You don’t order chairs or a dinette set because any moment the conductor will come in and announce, “All aboard” and you can’t take anything with you except a few small things that you packed in your suitcase. ִשְׁ עַת פְּ טִ ירָ תוֹ שֶׁ ל אָ דָ ם – When a man has to leave and they call all aboard, א כֶסֶף וְזָהָב ִֹין לוֹ לָאָדָ ם לּ אֵין מְלַו – all the cumbersome things you don’t take along; מַ עֲ שִׂ ים טוֹבִים וּוֹרָ ה וָּא תּ אֶלִ לְ בַ דּ ב – only the things you can carry in your suitcase, your torah and mitzvos (Avos 6:9).
Make Money and Buy a Sofa
It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t beautify your home. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make money. Absolutely you need money. It costs big money to raise a Jewish family. Even an Italian family costs – rent is money, shoes are money, food is money. And a Jewish family many times over. Schar limud is money. You have to marry off your children. To buy a ben Torah for your daughter can cost a small fortune.
So even though you’re only visiting, it’s not as simple as waiting at Grand Central Station. But it’s only different in proportion – the yesod, the attitude, is the same. When you know that you’re just passing through you think differently. You begin to live differently; you live like a visitor.
The Tzaddik Without a Sofa
It’s like the story, you remember, that was told here before. Once a visitor came to see the Chafetz Chaim, zichrono livracha, and he walked in and saw him sitting in a little room. There was no furniture except a table made of boards nailed together and a bench also of boards nailed. So he thought that maybe they were renovating the house inside, the real house, and the Chafetz Chaim, in the meantime, was exiled to the empty room with makeshift furniture while they were preparing the house for him.
So he said, “Rebbe, where is the furniture?”
So the Chafetz Chaim said to the visitor, “And where is your furniture?”
So he said, “I’m only a tourist – I’m just a visitor here.”
So the Chafetz Chaim said, “So am I.”
And that’s how the great men lived – that this world was only a temporary place. By the way, you should remember that the Chafetz Chaim was here a long time, however. He was here until ninety two years, at least. And he was in good health and he had red cheeks until the last year. But he was only a visitor, a happy visitor but a visitor nonetheless. And because he knew that, he accomplished.
The Thirtieth Thought
The Chofetz Chaim knew what the Chovos Halevavos tells us. The Chovos Halevovos, in the Shaar Cheshbon HaNefesh, he has thirty cheshbonos, thirty forms of contemplation, which he recommends for people who want to make progress. If you want to achieve something, you have to spend some time thinking. Of course, you can be a good Jew if you don’t strain your mind too much. But if you want to be something better, so it’s necessary to contemplate certain ideas.
Now, the thirtieth one, the last one, is as follows: וֹן הָאָדָ ם עִם נַפְשׁ וֹּ חֶ שְׁ ב – A man should think to himself, ֶהָּעוֹלָם הַזּ ת בֵּרוִּתְ נָאֵי הַגּ ב – the conditions of being a sojourner, a visitor in this world. And he goes away further discussing that subject, the various good results that come to a man who makes this cheshbon with himself and learns to live accordingly.
The Thirtieth Means Thrills
He says that it’s one of the most important of all cheshbonos because it includes everything. Not only because you’ll enjoy life more. Like we said before, absolutely you will. The tzaddikim are tourists in this world and they enjoy this world much more sharply, with more zest than anyone else. You see tzaddikim don’t get into cars Saturday night and chase around. People are looking for pleasures but the tzaddikim have them already; they have their thrills already.
Yeshiva boys too; they don’t take a shot in the arm because they have their thrills; they’re happy with the beis hamedrash. They are thrilled in the beis hamedrash. Even to walk from the house to the yeshiva is for them fun. They never stopped to analyze it, but when a person understands that this world is only a temporary visiting place, he certainly gets much more out of it whether he is aware of it or not.
The First Ushpizin
But the thirtieth cheshbon, to contemplate that we’re only passing through, is most important because it means you’re attaching yourself to the promise that Hakadosh Baruch Hu made to Avraham. When Hakadosh Baruch Hu wanted to promise our father, Avraham, a great reward, he promised him as follows, ָ הּ וְ אַ תְשָׁ לוֹםּ בָּ בוֹא אֶל אֲ בֹתֶ יךּ ת – “You will come to your fathers in peace” (Bereishis 15:15).
So let’s understand what that promise is. Is Hakadosh Baruch Hu telling him that you’re going to have peace down to the last moment of your life? So it should say, ֶ בֶ רּהַ ק ָ בוֹא אֶלָּ ה תּ וְאַתְ שׁ ָ ל ו ֹ םּב – you’ll come to the grave in peace. But He’s telling him, “You’ll come to your fathers in peace,” which means that Avraham is going to rejoin his forefathers. He’s going to rejoin Sheim and his son, Eiver; and further back, Noach and Adam. He’ll rejoin all the tzaddikim b’shalom. And shalom means he’ll be successful.
When he comes there he’ll meet once more with his ancestors – Avraham met some of them in his lifetime – but now he’s going to rejoin them with great success. Because he knew that he was heading there so he prepared and now he’s returning as an accomplished person.
Emulating the First Ushpizin
Like somebody who leaves home and he goes to a different country, a far-off country, to make money. And because he knows why he’s in this place so he makes out well and he becomes wealthy and then finally he decides to return home to visit the old folks. And he comes back with news of his great success, of his big honors, his big achievements and that’s his happiness to return home with a report of success.
And that promise to Avraham is a promise to all of us. Hashem said ֵ הּ הַ רְ בִָּ י רָ א אַ בְ רָ ם שְׂ כָ רְ ךּ אַ ל ת מְ אֹ ד – Don’t be afraid Avraham; your reward is very great! What reward is that? Only Olam Haba is called great; other than that there’s no reward that can be called harbei me’od. And that promise is to all of his descendants: ָל יִשְׂ רָ אֵל יֵשׁ לָהֶם חֵלֶקּ כָ אּלָ עוֹ לָ ם הַ ב. As long as we hold on to the ticket, as long as we learn the lesson of the sukkah and keep it with us after we go back into our brick homes, ֹא יָבוֹא בְרִ נָּה נֹשֵׂ א אֲ לֻמּ ֹתָ יוּב – we’ll come back singing, bringing the sheaves of the crop that we sowed and reaped by our life in this world (Tehillim 126:5).
That’s a good thing to think about when Avraham comes in the sukkah to be our guest. What does it mean that Avraham Avinu will be our guest? It means that the dugmah, the influence, should come into our sukkah and be mashpiah upon us. We should think about that great promise made to Avraham and how he lived because of that. That’s more important than Avraham Avinu coming into our sukkah. If he came and we didn’t think about anything, if we didn’t think about who Avraham Avinu was, it would be a waste of time – a waste of a visit. But when Avraham’s influence comes, that’s more important than Avraham himself.
Extending Yom Tov
And that’s why it’s so important to live with Sukkos all year long. You can go back into your homes. You can enjoy your Hollywood bathrooms. Why not? I don’t begrudge that from you. Me? Who cares what I say? Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn’t begrudge that. But it’s on condition that you have the right attitude in your head, that you took with you into the house the attitude you gained in the sukkah.
That’s one of the lessons of Isru Chag, that we don’t want to part from the lessons of the yomtov. If we understand that Sukkos is not only a vacation, a time to spend fun times with the family – it’s good times after all, to sit with your family in the sukkah; if it’s good weather especially. And if you’re fortunate you have your sons-in-law and daughters-in-law there too. Good times!
But when we know that it’s the lessons of the sukkah that matter most so we don’t want to let go so fast. Even when Sukkos is over; it’s time to take down the decorations and take down the diras arai and put everything away. But the lesson of diras arai, that you’re not putting away; that you’re taking back into the house. And that’s how you’ll live happily and successfully all year long.
Have a Wonderful Yom Tov
This week’s booklet is based on tapes: 136 - Alone With Him | 245 - Citizens of Olam Haba 271 - Tenants in the World | 614 - The Succah | 756 - The World and the Succah| E-250 - In His Eternal Succah
