Page 40 - HaMizrachi #33 Sukkot 2021 USA

Our
Ushpizi

moshe

Moshe Rabbeinu, Time-Traveler

Hannah and Yoni Abrams

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

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