A Year of Happiness – Part 2
The sukkah is a segula to merit the Torah. This is why after Sukkot, all the people of Israel merit Simchat Torah - to rejoice, sing, and dance with the Torah.
This article is a continuation of HaRav Arush’s lesson An Injection of Motivation.
Simchat Torah – Rejoice with the Torah
And just as the sukkah is a segula for everything – so too, it is a powerful segula to merit the Torah. This is why after Sukkot, all the people of Israel merit Simchat Torah – to rejoice, sing, and dance with the Torah.
It is possible to receive the Torah with thunder and lightning, and you can also study Torah diligently and fulfill it as well – and this still does not guarantee that you are really connected to the Torah. A complete connection to the Torah only happens when you dance and rejoice with the Torah!
Although the Torah is received on Shavuot, a deep and inner connection to the Torah can only be received after you are “immersed” in the holy mitzvah of Sukkot with great and awesome joy. And if you rejoiced and danced with the Torah – you are guaranteed a deep connection with the Torah for the entire year – for you and your children.
A Year of Happiness
As I explained, through the “asei tov – do good” of the Sukkah, we merit to “sur mi’ra – turn away from the bad” all year round. Most of the evil that clings to a person enters through the seven “candles.” The holy Zohar explains that the seven openings that we each have on our face – two ears, two eyes, nose (two nostrils), and mouth – are positioned in parallel to the seven branches of the menorah. Rabbi Nachman teaches that by sitting in the sukkah, which is an aspect of the seven Clouds of Glory, on the seven days of Sukkot – we merit to make these seven candles holy. That means that in the merit of the Sukkah, we become protected from seeing anything forbidden, from speaking anything that is forbidden, from hearing lashon hara and other evil speech, and from anger, which is represented by the nose.
Even more, the greatest blessing in life is joy and happiness – and happiness is dependent on complete emuna. Since on the holiday on Sukkot we also merit perfect emuna – therefore, Sukkot is also called “The Time of our Joy.” It is specifically on Sukkot that we can acquire incredible amounts of joy. Additionally, being happy on the holiday of Sukkot is in and of itself an incredible mitzvah from the Torah! This mitzvah applies to each and every moment – twenty-four hours a day, all eight days of the holiday!
Hence, the Sukkah envelops us and purifies us from the outside, and the happiness of the holiday and the four-species, clean and purify and from within – to prepare us for a good and sweet new year, a year of desire and will.
