Divrei Succos
Acquiring Happiness
“You shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of a esrog tree, the branches of date palms (lulav), twigs of a hadas tree, and brook willows (aravos); and you should rejoice before HaShem your G-d, for a seven-day period.” (Vayikra 23:40) The Torah clearly links our taking a lulav with the powerful rejoicing that is associated with Succos. What is that connection? Furthermore, one of the most well-known drashos about the arba minim is that each species symbolizes a different part of the human body. The esrog represents the heart; the lulav, the spine; the hadasim, the eyes; and the aravos, the lips. It’s a nice drasha, but what is the point? Furthermore, some important organs, notably the brain, are missing. Why are these four body parts singled out?
HaRav Shalom Noah Berezovsky, zt”l, the Slonimer Rav, explains that true happiness comes from freeing oneself from the addiction to this-worldly pleasures. How does this concept work? One way comes from the Mishnah in Avos (2:8) which declares: “He who increases possessions, increases worry.” The Orchos Tzaddikim defines worry as the opposite of happiness. Therefore, if we can decrease possessions, we can decrease worry, and automatically increase happiness.
Now, before anyone backs up a moving van to his neighbor’s house, empties it, and drives off (while calling out, “I’m only trying to make you happy!”), one more point is needed. While our ancestors may have thrived in conditions that would appall us, we have to live in the world in which we have been placed. Anyone who thinks that the “do-not-call” list will give them peace and quiet, should realize that the vast body of advertising does not come to us overtly, Billions of dollars are spent in finding subtle ways to tingle our nerve endings into craving for and buying them. The greatest salesmanship comes to us 24-7, wherever we go. Our job, therefore, is to become aware of these impulses and use our minds to channel them into productive use. From there, true happiness is possible.
A maaseh may bring out this point. For almost his entire life, a certain person had associated pickup trucks with gruff, tobacco-chewing men in plaid shirts and with shot guns mounted on the rear window. In other words, he had no connection to these vehicles. Then his parnoso required him to drive a truck. It took time to become accustomed to the high driver’s seat, the loud engine, and the occasional kibitzing from friends. (“Why don’t you put a Confederate flag on the back?” was a favorite), but this fellow soon became used to his new job. Then a strange thing happened; while driving, he noticed that other trucks on the road had become . . . interesting. He would catch himself looking at their fancier features and greater apparent benefits. “This pickup truck in front of me has four-wheel drive and a stiff suspension – it must be for off-road use,” he would think. These notions persisted, despite the fact that he never had any desire to bounce around the boondocks. Still, he couldn’t help it; he found himself comparing his plain-vanilla vehicle to others’ banana splits and feeling an urge to buy “more truck,” as those plaid-shirted people say. Sometimes, he actually needed to mentally rejustify his choice of truck to himself.
Now the concept becomes clearer, says the Slonimer. The four body parts symbolized by the four species are the four centers of desire. “The eye sees, and the heart covets.” (Rashi to Bamidbar 15:40) The spine is the tree trunk for those tingling nerve endings, and the lips and their mouth, where eating is done, also pull us in the wrong direction. The brain is excluded because it’s up to our brains to control our desires. When we point the arba minim in the directions that our brains command, we are symbolically controlling our seats of passion and thereby are opening the gates of happiness. May Succos be a time of happiness for all of us.
“And Just as They Afflicted Him”
(This story is a delightful way to start Succos. In it, we see the power of a tzaddik’s brocha and a new way to understand a Torah verse. What’s more, if a tree can have zechuyos for being mezakeh rabim, imagine what a person can accomplish!)
HaRav Avraham Hurwitz, shlit”a, had planted a willow tree in his courtyard, which he and members of his neighborhood used for aravos every year.
One neighbor, however, burned with anger at the sight of Jews doing mitzvos. One year, this neighbor concocted an evil plan. His own courtyard bordered Reb Avraham’s, and the hated tree was not too far away. He dug a hole in his courtyard, near the border with the tree. Once he had dug downwards sufficiently, he then continued his hole sideways, in the direction of the tree. Finally he reached directly underneath the tree, exposing its roots. He then climbed out and gleefully began to fill his L-shaped hole with kerosene – a strong tree-killer.
Word of the wicked neighbor’s deed soon got out and reached the ears of the Steipler Rav. He came out to the tree and announced, “’Just as they afflicted him, so did he spread.’ (Shmos 1:12) This tree has caused so many Jews to merit mitzvos. Let it grow even better, because of the kerosene!”
And so it was. The more poison that the neighbor poured into his hole, the more the tree grew and spread. Soon, it towered over Reb Avraham’s house, to the point that aravos-gatherers had to stand upon his roof to reach the branches.
That year, and for many years after, Reb Avraham’s tree supplied aravos to his entire city, and even beyond!