From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, May 12, 2006 2:58
AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Emor,
5766
Cloudy
By Rabbi Joshua (protectedly known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
The
second half of parshas Emor consists of a presentation of the various holidays
of the year, followed by a few other topics, including the menorah and the table
of lechem hapanim, or show bread, in the mishkan. It is unclear why these two
utensils of the mishkan are mentioned at this point, since they have been
mentioned previously in the Torah. A more difficult problem is the repetition of
the holiday of Sukkos within the section of holidays in the parsha. First,
Sukkos is mentioned as part of the cycle of holidays in Tishrei, following
Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, without any mention of the unique mitzvos of
Sukkos, namely, the mitzvoh to sit in a sukkah and the mitzvoh to take the four
species. Then Sukkos is again mentioned, this time mentioning those distinctive
mitzvos. Why is Sukkos repeated in this way? Rabbi Reuven Katz, in his Degel
Reuven, offers an explanation which, I believe, can help us understand why the
menorah and shulchan are mentioned afterwards, as well.
Rabbi
Katz explains that the first mention of Sukkos in the section on holidays in
Emor is addressed to the people who were in the wilderness at that time. For
them, there was no need to commemorate the fact that they sat in booths in the
wilderness, because that was an ongoing process. Actually, there is a dispute
between Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Eliezer, whether the sukkos mentioned in the Torah
refer to actual booths, as Rabbi Akiva says, or to divine clouds of protection,
as Rabbi Eliezer says. In either case, they refer to the fact that God exercised
His providence over the nation during their time in the wilderness, because even
the physical booths could not have protected the people were it not for the fact
that there were divine clouds of protection through which God watched over the
people, as Rabbi Moshe Vorhand notes in his Ohel Moshe to Sukkos. Both Rabbi
Akiva and Rabbi Eliezer, he explains, agree that both physical sukkos and divine
clouds existed in the wilderness. Their argument is only about which one of them
should be emphasized in commemorating the nation’s experience there.
The four species, as well, represent God’s protection of the
nation in the wilderness. Rabbi Katz proves this from a midrash, which says that
after Yom Kippur, the Jew takes the lulav to show that God has granted them
atonement from their sins. By taking the lulav together with the other three
species, continues Rabbi Katz, the nation demonstrates that God controls the
entire universe, and provides them with their needs. Since, in the wilderness,
God provided the nation with all its needs, through the daily manna, the well of
Miriam and the clouds of glory, there was was no need to commemorate that
process at the time, since they were experiencing it on a constant basis.
Therefore, when Sukkos is first mentioned in the parsha, only the sacrifices
that are brought then are recorded, just as the sacrifices of the other holidays
are mentioned. We may add the comment of Rav Aharon Kotler, that Sukkos here is
mentioned as part of the cycle of holidays in Tishrei, which follow a certain
progression, beginning with the judgment on Rosh Hashanah, the atonement on Yom
Kippur, which comes through repentance from fear of God, and culminating with
Sukkos, during which we try to achieve repentance through love of God, which is
a higher level. However, as Rabbi Katz, says, there was, at that time in
history, no need to remind the nation of God’s presence among them, since they
were witnesses to His daily miracles that sustained them at that time.
Once the nation entered Eretz Yisroel, however, God no longer
performed supernatural miracles for them on a daily basis. Rather, He now
watched over them in a more natural manner. Therefore, there was now a need to
remind them of His constant protection, and, for this reason, on Sukkos, they
commemorated their experience in the wilderness by sitting in sukkos and taking
the four species, waving them in all four directions to acknowledge God’s
continued providence. It is to the nation under this new set of circumstances
that the second mention of Sukkos in the parsha is addressed. Based on this
explanation, we can now understand why the menorah and the shulchan are
mentioned after the second presentation of Sukkos. Reb Zadok HaKohein explains
that both in connection with the menorah and with the shulchan, the word
’tamid,’ or constantly, is mentioned. The idea is that just as the divine clouds
gave the nation protection in the wilderness on a constant basis, so, too, did
the menorah, western light remaining burning constantly, and the bread of the
shulchan remain there from one Shabbos to the next, pointing to God’s constant
providence.
Following Rabbi Katz’a explanation of the reason for
the repetition of the section on Sukkos, I believe that there is a symbiotic
relationship between the message of the menorah and that of the shulchan,
as they appear after the second section on Sukkos, which teaches us of
God’s constant protection over us in all generations. The rabbis tell us that
the menorah symbolized the light of the Torah (see Ha’amek Davar here for an
elaboration on this idea) and the shulchan represented God’s providence in
providing us with our daily sustenance. Perhaps we can suggest that our
appreciation of God’s providence in providing us with our daily needs, just as
He did in the wilderness, as represented by the sukkah, is proportional to the
effort we put into studying His Torah. The more we delve into His Torah and
develop a constant relationship with Him, the more we can perceive His constant
providence, and realize that we are, ultimately, as dependent on him for our
dally needs today as we were in the wilderness.
Please address all
correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address -
JoshHoff @ AOL.com.
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