A Week With God: The True Meaning of Sukkot - Rabbi Lazer Brody

[Music] Hashem with Hashem's loving grace. The mitzvah of is a week with Hashem. Hashem is always with us wherever we are. But there's a chance for now for us to be with Hashem. Somebody ask what's the difference by saying Hashem is with us or for us to be with Hashem? Well, there's a difference. If you're a guest in my house, then you're with me. Then I'm a guest in your house, I'm with you. Okay? Yes, we're together all the time, but it's a difference between whether you eat at my house or I eat at your house or you're my guest or I'm your guest. During Sukkot, we're Hashem's guest. And it's a big difference being in Hashem's domain rather than Hashem being in our domain. When Hashem is in our domain, we back normal the way we usually do in our own customs, whatever. But when Hashem's domain, this is demanding, this behooves us to do things a little bit different. So, we have different obligations. We're going to learn them tonight. Okay. So, what is Hashem's domain in in this world? Well, the answer is the suka during the week of Sukkot. That's a domain. These are the divine clouds of glory that come down to the earth. They settle. They hover in the suka. When you go inside the sukai, you're literally within divine clouds of glory. And people with very high spiritual awareness, high spiritual sensitivity, they could feel this tangibly and dwelling in the suka during the week of Sukkot. It's literally not figuratively. It's not a metaphor. This is literally dwelling with Hashem for a week, spending a week with Hashem. And where do we learn this from? The Gomorrah and Tractate Sukkot page 11b it brings a diff disagreement between Rebel Ezra Benhorinus and his student Rebaka. Okay, Rebez, he's one of the one of the greatest fall time. He had Rebian and Roshua. But Rebea, their student, he became the grade of the next generation. But they're arguing now. The students are arguing with this teacher. They said, "What is the how do you learn? What is the suka?" So one opinion one opinion there's difference whether one said we'll give you the two opinions but uh one opinion says that rabbi ka said one way and rebuilus laser said another way and the other but just give the two opinions are that the suka is the booth the little hut that uh we dwell in the temporary quarters the temporary hut that we build we dwell in for for seven days during the the the festival of sukkot when I say seven days I refer to the seven days of the holiday in Israel there's a doubt outside of Israel uh about the holidays there's an extra day eth day just like there here we have seven days of Passover outside of Israel it's eight days of Passover here we have seven days of Sukkot outside of Israel is eight days of Sukkot but I tell but what's according to the Torah and according to the land of Israel this is the seven days that's what we call the week with Hashem seven days so during these seven days uh one opinion says well this is the booth and it's commemorative of the booths that the children of Israel built in the desert as they were 40 years so journeying coming to the land of Israel. But then the second opinion says no it's not the booth it's the clouds of glory because they built the clouds of glory. It says that the Zora, the Mishna, even the Torah, it tells the clouds of glory and the clouds of glory was an air conditioner and was an air purifier and it was uh eradicated all the the the dangerous uh snakes and scorpions and smoothed out everything. Not only that, but in the 40 days of desert, uh there were several miracles. People's shoes grew with him. A child a child would grow up, his clothes would grow up with him. And every day uh you put on your clothes, they were cleanly laundered and washed. This is under the cloud of glory that Hashem took care of everything. A person Hashem gave personal individual personal valet service to every one of the Israelites that came out of Egypt. So this one opinion says we dwell in these booths. One opinion says no with clouds of glory. So what does the Gomorrah do with an apparent uh argument like this? And it's it's contradictory. Gomorrah says both are right. Well, how can both be right? Well, the Gomorrah reconciles this difference in opinion between Ablazer and Rabika by saying, "Yes, it is the booths commemorative of being in the booths, but within those booths is the divine glory, the clouds of divine glory." So, they're both there. And this explanation is given both in the the Gomorrah and in Kabala and our sages. So, according to Kabala, what are those divine clouds? We have what's called divine light is in two forms of divine light. Uh it's called one is yashir and this is the the direct light that our namas that our souls are create are capable of handling. We also almost talk about this quite frequently during a moon hour that to strengthen ourselves in amuna. By strengthening ourselves in a muna we enable ourselves to receive more divine light. In other words, we get stronger and our moon is stronger. Instead of being a 60 watt light bulb, we're now a 100 watt light bulb. So, we can take we can handle more current without doing us damage. But, uh if a person is only a 60 watt light bulb, he can't have a 100 watts of divine uh divine illumination coming inside because it's too much for him. It'll it'll make it break. So, this is the the light that the soul is capable of handling. But there's a light that as the soul it cannot handle but Hashem lets the soul have a taste of it. This is called Machif. All mach is surrounding light. In other words, the direct light, the direct illumination is something that we have internalized in our brains and our soul. The soul is housed inside the brain. Something we internalize in our soul and the soul can handle. But to give us a taste of higher and to give us a chance to go higher when we we taste this sweetness we it gives us the power it gives us the will we say in Hebrew the keshik the desire to go higher and higher this is the old mach it's the circumping light it's the the light that surrounds us the light around us we cannot internalize this but we can feel this because all around us this is the cloud of g glory inside the suka it's called or machif according to kabala now this or mach for us to have it this orif this wonderful surrounding light it's a light of happiness and a person if a person focuses on the light person can't be sad can't be sad because it's corre connected to Hashem now there's one law with holiness sadness and holiness don't don't go together as soon as a person is depressed or sad the person cuts himself or herself off from divine light but even this the worst this we say even the worst situ situation smile and accept that everything is from Hashem. Hashem's loving father will be for the best and it really will be for the best because by doing that a person attacks person is not putting on a being false or putting on some kind of act that's not true but no the focusing on amuna focus on amuna yeah you hurt all over yeah you've got pains you've got difficulties we're in the middle of a war here you see what the the red alert looks like in in the land of Israel everybody from north to south everybody's is is under alert this is uh we had a false alarm Ash this morning everybody woke up at 3:00 in the morning that the terrorist came ashore turned out to be a false alarm but they thought there was a terrorist landing on the shore all the time with living in tension living on okay but that doesn't mean you can't have a smile on your face because we know that this is the war this is crazy all the wars of Israel been very short and very brief and this war has dragged out for a year and it's you know what it's going to end it's not going to be an end like all the other wars because this war is going to end in the gula and in Msiah it's going to infall the redemption of our We can see and we see everything that's happening. Just the prophets of Ezekiel, the the prophecies of Ezekiel, the prophecies of they're all coming one by one. One by one with the that the theah hiding within the UN and Israel will attack theah accidentally hit some UN soldiers and now the whole UN is saying Israel is a rogue country. We have to all invade Israel. This is exactly what the prophet told us that before Messiah would come that all the countries are going to come and they're going to want to invade. So we can see so wait a second. So why we're not afraid? No. If Hashem fulfills this prophecy, he's going to fill the prophecy of redemption and Messiah and the kingdom of David. It's all going to come true. So we look forward. We don't look like a a woman. How where does she get the power to go through the birth pangs? She goes through the pro because she knows what the big joy that's on the way. She knows the big joy of giving birth. And this is why our sages call that uh the coming of Msia. They call that they call it Mashiach the birth pains of Mashiach. Just like the same word which are are labor pains. They call labor pains of Mashiach. Now we're in the labor pains of Mashiach. But we could still be happy because we know this from Hashem. So we come in the suka and even if we got pain we don't go we're not depressed they come I'm with Hashem Hashem could do whatever he wants whenever he wants. So now I could take Hashem take all my problems be just being with Hashem and as soon as that person focus on Hashem something magic happens the pain goes away and the problems seem to work themselves out because it's going to be uh I'm going to invite you to to my home for dinner and you're going to go away hungry. No way. It's not going to be Hashem invites us to his home for sukot and and we're to go away with without divine light. Hashem sure he's going to feed us divine light. He's going to feed us not only that feed us abundance immaterial and spiritual. Okay? And this explains why Sukult is the festival of joy because we're literally with Hashem. Now, there's a generic command in the Torah. It says, "Well, what if I don't feel happy? What if I don't have a good mood?" There's a generic command in the Torah to be happy. Just like the Torah commands us to keep the Shabbat, Torah commands to eat kosher, Torah commands us not to steal, to command not commit adultery. There's a generic command in the Torah to to be happy. Where do we learn this? Open up the book of Deuteronomy chapter 16 verse 14. Uh it has a commandment that we have to be happy during the seven days of Sukkot. Now there's a commandment of happiness with every festival. Uh for example uh we have to the two words the Torah commands every festival you should be happy in your holidays. But in Sukkot the Torah says specifically that you have to be happy for seven days and Sukkot. What is the difference between Sukkot and Passover and between Sukkot and for example uh yes we have to be happy on Passover but but the focus is on freedom. It's not on happiness and we have to be happy on because the but the focus is on receiving the Torah and on happiness on the focus is on being in Hashem being with Hashem and being happy because there's no greater happiness on earth. This is what we're all striving for in amuna that our whole agenda is one thing getting close to Hashem. This is all we're talking about. This is the reason we learn amuna. This is the reason building together to do everything we do because it's all to get closer to Hashem. And there's no greater happiness, no greater achievement on earth than getting close to Hashem. So this is this is the the season of getting close to Hashem, the season of happiness. And this our big chance. So uh being happy or joyful, it's not just a commandment of the holidays. It's a commandment of Torah for all year long. Now we see in parav in the end of chapter 28 of of Deuteronomy we see 98 very nasty curses and those curses they came to place in the destruction of the holy temple the destruction of the second temple uh we can see the curses we can see that the curses that came true in the holocaust and the inquisition and the pograms all these really terrible curses we look at those terrible curses wow and think maybe it's because we did something wrong. The Gmoran Sanhedrin says there's three worse transgressions of Torah that a person should give his life for life for not possess. One is is idolatry. If the person that your person is a captive and the captor puts a gun on his head says bow down to the statue. No, pull the trigger. I'm not bowing down only to Shem. That's we have to give our lives and and not worship idolatry. The second is bloodshed. You have two captives and they say uh you kill your buddy and you could stay alive. No, my buddy's blood is no more or less red than mine is. Not going to kill anybody. Okay. So, this is uh we're not not take it take the life of another person. Listen bloodshed. And the third is illicit sex that the person is not supposed to do uh any sexual act outside of the command of sha outside of the the context of of wedlock. So see not because of that not because of illicit sex and not because of idolatry and not because of uh bloodshed. What does the Torah say? The Torah doesn't usually give a reason that it does what it does. It commands what it commands. But the Torah in paras gives a reason for those 98 curses and it's crazy. The Torah says because you didn't serve Hashem and joy. Why? Because didn't serve Hashem and joy and for that we deserve all these credits. No, you have to understand if Hashem gave us the mitzvah of amuna and Hashem gave us the opportunity to be with him and we turn this down. Can you imagine if a flesh and blood king wants to give you honor, wants to give you a gift? You have a a bull of a watch sometimes special jewel that the king of the the king of your country sends you and you you send it back your fa you send it back at the king throw it back in his face. No, I don't want the I don't want your gift. That is not going to invoke uh such regal uh compassion. But when we take amuna and take closes of Hashem and tell Hashem, heaven forbid that we don't want it and we don't want his Torah. And this is what invokes all types of all types of difficulties. Okay. So this is our command to be happy that it the Torah says because you didn't serve Hashem with joyfulness with gladness of heart. So we learn from the neighbors then we should this is a absolute obligation to serve Hashem in joy with gladness of the heart. So ask ourselves why is the command to be happy so severe? What did the Torah doesn't shout at us even worse commands show not to murder and not to steal but really to shout at us with 98 98 curses. Try to explain the significance of joy. What joy does to the soul and what joy does to a person's relationship with Hashem. Okay. Let's open up the book of Kings, the second book of Kings, chapter 3. In the second book of Kings, chapter 3, we see the story of Yoram. Yoram was a he was a bad dude. He was a criminal. Yoram was the eighth king of Israel. This was after the civil war between Judea and Judah and Israel. They became two separate kingdoms. The two southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin, they came the the kingdom of Judah and with Jerusalem was with inside Judah and Benjamin. And then the northern the 10 northern tribes became the king of Isra the kingdom of Israel. These are today these are the 10 lost tribes because they were they were exiled way before uh Judah and Benjamin were exiled. So Yoram was being attacked. the kingdom of Israel big time. Now, let me tell you who you know who Yoram's father and mother are. Yoram, I said, was the eighth king of Israel. The seventh king of Israel was Ahab. And Hab's wife was Jezebel. And we're talking about the two people use the expression in in English is for a woman, a wanted woman, a Jezebel. But it just is the worst the the it's a curse. It's a curse. It's an an an epithet. Uh they were the worst idolattors in history and they did everything to make Hashem angry. Uh Jezebel had 400 idolatrous prophets, idolatus priests all around her and and every form of idolatry. It was such an anathema. Hashem couldn't stand this. But now Yoram is in trouble. Yoram is in trouble. He's attacked by Moav and attacked by Edom. There's a two-prong attack against his kingdom. So what does he do? He calls, "Hey, Israel, what did they do when they trouble?" They call Judah. Even though they've they they fought against Judah, they they had a had a a civil war and they separated. But he called King Yoshaphat, King Jehoshaphat, and he said, "You've got to help me." Well, Jehoshaphat is a a good guy, a good king, king of Judah, not king of Judea. And the king of Judea came and helped him. But he saw this situation and he saw the spiritual situation and he said uh uh listen my brother there's no way you're going to win a war. I mean with all this garbage and all this idolatry and uh he says he asked him to I got a prophet in the neighborhood. there was nothing but idolatrous prophets. And so he said, "Got to bring you a prophet." And so now when the ships came down and he really needed help, Yoram realized that all his idols and all his false prophets couldn't do a thing. So he says, "Well, bring me a prophet. Bring me a real prophet." Okay. Said, "I'll bring one." So he summoned Alicia. Alicia was the prime disciple of Elijah the prophet, Eliwani. And Alicia was some say was even holier than his rebe because Elijah before he left the world he gave he blessed Alishia that Alicia double the power that he does. Same way that Moshuh Moses blessed Joshua that's the way Alicia blessed Joshua blessed the way Elahu blessed Alicia. So they call they call Alishia and Alicia said he's summoned by the king of Judea king of Judea summoned him. There's no way that the prophet he listens to the king to the king prophet comes to the king and then he sees that with the king is Euron the son of Ahab Ahab chased Elicia's teacher Elijah all over the country tried to kill him because at that time Jezebel Yuram's mother she sent the army to kill every single prophet of Hashem and so what uh Ovadia, the prophet Ovadia, he was their servant, but he was a a closet prophet and he hid what he hid 100 prophets and 100 real prophets that were still left. He hid them in a cave and fed them bread and water during times of famine. This was tremendous dedication on the part of Ovadia and Ovadia was a he was a a righteous convert. He was Edomite righteous convert. That's why Ovadia was given the prophecy over Edom. So Alicia says he looks at Yuram and he couldn't stand because we're not supposed to look in the face of an of an evil person. But he says to Yoshafhat, he says, "If I knew you had this thing with you, I would have never come. I would never come." So he got so angry that he lost his power of prophecy. He couldn't he it couldn't focus anymore. He couldn't he couldn't feel any divine light even though he saw an enemy of Hashem. Even though he saw one of the worst transgressors. This was the king of Israel. Yoram, the son of Ahab, the king of Israel, uh, Alicia lost it. He he lost his he lost his temper. And by when he lost his temper, he lost his power of the Holy Spirit. When he lost his power of the Holy Spirit, he lost his power of prophecy. So now what he did what he did, he says to he said to his uh his servant, he says, Managen says, "Bring me a musician." Had to urgently had to be a musician. had to calm down and he had tier nigun. He says, "Bring me somebody that can sing like David dome. Bring me somebody that that can can play really nice soft music and calm down." And he restored his happiness. When he restored his happiness, the prophet tells us that he received again his spirit of prophecy. So this is what we see right here in this story that when a person is angry, when a person is sad, when a person is depressed, the the divine presence is not with him because for a prophet to have prophecy, he needs the divine presence. So right there and this is Alicia knew this. Of course, he knew this because he was in joy all the time. He was joy. But even though he would chastise people, he would chastise them out of joy. But when he saw this idoltor, there's a worse this worse idoltor, he lost it. So our sages learned from this that the divine presence cannot hover on a person that is not happy. Now this whole concept we are alive today because of happiness and I'll prove it to you. Hashem gave 10 very difficult tribulations tests of faith to Abraham. That's why Abraham of Alavino. He's our our father of faith. Now, Hashem tells Abraham to slaughter his only son. This is slaughter his only his only son. The son of Sarah. They waited. He was 100 years old. Sarah was 90 years old. And Hashem says, Abraham didn't argue. Isaac didn't argue. They went, they walked together to the altar. Abraham prepares Isaac to be slaughtered on the altar. He ties him really tight. And Isaac said to his father, "Tie me tight so I don't move. I don't want to ruin the the slaughter. It should be perfect. It shouldn't have been should move. And just as Abraham is lifting the slaughter knife to heal him, an angel of Hashem says, "Abraham, Abraham, do not put your hand on on on the on the on the young lad." So Abraham thought maybe he did something wrong. Maybe Hashem did they didn't withstand the the Teds. He did without with a whole heart. to do with the whole he thought something was wrong with him. But then what Hashem did as we spoke about in our lesson for Rashashana, Hashem sent a ram, a young ram and Abraham sacrificed the young ram and from that the horn of the ram, the chauffeur that became the chauffeur of rash. This is the connection between rashukot. So Abraham received a malik of hem. This the Torah says yud is hashem's name. The Malik has the name of Hashem because this a malik an angel from Hashem from the holiest holiest side. If Abraham did not do Hashem's mitzvah in joy then the angel wouldn't have appeared because Abraham would not have been a worthy vessel for the divine presence and then he would have killed his son. So by the fact that Abraham went to the Aada and bound his son with joy, then he had the revelation of the divine angel and he took the ram lamb instead of his son that Hashem commanded for it. Which means that our whole presence today all of us were here because of our great great great great grandfather Abraham did his mitzvah with joy. Mitz was a joy when our greatest the father of Kabala the Arizal Ashkanazi people asked him how did you get your power? The Arizal could look at you and look at your forehead and see what your whole spiritual history, what your soul did since Adam and Eve, where your soul went, that your previous lives and everything you did, everything you did right, everything you did wrong. Where did he get this power? And the whole Torah of Kabala, the esoteric Torah, the result said, not some great thing. It wasn't from being self flagagulation or whatever. He says, "I got my spiritual prowess because I did my mitzvah and joy." With sukkot, we learn to do our mitzvah with joy. Why? Our inner happiness. This is our gauge of connection with Hashem. When a person some people talk a big game, they all outward shows of their religiosity, their what we call in Yiddish from kite, their uh level of observance. Doesn't mean a thing. The real gauge is a per of a person's closeness to Hashem is his happiness in his connection with Hashem. So nothing is more conducive to developing that happiness than the festival of Sukkot and the ultimate happiness that we see inside the suka. Now that's easy to understand now we after our explanation of the the clouds of of divine glory that they fill the suka. That's not only a nice thought. I think oh yeah there's all these nice thoughts that I it's open up the code of Jewish law and or that to chapter 139 verse two it gives us laws inside the suka you're not allowed to leave dirt dirty dishes in the suka you're not allowed to wash dishes in the suka uh you're not allowed to uh do any unsightly thing inside the suka uh we're why because the divine presence is There you don't do anything inside the suka that you wouldn't do with divine presence. That person has to be very very careful inside the suka. Very very careful to keep the cleanliness of speech but speak nicely and certainly not to to transgress and speech because it's we're in this is the king's palace. So Hashem wants us to be happy. Hashem gives us mitzvah because it hurts Hashem that we're still in exile and diaspora. So people say, "Okay, if Hashem hurts him, then we're in let him send us the base of mdash and let him send us a msiach and and let him bring us out of exile." So what's Hashem going to bring us out of exile? So we continue uh we continue in our lowle amuna and continue fighting each other and continue the gossip and lash and continue the infighting. No, no, she wants to build us up. Our souls are not yet ready for the redemption. Sukkot helps our souls get ready for the redemption. We see sukkot is actually a preparation for redemption because we see at the seventh day before we exit the suka there's a prayer for leaving the suka and this is when we say that next year should be a new and next year we sit in the suka ofatan sukaan is the suka hashem suka is made out of the skin of the whale the whole this is hashem's special suka okay so Isaiah the prophet He promises that sima the joy I'm excra because simra is they say English doesn't English is like uh it's a very um coarse language a very material language whereas Hebrew biblical Hebrew it's a very spiritual language and when we say happiness or joy it's not simka simka is the deep happiness and joy of the soul so Isaiah the prophet It says in chapter 58 verse 12 of Isaiah that by happiness by this a person can go out of any of life's trouble and no matter what the person could be healthy we know today doctors what they have they have been now there's a something relatively new in recent years medical clowns that people are medical clowns they go and and they go in hospitals make people happy why they do that because you know when a person smiles You take a sick person's smile, it's already that's it's already a relief. It's a relief that first it's relief for the soul. Makes the soul happy and when it's a relief for the soul, it reflects the soul's light reflects on the body and cures the body. Okay? So, uh sukkot is an expression of happiness. But there's something special about sukkot. When we put on fillin, we all put on the same fillin. In other words, you can't have blue fill and yellow fill have black fill in the same box. Our art till has to be the same. Uh when we do ritual slaughter, it has to be with the same slaughter knife. So call it is a big chance of individuality to reflect the individ individuality of our soul. This is it's so beautiful. And today I I went to to visit grandchildren live here in Ashtto and uh Bo Hashem. My my daughter's got a lot of kids and and the girls they're they're sitting that like be they're making decorations for the suka each one special decorations gorgeous gorgeous decorations the way we decorate our suka this reflection of ourselves and this is the way we adorn adorn Hashem's house and we take this one thing we bring our best silver our best of bre best silver dishes our best china into the silka we don't do paper plates and bring our our best best things at so It's not just a a cut and dry mitzvah where do it and that's it. This is the way you got to do it. But sukkot the way a person builds a suka in a moment to give a couple basic laws and maybe someone for some of you I think this is your first sukot bashem we have some of our group and uh they've made verse this year some of our group they've uh they're just starting to get close to hashem and there's a question I get from noahhides can can no hide build a suka yeah no can build a suka can do on the suka but a nohide shouldn't make any of the blessing shouldn't make a blessing on the suka Because it says means for means that you commanded. The blessing says uh that we bless you Hashem for the mitzvah you commanded us since is not one of the seven nohigh commandments. But but no wants to we can we can build a suka and just take that time to commune with the shem with the whole mindset of the suka. We leave our house our permanent dwelling. We go into this temporary dwelling and a minute tell you how how it's built so you can know. We go to this temporary dwelling with a thatched roof be bamboo on the roof or palm leaves on the roof. They have plenty of them plenty of bamboo and plenty of palm in land of Israel. Maybe out outside of Israel what they use oak leaves. I don't know what they do. Okay. But uh we did a thatched roof and under the stars and we leave our permanence and we go into the temporary. But a temporary is really more permanent than the permanent is. In the permanent, we're all in the hustle and bustle of the material world. The temporary, we go out into the spiritual world. We devote ourselves to seven days of communing with Hashem. Why we're communing with Hashem? Certainly we eat, certainly we drink, we have festive festive meals, but it's devoted a lot of time to prayer, a lot of time to personal prayer, to do to speaking to Hashem. And this this is the beautiful time to speak to Hashem inside the suka. Uh enjoy yourself music, singing, praising Hashem, saying psalms and of course learning Torah. Okay. So uh we have the mitzvah of suka, but the suka is such an individual mitzvah. It's whatever you make of it. And you could put your own soul and your own flavor. And you can see from family to family, from suka to suka, the different flavors. Yeah, they're all kosher sukas. They're all great sukas. But you can see how uh the families their their personalities are reflected in the suka. And this is good. This is Hashem. Hashem loves every one of us because he loves every one of his children. Every one of the children's sukas and Hashem is there. Hashem is every just as he's all over the world that Torah says that the whole world is full of his glory. His individual glory is in each one of our sukot. Okay. So let's help you if you want to make it few notes. Now uh I give you a few basic laws of of sukot while you're here so I don't have to look then just save a lot of questions people asking me about I get a lot of quite a few emails rabbi how do I build a suka how this how that send links I said okay unless give a few basic ideas okay so first to build your own suka you want to select a site there there's nothing hanging above it this first thing you have to have clear sky so if you don't have a yard if you have a balcony but a balcony that's not under no someone else's balcony. A balcony that there's nothing above the balcony but but the sky. Okay. So that you have to have an open open roof. Okay. Where you put your temporary roof. And then the second requirement is that the minimum size of a suka is 27 in by 27 in. that in uh the biblical s it's 7 cubits by 7 cubits and in metric system that's about 70 cm by 70 cm that's the minimum place and it's enough for a person to sit with a small table sit with a tiny table inside the suka okay but if you don't have a yard once again a balcony or or roof uh that'll be fine back if you have like a rooftop or a penthouse on on top of a roof but as long as you have open sky over you this is the requirement open sky. So uh talk about a walls the walls of a kosher suka have to be at least two complete walls and another part of a third wall say even a third of the of the third wall and uh even the three walls are preferable and if you have a wall that in the middle has a window or a doorway this is still considered a wall. This still considered a wall. The walls could be of any material. The walls could be any material. The walls can be of of of cinder blocks of wood of bricks whatever thing the walls your your own home your own home the walls of your own home could be in other words if you have the balcony then your if you got a back wall or two side walls these are legitimate walls of a suka and then just do something on the fourth wall okay so the walls could be of any material but the walls the minimum height of a wall is be 38 in which is 96 cm to any of the dwarf suka, but that's the minimum height. Uh, and that's 10 10 al 10. That's about roughly a meter. Okay, 96 centimeters. But they shouldn't be higher than 30 ft high. They shouldn't be higher than 10 m high, which is in biblical 20 because the eye cannot see that. Our eye should have contact with the roof because the roof is called the is the same letters. There's the meaning of it's the divine presence. And that's why we have this temporary roof because this is uh to be underneath underneath the Hashem's Hashem's uh glory, Hashem's clouds of glory. So, you don't have to build walls especially for suka, but you can use the side of a building. Not only that, if you're in a yard and you've got high hedges, you could use your hedges could be a legitimate wall of a suka. And if you can find an area that's enclosed by two walls, then it makes your life a lot easier. Okay. So, what about the roof? We talked about the walls. We talked about the area. Uh, and what about the roof? First of all, it's got to be open to the sky. Now, as I just mentioned, the roof material, the Talmud calls it, and it's the same word for the word suka. Okay? Same word from suka. And suka is also word means to to immerse oneself in the cloud's divine so that a person is immerses himself in in the cloud's divine glory. So it's and all the same words like I say this is the our our Torah language our biblical language it's it's so very beautiful and so connected and so easy understandable. So when you learn biblical Hebrew, if you learn the root words, by learning one one root word, you right away learn another dozen other words because they're so connected. Okay. Now, the material that we put on the roof has to be devoid of uh ritual contamination. uh man-made materials such as metal, tin, iron, plastic, they are subject to contamination. Materials that grow from the ground ritually, they don't have ritual contamination. So any thing that grows from the ground, which means tree branches, leaves, uh like I mentioned, bamboo, palm, palm frrons, anything you're using, even if you have unfinished boards, you take a a tree and the tree has been the tree has been uh chopped down. You have boards. Boards as long as they're not thicker than uh four, it's about the 10 cm. As long as they're not 10 centimeters, you can take boards. In other words, unplained boards and raw boards that they're also they're also legitimate covering because they come something to grow from the ground. Now, one thing place it don't prepare the roof first. Some people a framework for the suka and they put the the roof and then they put the sides. They could put you a canvas on the side. Don't do that because first of all, the walls have to be prepared. only after the walls are prepared then we put the the roof on the roofing material the because if it's done the other way then the sukas is not it's not a kosher suka okay so the roof must sufficiently be covered so it gives more shade than sun during the daytime in other words if we would look if we gauge measure the amount of shade and the amount of sun it's got to be at least at least 51% shade and and preferably a lot more probably about more but we leave a little bit holes. It's because it's a mitzvah to be able to see the stars through the the and for a little bit of sunlight to come through but uh there's something like the briskers they put lots they very thick thick layer of of branches and and leaves on the suka. Okay. So that have to s cover. Now since the suka is designated as your home for the next seven days it's customary to decorate it nicely. Now there's one ruling. We have a very fresh ruling in land of Israel. If you're watching, you're seeing the replay and you live up north in Israel or you live in some place where it's it's a hot spot. Uh since the in the middle of the night to be caught out in the suka, that might not be nice. Depends where you live and how close to to danger you are, how long wherever you live yet get to the bomb shelter. But if a person is in any one of the settlements that has less than a minute to get to the bomb shelter, then this year they're exempt from sleeping on the suka. So all the people up north, people in Kirmonat Narvat, I don't know the the heroes up there invat they're really getting pounded. uh Naria, Schlomi, Rosh Pina uh this year they are exempt from uh from sleeping in the suka and that kind of puts a tear in our eyes situation where I can't sleep in the suka. You have to understand one thing. People say, "Well, listen, I'm going to sleep in the suka anyway. If the your local rabbis say you can't sleep in the suka and the head rabbit in Israel, Rabbi David Yosph says you can't sleep in the suka, then by going against that, you're putting oneself in danger." That's not a mitzvah. It's not a mitzvah in danger. Just like a person who's heroic that a person is sick and he says, "No, I'm not going to take my medicine. I'm not going to drink on on your doctor told him that he must do. His rabbi told him he must do. know he wants to be heroic. Uh Hashem doesn't need heroism. If a person is in a place when it's not a mitzvah to be in the suka when you should be in a bomb shelter, but you have to know one thing. Something happens. There is really no safer place in the world to be than in the suka spiritually. That's it. Okay, we do because we're in the spiritual world. We're in the material world, the flesh and blood world. So when we have to go to the bomb shelter, we go to the bomb shelter. Okay, this is laws of suka for 5785. So in conclusion, say suka is a powerful reminder that when we leave our permanent uh solid homes and enter the temporary shelter, the suka could cast aside logic and enter the profound space of Hashem's inner domain. This is Hashem's inner domain in this world and it is so profound. The suka invites us to engage with Hashem to spend a week with Hashem to cultivate our relationship with Hashem more than anything. This what the suka people don't get it. This the important thing. What do what do you do inside? No. What did you do in suka? I want to get close to cultivate my relationship with Hashem. This is what the holiday is about more than anything. This is the chance to cultivate our relationship with Hashem. Just like Elai holidays, this was our month of getting close to Shem by cleansing ourselves in chuva where this is the month that was conducive for chuva. Now is the month we've done chuva and everybody's in a situation where people are close to perfect sadikim after rash after yam kipper where everyone has achieved atonement and that's after we've atoned for our sins. We've forgiven our sins now we go into sukkot. Now we go into Sukkot and our nishamas are clean. Our souls are clean so we can receive the divine illumination of Sukkot and that's so great. So make it a point that for this week uh learn a little more than you usually do. Talk to Hashem a little more than you usually do. Uh sing to Hashem a little more than you usually do. Pray to Hashem more than you usually do because this is the time that you really uh get close to Hashem. And in addition to our daily functions of eating and sleeping, even those should be done in holiness within the suka uh have to know that nothing is more conducive to getting close to Shem and getting joy uh than being in in the suka and nothing is more if it's conducive for joy than it's conducive for amuna because amuna and joy are two things that go hand in hand. And with that, Hashem should bless you that you have the very best Sukkot that you ever had. We share good news from each other.