things and that will prevent you from sinning. Know where you came from, where you are going, and before Whom you will have to give a reckoning.” A person should always keep in front of his eyes where he came from and where he is going and before Whom he will have to give a reckoning in the future. In this way, he will always live a temporary life, and will not err in believing that he alone is the master of his fate.

(Published in the BaKehilah hareidi weekly)

This article was written in cooperation with Shuva Israel