“You shall dwell in the succah for seven days...” (Vayikra 23:42). Rav Levi said: When someone keeps the mitzvah of succah in this world, Hashem says of him, “He kept the mitzvah of succah, so I will shade him from the scorching sun of the Day of Judgment.” Rav Yannai and Resh Lakish said: There will not be any Gehinnom (Hell) in the World to Come (i.e., in the ultimate, eternal world). Rather, the sun at that time will scorch the wicked and burn them up, as it says (Malachi 3:19), “A sun will come which will burn like a furnace; all the wicked and all the evildoers will be like straw, and the sun will incinerate them....” At that time Hashem will make a succah for the righteous to protect them from the sun, as it says (Tehillim 27:5), “He will conceal me in His succah on the day of evil; He will hide me in the seclusion of His tent.” (Yalkut Shimoni, Emor §653)
Resh Lakish tells us in the Medrash that as a reward for observing the mitzvah of succah a person is protected from the heat of the blazing sun that will scorch the wicked in the World to Come.
What is the power of this scorching sun? What is meant by the sun's “sheath,” and why is it normally encased in this sheath? What does the succah that Hashem will construct for the righteous represent? What is that fire of the future that burns up the wicked?
The Sifsei Chaim (Rav Chaim Friedlander zt"l, mashgiach of the Ponevezh Yeshiva) writes: At that future time when Hashem takes the sun out of its sheath and light shines in pure clarity to the entire world the reshoim will be burnt up by being faced with utter reality. All of their hypocrisy and twisted rationalizations just evaporate before them in the light of truth and they are left to face the truth of all their crookedness and phony excuses.
Mankind is beset with an all-encompassing nature of twisting and bending one's perception of reality and creating myriads of false rationalizations.
Alon Anava was born and raised in Israel. He grew up in Ra’anana in a very secular family without any Torah education or knowledge. He grew up hating religion and anything that had to do with it. He did not believe in G-d and the Torah and lived life as a secular Jew. Alon would describe himself as, simply put, ‘not a nice guy...’ In 1998, he moved to New York.
On the morning of Pesach 2001 he had a Near Death Experience due to a sudden cardiac arrest. This is how he describes his experience: “A filter had been lifted, giving me access to a more real world. In a split second I knew there was a Creator, and I was filled with such deep remorse for a life wasted and abused, devoid of G-d. Then the terrain abruptly changed. I suddenly found myself within the grasp of an enormous being that seemed to epitomize blackness. ‘You are mine,’ it said. Time stretched, as billions of years spread before me. The higher I rose, the more intense was my pain, not a physical pain, but one born of anguish and despair. I knew it was payback for sins I had committed against myself and others, manifesting now as avenging angels of my own creation.
Was this to be my eternity? Only G-d could save me. I cried out to Him. A tiny spark of light emerged out of this intense blackness, growing stronger and stronger until it was a radiant, white triangular-shaped light that emitted no heat. Soon it encompassed the entire space. I knew that G-d was behind that light and I was filled with shame and awe. Just as suddenly, I was immersed in a well of Divine knowledge that was impossible to contain. Such regret! Instantaneously, I found myself in another domain. A courtroom of sorts, the souls of all Jews gathered to bear witness against me. I felt exposed. Every act I had committed, every thought I’d had throughout my 27-year existence was there for all to see. I had no defense. I saw the spiritual blackness I had created and knew I had not only let myself down but all Jews."
That is the sun that Hashem will take out of its sheath to burn up all the wicked with the light of truth which for them is the most terrifying experience imaginable. What is that fire of the future that burns up the wicked? It is that extreme anguish and mental torment of recognizing exactly what one did in his life without any excuses. You can't bend the truth there. That is the most excruciating torment. What is even worse is the realization that there's no chance of correcting ourselves, it's done. The wicked arrive in that world of truth with all the façade ripped away, standing absolutely naked in front of the Heavenly tribunal, with nothing to show for their lives. They feel extreme pain for having ruined and dirtied the pure neshamos Hashem gave them at birth.
But then Hashem takes the tzaddikim and hides them in the succah. Why the succah? Because the mitzvah of succah turns everything we do into a mitzvah and consequently turns our entire lives into mitzvos and kedusha. Everything has meaning. This is the mitzvah of succah. We live our lives in deveikus together with Hashem. What is so special of the mitzvah of succah? In all other mitzvos there is a specific action or a specific object upon which we perform a mitzvah. We take a shofar, wear tallis and tefillin, we affix a mezuzah, we shake a lulav and esrog. These are specific mitzvos designed to be exactly that, mitzvos. They're not normal activities.
Succah is different. We build a hut made out of straw, and sit there and live there: we eat, sleep, and chat in the Succah. It entails normal life activities. Succah is the mitzvah which teaches us that our entire life should be devoted to Hashem. Everything we do should be instilled with ruchnius and lifted up above the mundane, לשם שמים. During Succos we learn that we can take all the simple acts that we do every minute of living, and add kedusha to them and turn them into mitzvos. Everything we do can be a means of acquiring deveikus. That's the marvel of succah. It's called the shadow of emunah. Because on Succos we sit in the shadow of that hut and have pure emunah: אין עוד מלבדו, everything belongs to Hashem: my eating, my sitting, my sleeping, my chatting, everything! That is the aura we acquire during Yom Tov and take with us our entire life.
