Page 32 - HaMizrachi Australia Sukkot 5781

Our
Ushpizi

moshe

Moshe Rabbeinu, Time-Traveler

Hannah and Yoni Abrams

hat will Moshe Rab- at Mount Sinai would continue to be place and flows to a low place, so do
beinu think when he passed down through all the genera- words of Torah only remain with a
walks into your sukkah tions of history, even if the discourse humble person” (Megillah 7a). Moshe
Wthis Chol Hamoed? and style of study would change. learned Torah on Mount Sinai, but he
Moshe, of course, is no stranger to time This story helps us answer our original also learned Torah from Mount Sinai.
travel. While learning Torah with G-d question. How will Moshe react upon Sinai taught Moshe the importance of
on Mount Sinai, G-d catapulted Moshe entering your 21st century sukkah? He humility in learning Torah, a lesson
forward in time to visit the Beit Mid- might be wowed by the fairy lights and Moshe fully absorbed. The Torah
rash of Rabbi Akiva. the modern bamboo mats, or take calls Moshe, ם ָד ָא ָה ל ּ ֹכ ִמ דֹא ְמ ויָנ ָע, “more
The Gemara (Menachot 29b) relates pride in the laminated school projects humble than any other person” (Bam-
idbar 12:3). He alone had the humility
that while studying Torah on Mount decorating the sukkah. But though your to accept every word of the Torah and
Sinai, Moshe found G-d affixing crowns sukkah likely looks very different from pass it on faithfully.
to the letters of the Torah. the one that Moshe himself lived in in The concept of Halachah LeMoshe MiSi-
When Moshe asked G-d about the pur- the desert, its fundamental halachic nai requires the humility to accept a
pose of these crowns, G-d explained features would be the same. Many of law when there is no logical or exeget-
“because there will be a man in the these halachot of the sukkah fall in the ical reason for it. It is purely Hashem’s
future named Rebbe Akiva who category of Halachah LeMoshe MiSinai, will, as transmitted through Moshe.
will extrapolate heaps and heaps of just like the law taught in Rabbi Akiva’s Rabbi Akiva showed Moshe that
halachot (laws) from each crown.” Beit Midrash. he accepted not only the content of
Moshe turned around to find that For example, we learn from Moshe Moshe’s words but also the content of
G-d had taken him more than 1,000 the minimum number of walls and Moshe’s character.
years into the future, to Rabbi Akiva’s the smallest acceptable width and
crowded Beit Midrash, where they breadth of the sukkah. We understand When Moshe walks into our sukkot,
were discussing this very issue. the unique concept of lavud, that even what will he think of us? We hope
that our sukkot, a demonstration of our
As Moshe listened in from the back if there are gaps in the wall, we con- humble fidelity to the Halachot LeM-
of the room, the Gemara describes sider the wall to be unbroken. Millenia oshe MiSinai, will bring Moshe the very
that “he did not know what they later, the external trappings of our same comfort and joy he experienced
were saying.” He was distressed until sukkot may be different, but Moshe in Rabbi Akiva’s Beit Midrash!
a student asked Rabbi Akiva where a would likely be comforted in knowing
particular halachah comes from. Rabbi the tradition from Sinai continued in
Akiva answered, “that is a Halachah the structure of the sukkah itself.
LeMoshe MiSinai (a law Moshe learned Why do we say that Moshe received
from Mount Sinai, but not written the Torah from Sinai (miSinai) when he
explicitly in the Torah).” received it from G-d on Sinai? Perhaps
Hearing this, Moshe was comforted. the phrase should read Halachah LeM-
Just as Moshe admitted to Hashem that oshe MiHashem. What did Moshe learn
he did not understand the analysis of from Mount Sinai itself? The Rabbis
the letters’ crowns, he did not under- explain that Mount Sinai was the Hannah and Yoni Abrams are Mizrachi
stand how Rebbe Akiva’s approach to smallest mountain, and was chosen UK Fellows, and wil be going to the UK on
Torah study derived from the Torah he to receive the Torah precisely because shlichut in 2023. They are both participants
had studied at Mount Sinai. But upon it did not think itself worthy of being in Mizrachi’s Shalvehet leadership program.
hearing the phrase Halachah LeMoshe selected. Sinai was the humblest and Yoni is studying for semicha at Yeshiva
MiSinai he understood that the Torah lowest of mountains and embodies the University in Israel, while Hannah is learning
tradition he had received from G-d teaching: “just as water leaves a high at Matan’s Advanced Halakhic Institute.

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