Within Range

Every year, our yeshiva, Heichal HaTorah, has a beautiful shabbaton during the first weeks of the year.

A few years ago, the week of Shabbos Shuva, the ninth graders and beis medrash enjoyed a special shabbaton together (the rest of the yeshiva had a shabbaton a few weeks prior). The shabbaton was held on the grounds of Camp Nageela in the Catskills Mountains, in Fallsburg, N.Y. On Friday afternoon, not long before Shabbos, there was a very professional sounding announcement over the building’s PA system welcoming the yeshiva and everyone who came for the shabbaton, especially Rabbi Dani Staum. No one seemed to know who had made the announcement and why I merited a personal shout out, except me.

Ironically, the announcement was made from Chesterfield, Missouri. My older brother, Rabbi Yitzie Staum, is the head counselor of Camp Nageela during the summer. He therefore has access to the PA system from his cell phone. He heard that Heichal was having a shabbaton and that I would be there. After confirming that I had arrived, he made the announcement from his home in Chesterfield, MO.

It was quite fascinating (and a bit unnerving) to have been welcomed from afar.

The mitzvah of sukkah is most unique. It is the only mitzvah one performs with his entire body (with the exception of living in Eretz Yisrael). The Kotzker Rebbe quipped that in the sukkah even the mud on one’s boots becomes holy. (Symbolically, that means that even with a person’s spiritual mud – his failings and sins, he can enter the sukkah and bask in its holiness.)

The Gemara Sukkah details many fascinating and unique leniencies that apply to sukkah, including lavud (gaps of three tefachim are halachically considered sealed), gud achis and gud asik (gaps between the ground and the bottom of the wall or gaps between the top of the wall and the s’chach – even sizable gaps – are considered non-existent), and dofen akumah (invalid covering of a sukkah such as an overhang, doesn’t invalidate a sukkah because it’s considered like “a bent wall” and not part of the sukkah). As long as there is a halachically valid sukkah, even if it combines all of the aforementioned leniencies, it possesses the incredible sanctity of the sukkah. As soon as one steps out of the confines of the sukkah however, none of that Kedusha is present.

Like the public address system at Camp Nageela, the holiness of the sukkah only extends to its own borders. As long as I was in the main building of Camp Nageela, I was within range to be able to hear my brother’s announcement, despite the fact that he was a great distance away. But as soon as I left Camp Nageela’s campus, I could no longer hear his voice.

There is another mitzvah we fulfill on Sukkos – taking and shaking the Four Species. The Gemara explains that when we shake the Four Species, we are symbolizing that G-d controls the winds in all four directions of the world.

It’s inconceivable that these two encompassing mitzvos performed during the same holiday have no connection with each other. In fact, the Arizal cites a custom to shake the Four Species specifically in the sukkah.

The sukkah symbolizes that there are special designated places and times that contain added levels of Shechina, places where the soul can bask and absorb added layers of sanctity and connection with its Creator. In time, we have Shabbos and Yomim Tovim. In place, there is Eretz Yisrael and Yerushalayim, and every shul and beis medrash throughout the world. On Sukkos, that level of Shechina can be found wherever one erects a sukkah according to the dictates of halacha.

The deeper symbolism is that our homes too can and should be places of Kedusha. Perhaps better said, our homes can be islands of sanctity in an often spiritually impoverished society. Wherever a family strives to build a home according to the dictates of halacha, and whenever a family yearns and strives to make their home a place where G-d’s Presence feels “at home,” the Shechina is manifest.

Indeed, the avodah of Shemini Atzeres is most challenging and formidable – to take the Kedusha of the sukkah into our homes, where it will remain all year.

In a different vein, the Four Species remind us that G-d’s “watchful eye” is over the entire world. There is no place in the world beyond His purview. Every tempest, blizzard, thunderstorm, and falling leaf is part of His Divine hashgacha. Not every place is holy, but every place is within G-d’s view, as it were.

In a sense, one can choose to embrace the message and significance of the sukkah. It’s up to us to try to absorb and imbibe the holiness of the sukkah. But there is no escaping the Divine eye of Providence, which is the poignant message of the Four Species. (It should be added that Rekanti, an early commentator, notes that each of the Four Species corresponds to one of the letters of G-d’s Four-Letter Name.)

While I love my brother and admittedly don’t see him and his family enough, it would be too invasive if he would be able to project his voice wherever I go. But it was cute to have that feeling of closeness, even at a distance, while I was on the grounds of Camp Nageela.

On a far more profound level, that is the experience we pine for on Sukkos. What an opportunity! May we all use it well.

Let me conclude by saying, R’ Yitzie, thanks for the personal shout out, and for giving me an idea for yet another brilliant Musings.

Chag Same’ach & Freilichen Yom Tov.