Thanks to the wealth which Hashem has showered upon us in
recent generations, many of us enjoy temporary succahs
that are nicer and more comfortable than the permanent
housing of generations past. This is altogether appropriate.
The charge to leave our permanent dwellings for temporary
accommodations on Succos is not to make us suffer in
primitive conditions, but to learn from the experience. We
should try to make our fulfillment of this mitzvah as
pleasant and as elevating as possible, and investing in
decoration and conveniences of the succah is a well-known way
of doing this. It enhances the immediate goal of the mitzvah,
which is simchah on Succos.
The most obvious lesson to be learned is that we do not need
our usual surroundings in order to achieve simchah --
and this is an important lesson indeed, especially in this
age of information overload. Bombarded as we all are with
information, we are often unduly influenced by the wrong
things. The whole year round our moods are strongly
influenced by the media; on Succos we are actually commanded
to seek higher sources.
Events that take place thousands of miles away are now as
immediate as those that occur next door. Details of
conditions across the world are broadcast instantly.
If crime is rising in Toronto, it can depress us. If there is
a good harvest in Kansas it can make us optimistic. If there
is a huge forest fire in Colorado it can worry us. If
unemployment is falling in the European Union it can make our
day. We might lose sleep over saber rattling between India
and Pakistan, while we are thrilled at a new scientific
breakthrough in Los Angeles.
While the world is so interconnected these days that most
information is potentially relevant to us, it is all part of
nothing more than the passing, ephemeral scene. Most of what
we hear about is here today and gone already later today. It
is often calculated and presented in such a way as to make us
happy or sad, but this is because it is aimed directly at our
emotions.
On Succos we are commanded to leave the routine, to go out of
our permanent dwellings. We are to spend the week in the
clouds -- the clouds of Hashem's glory. The flimsy roof over
our heads that affords a view of the heavens reminds us that
the material of this world should be a path to higher
things.
The way to true simchah -- and not just an emotional
high -- is not based on news of the day but on universal
principles and, centrally, on our relationship with Hashem.
"How do we perform the mitzvah of living in the Succah? By
eating, drinking and living in the Succah for the entire
seven days, day and night . . . We eat and drink and sleep in
the Succah for the entire seven days, both in the day and at
night." (Rambam, Hilchos Succah 6:5-6)
All of our usual lives, specifically including the mundane
activities of eating, drinking and sleeping, are in the
Succah, done in the performance of an explicit command from
Hashem. "The simchah that man achieves in doing a
mitzvah and in loving Hashem Who commanded it, is a great
labor (avodoh)." (Rambam, Hilchos Lulav
8:15)
This true simcha we must achieve on Succos. "When [a
person] does what he was created to do, he should be happy
and rejoice, because the happiness of all other things is
dependent on ephemeral things but the simchah in doing
mitzvos and learning Torah and chochmoh is the true
simchah." (Magid Mishneh on the Rambam in Hilchos
Lulav mentioned above)
Chag somei'ach!
