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Rabbi Aaron Goldscheider
Sukkot
OUR NEW SELVES IN OUR NEW HOME
A wonderful Chassidic teaching enslavement in Egypt. We felt the pain 5. The Almighty is the Great Host
conveys that following the of being strangers and being homeless, G-d’s hospitality allows the world to
days of Rosh Hashanah and and therefore knowing what this pain come into being and humanity to exist.
Yom Kippur, when we feel purified and feels like, we will share in the distress of Like Abraham, the Almighty invites
uplifted, we are convinced we now want others. The Rav suggests that we had to us to share this world with Him. The
our homes to be better than they were experience 210 years of slavery because mystics asked: Why did G-d create the
before. So we build a new home – a it molded our national personality into world? Does G-d, the Almighty, infinite
sukkah – a model we will carry with us one of compassion and concern for our and eternal, need a frail, finite, transient
into the coming year. fellow man. world? Yes, they said, He needs the
world in order to have another on whom
One area in which we can enrich 3. “My Home is My Castle” to bestow kindness and mercy. The
our home life is hachnasat orchim The Torah rejects the doctrine of “my Rav refers to the Kabbalistic notion of
(hospitality). This mitzvah is rooted in home is my castle” because it conveys tzimtzum – contraction: “By creating the
our collective souls from Abraham and two illusory ideas: first that the home world in general, and man in particular,
Sarah opening their home to strangers. gives ample protection and shields us in G-d surrendered His aloneness and
Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik highlights times of crisis. Second, that our home is allowed a physical universe to share
five aspects of the mitzvah that imbue it our property and no one else can claim in His infinite being... He allowed
with special significance: a share in it. We are vulnerable, and we something else to share with him what
1. It is Difficult and Uncomfortable neither have a home nor a castle. When had been exclusively His own.”3
When we allow a stranger into our we share our home with others we
home he intrudes on our privacy, both express the awareness that we are just Hence when we build our sukkot,
physically and often emotionally. At “tenants;” our home is to be used for our “new homes,” we are emulating
times, having a guest means we sacrifice good and to help provide for others in G-d. When we discipline ourselves
a part of our own comfort or privacy.1 need. to withdraw and share our space with
Sometimes his opinions may be different others; when we practice compassion
from ours as well. The Rav teaches that 4. The Dignity of Every Person and kindness, we come closer to our
the quality of welcoming strangers Hospitality means appreciating each most G-dly selves.
into one’s home reflects a spiritually individual as a unique being before
noble attitude toward others. It reflects G-d. The Rav comments on the name 1 Lustiger, Chumash Mesoras HaRav, Bereshit,
humility. A Jew feels far from perfection of the Book of Shemot, “Names,” 2012 p.169.
and is ready to learn from others. which suggests the importance of every
2. Lightening the Burden of Others individual. As Rashi notes (Exodus 1:1), 2 Ibid, 2014, p. 3.
Abraham knew what it felt like not each star is part of a universe, yet each
to have a home. He was a wanderer is numbered, named, and accounted 3 Clark, Wolowelsky, and Ziegler, ed. Days of
for many years, lost in a strange land. for individually by G-d. Similarly, Deliverance, 2007 p. 109.
This taught him and his descendants we also need to view each individual
to feel for the stranger and to have as a singular “star,” recognizing their Rabbi Aaron Goldscheider oversees
compassion for those in need. We uniqueness, Divine spark and eternal rabbinic outreach training at the Gruss
learned this lesson as a people from our value.2 Opening one’s home is a
reflection that one is aware of the Divine Kollel in Jerusalem and teaches in the
20 essence in every human being.
US for the Ministry of the Diaspora
