The Lubavitcher Rebbe's Topsy-Turvy Sukkah

The Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Topsy-Turvy Sukkah he hallmark of a true sage of the mesorah (tradition) is Rabbi Yosef Bronstein the radical embracement of a Tparadox. On the one hand, the talmid Judaic Studies Faculty, Isaac Breuer College and chacham is completely beholden to Stern College for Women the Torah received from previous generations. But simultaneously, 3 העולם נחשב בעינינו כתוהו וכצל ולכך אמרו /he has the ability and obligation to innovativeness. It was this new )סוכה ב.( צא מדירת קבע ושב בדירת עראי breathe new life into these ancient old philosophy that fueled Chabad’s להורות כי גרים אנחנו עלי ארץ מבלי קבע. sources by offering innovative singular activities in the second half of interpretations and novel theories.1 the twentieth century. Behold, the Torah counselled us that It is the proper balance between The Rebbe’s approach to the mitzvah on Sukkot, which is the end of the days these two poles that allows the talmid of sukkah is a prime example of his of repentance, we should accept upon chacham to stay true to the timeless interpretive method and philosophy. ourselves an exile, so that the entire world mesorah while making the eternal In this essay, I will summarize what will be in our eyes like nothing and like a Torah timely and relevant to the I understand to be his central thesis shadow. And therefore they said (Sukkah people of his generation. regarding the nature of the sukkah and 2a) “leave your permanent dwelling and stay in a temporary dwelling” to This description is perfectly apt for contextualize it within the broader framework of his thought. teach that we are strangers on this world Rav Menachem Mendel Schneerson, without any permanence . 5 the seventh Rebbe of Chabad (henceforth “the Rebbe”). His A Transient World According to Rav Yehonatan 6 adherence to the Torah of previous Eibeschitz and others, the temporary generations in general, and to the Masechet Sukkah opens with a debate nature of the sukkah represents the teachings of his predecessors in regarding the status of a sukkah that fleetingness of this world. Living in a particular, is well known. He was is higher than twenty amot. Rava sukkah for a week engrains within us a master of both nigleh and nistar,2 explains that the debate depends on that we are mere travelers, temporarily with, of course, a particular expertise if a sukkah is a “permanent dwelling,” lodging in the hallway of this world in the voluminous discourses of and therefore even a structure of this while on a journey to the palace of the his predecessors. Every ma’amar height is suitable for the mitzvah, next world. (Chassidic discourse) he delivered or a “temporary dwelling,” and began with a citation and analysis of therefore such a tall structure is The Nullification of the World 4 a previous Rebbe’s Torah, and it was disqualified. The fact that we follow these ideas that created the contours the latter opinion is often used as the On the surface, there is much in of his thought. However, through foundation of a homily regarding the Chabad thought that would confirm a rigorous textual and conceptual take-away message of the sukkah. For this conclusion. One of the central analysis of these earlier teachings he example, here are the words of Rav tenets of Chabad philosophy is was able to develop a sophisticated Yehonatan Eibeschitz: acosmism — a belief in the illusory nature of the world. When our eyes והנה יעצה לנו התורה בסוכות שהוא סוף and comprehensive thought system observe the world that surrounds us ימי תשובה לקבל על עצמנו גלות ולהיות כל of his own, which is striking in its 9 Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary • The Benjamin and Rose Berger CJF Torah To-Go Series • Sukkot 5777 and perceive a physical reality teeming with diversity, we are in fact being fed The Lubavitcher Rebbe on the Four an illusion. In truth, nothing exists Species other than God — ain od milvado in the most literal sense possible. If we The midrash,Vayikra Rabbah 30:9, has a very cryptic had spiritual eyes we would be able to comment on the four species: פרי עץ הדר זה הקב”ה שכתוב בו )תהלים קד( הוד והדר לבשת see through the façade of reality and כפות תמרים זה הקב”ה שכתוב בו )תהלים צב( צדיק כתמר יפרח recognize the hidden true nature of the cosmos — simple divinity. 7 R. Menachem Mendel וענף עץ עבות זה הקב”ה דכתיב )זכריה א( והוא עומד בין ההדסים Schneersohn וערבי נחל זה הקב”ה דכתיב ביה )תהלים סח( סולו לרוכב בערבות And while other Kabbalistic schools 1902-1994 בי-ה שמו. exhorted their students to not dwell on this radical idea,8 Rav Shneur “The fruit of a beautiful tree” (etrog), this is The Holy Zalman of Liadi, the founder of One Blessed be He as it states, (Tehillim 104) “He is clothed in glory and Chabad Chassidut, did just the beauty.” “Branches of a date palm” (lulav), this is The Holy One Blessed be He opposite. ThroughoutTanya he as it states, (Tehillim 92) “The righteous one flowers like a date.” “A branch encourages his readers to contemplate of a braided tree” (hadasim), this is The Holy One Blessed be He as it states, the nothingness of our world and even (Zechariah 1) “He stands between the myrtles (hadasim).” “Willows of the the complete dissolution of the self valley” (aravot), this is The Holy One Blessed be He as it states, (Tehillim 68) into the light of the simple unity of “Who rides in the skies (aravot) with his name “Y-ah.” Hashem.9 This contemplative service, What is the midrash trying to teach us by associating the four species with known as bittul, is identified by the God? R. Schneerson, Sha’arei HaMoadim, Sukkot pp. 151-152, suggests Alter Rebbe as the general principle that one of the goals of the mitzvah of taking the four species is to bring underpinning all of Torah and mitzvot: God into our lives through the performance of mitzvot. The midrash is trying to convey the message that by taking the four species, we are actually .taking” God into our lives“ וזהו יסוד כל התורה להיות בטול היש לאין וכל השלשה דברים שעליהם העולם עומד Torah To Go Editors היינו תורה ועבודה וגמ”ח כולם ענינם בטול היש לאין. And this is the basis of the entire Torah, Hashem Is Here, Hashem Is will be purified to the degree that that there be the annihilation of being There... human beings will be able to stand (yesh) into nothingness (ayin), and all the “without being nullified in their very three things on which the world stands, But this description of the existence” and perceive the “Divine that is Torah, worship, and charity, are all nullification of the world is only one light that will be revealed to them . aspects of the annihilation of being into pole of the great paradox elucidated without any cloak.”14 nothingness.10 in Tanya.11 Once the Alter Rebbe understands the unity of Hashem to In the context of Sukkot, such a The Rebbe’s First Address — mean that from Hashem’s perspective philosophy would seemingly lead Hashem’s Garden nothing exists other than Him, this one to Rav Yehonatan Eibeschitz’s simple sense of unity also grants great understanding of the sukkah’s As early as his firstma’amar as the significance to this world. Everything symbolism. If the goal of our service leader of Chabad, the Rebbe outlined that we perceive in our world is is to pierce the illusion of reality and what he saw as the mission of his permeated with divinity and can be 15 see nothing other than Hashem, then generation. He focused on a midrash a conduit of experiencing Hashem.12 the sukkah stands as a reminder that that describes “Ikar Shechinah” as Our and service are not only nothing in this world is as permanent, mitzvot originally occupying “tachtonim.” intended to condemn this world to or even as ontologically stable, as it When Adam ate from the Tree of nothingness, but also to draw divinity Knowledge, the Shechina ascended seems. 13 into it. This pole will reach its peak in to the first heaven, and with the next the times of Mashiach when the world six major human sins the Shechina 10 Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary • The Benjamin and Rose Berger CJF Torah To-Go Series • Sukkot 5777 continuously ascended until it reached — within specifically our lowly world.16 tachtonim engendered a conscious the seventh and highest heaven. revolution in many poles of religious Previous generations tended toward Then seventzadikim , beginning thought and practice.18 Focusing on a more spiritualized service, with the with Avraham, merited to lower the “tachtonim” created an inverse goal to “extricate [oneself] from the the Shechinah, level after level, until hierarchy in which items, activities straits of contraction ... and to rise ... Moshe, the seventh tzadik, merited to and places that were previously into the hidden world in which the bring the Shechina back to the land. considered more overtly “spiritual” light of the Ein-Sof, the completely became secondary to specifically the After dissecting the midrash’s key hidden God, gleams and shines as it more physical and seemingly secular. terms, the Rebbe concluded that “Ikar were.” 17 According to the Rebbe, as we The example that is relevant for our Shechina” refers to the highest levels approach the days of Mashiach, our discussion is the changed perspective of divinity and “tachtonim” refers to focus must shift from the heavens to on how the world outside of “the “this lowly world.” In other words, finally bringing theIkar Shechina back four cubits of halacha” should be the ideal home for the Shechina is to its garden, to our lowly world.

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