The Nova Martyrs and the Makifim of Sukkot

THE DAILY CHIZZUK OF RABBI ELIEZER BERLAND SHLIT”A

THURSDAY, 14 TAMMUZ 5785

“Elokei Avraham, Elokey Yitzchak, V’Elokey Yaakov” – the lower “makifim” (surrounding lights) – three times “Elokei, Elokei, Elokei.”  Because now we draw down on the night of Rosh Hashanah all the makifim, and on Sukkot we draw down all the makifim.  The entire idea of the sukkah is all the makifim, because at Shuvu Banim, we make the sukkot [in Tishrei].

The Rav shlit”a asks one of the students: “When do you make sukkot?  In which month?”

“Tishrei!”

“Tishrei?  I thought you were normal.  But it says, ‘And on that very day, Hashem took the Children of Israel out of the land of Egypt in their legions’ (Shemot 12:51), and it’s written ‘It happened when Pharaoh sent out the people’ (ibid 13:17), ‘and Pharaoh…was pursuing after them’

“’Hashem went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them on the way, and by night in a pillar of fire’ (ibid. 13:21).  When was this?  On 15 Nisan.  That’s when the Clouds of Glory began.  So make sukkot on 15 Nisan!  Why do you do it in Tishrei?  You’re making sukkot in Tishrei instead of Nisan.”

The “Netivot (Shalom)” asks why we make sukkot in Tishrei.  You need to make sukkot and matzah together.  Either make sukkot and matzah on 15 Nisan, or make matzah and sukkot on 15 Tishrei.  Why don’t we do this in Tishrei?

Rather, it’s because one cannot enter the sukkah until all their sins are forgiven, because the entire matter of the sukkah is learned from the cherubs.  The cherubs would spread [SoKKim] their wings ten handbreadths over the ark-cover (kaporet).  We learn all of this from the cherubs.  When a person enters the sukkah, he is underneath the cherubs.  Every time he enters the sukkah, he is under the cherubs – they spread their wings over him.  One needs to sleep in the sukkah, eat in the sukkah, because the sukkah protects him from exiles.

Simchat Torah is already the eight day; we’re already leaving the sukkah.  We see that the people simply wanted to feel the joy of Yom Tov [at the Nova festival].  They wanted to feel true happiness.  Hashem took them Above.   They are the greatest tzaddikim, the greatest tzaddikot, the purest girls – these are the girls that were taken on Simchat Torah.  Hashem gathered them to Himself because they are the most righteous, the purest.  We wanted them to remain here.

Now [at the time of the shiur] a woman in Kochav Yaakov was burned to ashes.  This was because of an electric bicycle.  There was a short circuit in the bicycle that burned down the whole house.  It was impossible to leave the house because the bicycle stood in the entrance and blocked the way.

These are terrible things, impossible to believe.  From now on, everyone should sell their electric bicycles, so that there won’t be a short and the house won’t go up in flames.  The house went up in flames and the woman turned into ashes – the most righteous woman.

Because every woman can bring a thousand girls back in teshuvah.  She can be a principal, she can be everything.  She knows how to teach halachot.  When a woman gives shiurim, she can bring a thousand girls back in teshuvah.  And a thousand girls times a thousand is a million people.  If the girls do teshuva, then in a second, we’ve finished with all Am Yisrael…

https://vimeo.com/1099844156?p=1s