Parasha Thoughts
By Rabbi Shlomo Zargari
Hag Sameyah to all. We are in the midst of the lovely holiday of Sukkot. We started building the Sukkah right after Yom Kippur, so we go from one misva to another; what a joy. In the Zohar Hakadosh the Sukkah is called “the Shade of Hashem,” meaning whoever dwells in it is under the shade of the Creator himself. Obviously we are not talking about the flimsy branches on top of the Sukkah! What kind of protection are we expecting from them? But if we are talking about the Hashgaha (watching) of the Almighty and having His Shechina reside with us, then there is really nothing else in the world we need.
This is the biggest protection we could ask for, better than the deepest bunkers with all the latest technology. The verse in Tehilim (127,1) says ” If Hashem won’t build the house then for nought did the builders toil, if Hashem won’t guard the city for nought did the guardsman try.” But when Hashem is watching over you, what else do you need? We can see this daily with what goes on around the globe. The rockets, stabbings, terror attacks and bombs which were stopped before they became a reality were the “Sukkah” of Hashem, the miracle of His protection. We have, unfortunately, seen the results when this protection isn’t in place. We can see the enormous difference and we should be very thankful for being in the “Sukkah” of Hashem.
Rabbi Yechezkel Abramski recounts a story from World War II. At that time he was the head of the Rabbinic Court in London. One day during the war, in walks a lady who was an “Aguna” (a woman whose husband’s whereabouts are unknown); she had escaped and made it to England. Rabbi Abramski said, “She brought with her witnesses who testified that her husband was killed in the war, and she wanted permission to remarry. I suspected her and her witnesses and did not believe them. I cross-examined them, warned them and they still stuck to their story. I said to them, “if the judges won’t be able to get to the truth, you must know that the Shechina is with them and he won’t let the wrong verdict come out of the Bet Din”; that too had no effect.
Instantly there was an explosion inside the Bet Din. A rocket had fallen that shook everything and the room became filled with smoke and dust. We were all in a state of shock until the dust settled at which time our shock was even greater. We were sitting at our table and everything forward of that was gone, the woman and the witnesses too…”
Rabbi Abramski continued the story and recounted how he reached for his Sisit strings and held them saying, “when I put on my Sisit in the morning and say “the children of men find assurance (protection) in the shadow of your wings “(Tehilim 36,8) I’m talking about this.†He was always in the “Sukkah” under the wings of Hashem.
Hag Sameyah!