Continued from last week’s issue
I thought of a different idea than the Lubavicher Rebbe’s that we can say regarding the subject of קשה עלי פרידתכם. And although I’m an ant compared to the Rebbe, and there is an expression we don’t ask questions about the lion after he left the world, nevertheless the Torah requires a person to search for the truth and ask questions when one doesn’t understand something. My question really is two-fold. Firstly, I don’t think that grammatically פרידתכם means your separation from one another. If that were the meaning it would say פירודכם. Secondly the question of why the subject of the midrash is our separation from one another. I think that the idea of the midrash is simpler. On Succos, we were guests that came to Hashem’s home in the Makom Hamikdash. When a host is ready to say good bye to his guests, he says “I’m sad about your leaving, your separation from me,” because after all, the guests, when they leave, are separating themselves from the host.
I would like to humbly offer a different idea. The Torah is our connection to Hashem. As the Ramban says in his hakdama to his commentary on the Torah, the letters of the Torah are the shaimos of Hashem. The Gemara in Shabbas says Anochi Hashem - Anochi stands for אנא נפשי כתבית יהבית, meaning Hashem put Himself, so to speak in the Torah, and learning Torah is how we can know Hashem, and knowing Hashem is the ultimate expression of connection, as seen in Parshas Beraishis.
The extra day of Shemini Atzeres is a message that even when are no longer in the holiday of Sukkos – on which there are mitzvos that we must to do like taking the lulav in front of Hashem in the Bais Hamikdash for seven days – Shemini Atzeres is the yichud of Hashem and Klal Yisrael. How are we united? Only through the Torah.
When a Jew who is disconnected from Torah holds the Torah and starts dancing, it’s the beginning of the perfect fusion, the perfect relationship.
And this idea is the basis of the arguments that we saw previously between Moshe and Hashem and the angels. The Torah was written for people with a yetzer hara, for humans who must struggle to make a connection to Hashem, and that connection can only come through opening the Torah and learning what Hashem wants us to do and to know.
With this we can also answer the question that Rav Shlomo Zalman z”l would ask about Shemini Atzeres: how can we combine Shemini Atzeres with Simchas Torah when we have a rule of ?אין מערבין שמחה בשמחה The answer is that combining these holidays is not mixing two different days or concepts – it’s all one concept – unity with Hashem and His Torah. And this is probably the simple meaning of the words of the Zohar ישראל אורייתא וקודשא בריך הוא חד הוא – it’s all one.
When the Jews were about to leave the Bais Hamikdash after Sukkos, Hashem told us: ”it’s hard for Me when you depart. But you should know that we don’t have to say good bye yet.” The Bais Hamikdash and the obligation of coming to the Bais Hamikdash can be described as facilitators for the main objective, which is to be united with Hashem.
Perhaps we can even say that all this is hidden in the words in the beginning of parshas Vayeira וירא אליו השם (see Rav Elimelech).
by Rabbi Daniel Coren
