27 Sep VZOT HABRACHA: THE HAPPINESS MINDSET

In our Yom Tov prayer
text, Sukkot is called “our
festival of joy.” The
primary theme of Sukkot
is joy.
What exactly is the
connection between Sukkot and joy?

A number of weeks ago, we read in Parashat Ki-
Tavo the section of the “curses,” a description

of the various calamities which Hashem warns
would befall Beneh Yisrael if they disobey
His laws. One of these “curses” is “Your
life will be hanging” – referring to a sense of
insecurity and fear, the feeling that one’s life
is “hanging” and unstable. Specifically, the
Gemara explains this warning to mean that a
person will not be certain about their income
for the following year. He will experience the
anxiety of uncertainty, feeling as though his
life hangs in the balance.
This interpretation of the pasuk seems to
directly contradict the Gemara’s comments
elsewhere that the manna – the miraculous
food which Beneh Yisrael ate in the desert –
was a great, precious blessing, a priceless gift
that came down from heaven each day. Each
person received just one portion that was
enough for just that day. If somebody would
leave some over for the next day, it would
spoil. And so each night, Beneh Yisrael went

to sleep without a single morsel of food in
their tent, literally.
Is this a blessing or a curse? On the one hand,
the Rabbis talk about the manna as a wonderful
gift. On the other hand, they say that it is a
curse to be uncertain about one’s livelihood a
year from now – let alone tomorrow!!
The answer is that the situation of the manna
can be the greatest blessing or the greatest
curse. It all depends on a person’s mindset.
If a person does not know where his
livelihood is coming from tomorrow, but,
like Beneh Yisrael in the desert, he fully trusts
in Hashem, then he is truly blessed. But if a
person does not live with this mindset, and he
is anxious and worried, then it doesn’t matter
how much money he has. He is not going to
be happy. He is always going to feel that his
life is “hanging.”
Before the section of curses, we read the
section of berachot, blessings, in which the
Torah promises great rewards for properly
observing the mitzvot. It introduces this
section by telling us that if we fulfill
the mitzvot, “all these blessings will come to
you and reach you.” It is not enough for the
blessings to “come” – they have to “reach”
us. Many people receive great blessings but
they do not enjoy them, because they are beset

by worry and anxiety. If we place our trust in
Hashem, then the blessings will “reach” us
– we will enjoy them, and we will truly be
blessed.
On Sukkot, we leave the comfort of our
homes, and live in simple shacks. And this
is precisely why Sukkot is “our festival of
joy.” On Sukkot, we show that true joy comes
not from our material assets, but from our
trust in Hashem. We show that the greatest joy
is living under Hashem’s protection.
There is nothing wrong with having a large,
comfortable home. But on Sukkot, we make
the statement that our happiness does not
come from our large, comfortable homes, but
from our emunah, having faith in Hashem.
There was a man in the 1950s who owned
a successful store in Philadelphia, selling
curtains and linens. His son, who worked
with him in the store, urged him to expand, to
open outlets all over the country. The father
declined, saying he didn’t want to have all that
pressure. His son urged him to at least have
a chain throughout Pennsylvania, or, at very
least, throughout the Philadelphia area. But
the man still refused. He felt he had enough
hard work and pressure managing his store,
which provided him with enough income.
This ambitious son, whose name is Steven

Schwartzman, eventually founded what
became Blackstone, one of the largest
investment companies in the world. He is now
a multibillionaire, who has donated millions
to charity.
So, who was right – the father or the son?
Instinctively, everyone would say that the
son was right. But in my view, it depends
on their mindset and attitude. Wealth can
be a wonderful blessing and great source of
joy, but only if one lives with the “manna”
mindset, living with peace of mind knowing
that he is cared for by Hashem. It may very
well be that the son was right – but there’s no
guarantee. The only guarantee to happiness is
one’s mindset and attitude.
This is the special Simcha of Sukkot –
the joy of living under Hashem’s care, of
acknowledging that the true source of joy is
not our material assets, but the comfort we
experience placing out trust in our Creator.