- Shabbat and Holidays
- Sukkot
819
There is a great Chasidic legend about a man who wanted to see a person who was truly wealthy. He went to his rebbe and asked for directions to find such a person. The rebbe sent him to a small village and told him to find a certain Reb Itzik and to stay the night with him. Arriving in the decrepit village the visitor eagerly searched out Reb Itzik. He was ushered into a ramshackle hut containing only straw for mattresses and broken wooden boxes for furniture. "Surely the rebbe must have been mistaken sending me here," he thought to himself. After a very uncomfortable night spent on the straw covered floor and a very meager breakfast of hard bread and tepid water, the visitor in desperation asked his host: "Reb Itzik, I heard you are a very wealthy man. Where is your wealth? How can you live under such circumstances as these?" Reb Itzik replied: "Oh, I have a great mansion with untold wealth located not far away. But pray tell me where and of what type is your home?" The visitor replied: "Oh I live in a sturdy brick house with many comforts. But naturally when I am traveling I make do with whatever accommodations are offered to me." Reb Itzik replied: "My mansion is in Heaven, in immortality, in my generations that are yet to come. Here, I like you, am only a traveler so I also make do with whatever I have at hand. My brother, we are all only travelers." The visitor returned to his rebbe and thanked him for showing him a truly wealthy man.
Sleeping in the succah, outside of my comfortable but only temporary living quarters, gives me a sense of faith that I can build for myself a truly magnificent mansion with untold wealth not far away. Here in the succah I gladly make do with whatever I have in hand. But I am comforted that by living even only for a week in a succah, open to the elements and unpredictability of life and events themselves I can concentrate on my true mansion and wealth - on spirit and family and generations and ancestors and hope and service to God and humans. Our national succah has withstood all of the elements and all of the evil that the world contains and it still stands. It may wobble at times but it still stands. It still stands because of the mansions that we build constantly for us and all of Israel not far from here in the Jerusalem that hovers above our earthly Jerusalem. We are all but travelers but that fact should not cause us discomfort or fear. For we are all truly wealthy and that is the Torah’s great gift to us.

Schach Infestation
based on Rav Moshe Vaye’s sefer Bedikas HaMazon
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All Citizens in Israel
From V’samachta B’chagecha, p. 6
Rabbi Shaul Yisraeli zt"l | 12 Tishrei 5784

The Secret Essence of Hoshana Rabba
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Building a Sukka on Public Property
Rabbi Daniel Mann | 12 Tishrei 5784
Our Mentor, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda HaCohen Kook zt”l
Rabbi Zalman Baruch Melamed | 5751
Korbanot – The Passages of the Sacrificial Offerings
Chapter thirteen-part one
Rabbi Eliezer Melamed | 5775

The War of the Kings and its Significance
Parashat Lech Lecha
Rabbi David Dov Levanon | 5762

Getting a Kite Down from a Tree on Shabbat
Rabbi Daniel Mann | Iyar 23 5778

The Solution to 'Risky' Intellectual Topics
Ayn Aya, Shabbat v, 72
Rabbi Ari Shvat | Nisan 5785

Parashat Hashavua: Two Sides to a Coin
Rabbi Yossef Carmel | Nisan 5785
Daf Yomi Makkot Daf 12
R' Eli Stefansky | 22 Nisan 5785
