14 Oct SUKKOT: THE HAPPINESS MINDSET

In our Yom Tov prayer text,
Sukkot is called z’man
simchateinu – “our festival
of joy.” The primary theme
of Sukkot is simcha – 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 z’man
simchateinu. 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 our trust in our Creator.