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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