The halachah is that in order for one to fulfill the mitzvah of succah he needs to have: ראשו ורובו ושולחנו בתוך הסוכה – “One's head, most of his body, and his table inside the succah.” He can't be partially in and mostly out of the succah. Even his table needs to be in the succah. The Sefas Emes explains this halachah to mean that we must be immersed in the mitzvah, involved in it, happy with it, and thinking about it. One shouldn't sit physically in the succah with his head and heart elsewhere.
R' Elimelech Biderman brings an amazing moshul:
Someone driving a new Mercedes approached the border. The border police checked the trunk to see whether he was bringing undeclared merchandise over the border. All they found was buckets of soil.
“What's this for?” they asked.
“I’m building a house, and earth good for construction is cheaper in the other country. I go there and fill my buckets with dirt to build my home.”
They didn’t believe him. It didn't make sense to import dirt to save a few pennies, so they sifted through the earth, expecting to find hidden contraband, but couldn’t find anything. They let him pass.
The following day, he arrived at the border again in his shiny Mercedes. The border patrol sifted through the soil again, didn’t find anything, and let him go. This happened daily. After a while, they stopped sifting through the earth because they knew they wouldn’t find anything exciting.
One day, he informed the guards that he won’t be coming anymore. “I'm just about finished building my house, so there's no reason for me to bring more earth,” he said.
The border police couldn’t contain their curiosity any longer. They said, “Tell us why you carried dirt over the border every day. We don't believe you were importing earth to save a few pennies.”
He replied, “If you promise not to arrest me, I will tell you.”
They promised, and he said, “I am a luxury car dealer. You thought you were seeing the same car every day, but every day, I imported a brand-new Mercedes tax-free. I needed a decoy so that you wouldn’t suspect me, so I began importing earth. That took your focus away from what was really happening.”
This moshul reminds us to stay focused on what is important and not get distracted by unimportant trivialities. There is a lot to focus on these days. We can focus on being happy, on the greatness of the mitzvos, and on the lessons of the mitzvos. But then something trivial happens, and people turn all their focus to that matter. We must remember that we don’t have time for that. There are greater things to think about now.
