23 Sep SUKKOS: THE SUKKA AND TORAH COMMITMENT

The verse in
Yeshayahu (4:6)
foresees the time
when there will be
a Sukka to provide
“shade by day [to protect] from heat, and
for protection and shelter from torrents
and rain.”
The Lubavitcher Rebbe explained that
this verse alludes to us the function that
the Sukka is intended to serve already
now. We observe Sukkot immediately
following the High Holiday period, the
experience of Rosh Hashanah and Yom
Kippur, the ultimate purpose of which
is for us to recommit ourselves to the
Torah’s laws. Indeed, we conclude the
Yom Kippur service by repeating several
times the verse in Tehillim (119:145),
“Karati Be’chol Leb Aneni Hashem
Hukecha Esora” – “I have called with all
my heart; answer me, O G-d, I shall keep
Your statutes.” We leave Yom Kippur and
the High Holiday period with a renewed
commitment to “Hukecha Esora,” to
carefully and scrupulously observe each
and every law of the Torah. The message
of the Sukka, the Rebbe explained, is

that we must commit ourselves to G-d
wholeheartedly, with all our beings,
just as our entire bodies are situated in
the Sukka. The Sukka symbolizes our
complete subjugation and subservience
to the Almighty’s word, our placing
ourselves entirely and unconditionally at
His service.
Returning to the verse in Yeshayahu, the
Rebbe noted that the prophet speaks of
the Sukka protecting us from “Zerem”
(“torrent”), which has the numerical
value of 247, and from “Matar” (“rain”),
which has the numerical value of 249.
These two numbers are, respectively,
one lower and one higher than the
number of affirmative commands in
the Torah (248). The purpose of the
Misva of Sukka is to protect us from the
tendency to add to or diminish from the
Misvot of the Torah. When people take
the liberty to tamper with the Torah’s
laws, by either disregarding laws which
they find unappealing or objectionable,
or by adding new ideas that the Torah
does not teach, they do so because they
are not fully subservient to G-d’s Torah.
The message of the Sukka, coming on the

heels of Yom Kippur, is to commit and
subjugate ourselves unconditionally to
G-d’s laws, so that we feel no inclination
at all to add or diminish from the Torah.
It is told that Rav Shach was once
talking with a certain wealthy physician,
who told him that he purchases a new
Mercedes every few years. He explained
that Mercedes, like other auto companies,
is constantly upgrading its product, and
always enhancing its various models.
Rav Shach turned to the man and said,
“You’re a cardiologist, so let me ask you,
is there any way to upgrade the human
heart, just like they’re always upgrading
Mercedes?”
“No,” the doctor said. “The human heart
is designed perfectly. It was made the
first time the best possible way.”
Rav Shach observed how when human
beings make something, it will, by
definition, be imperfect, and thus subject
to change and enhancement. When G-d
makes something, however, it is perfect
and flawless. The Torah, therefore, never
needs to be changed. It is perfect just the
way it is, and we need to preserve it this

way and transmit it in its pristine, perfect
form to the next generation, without
ever trying to “upgrade” it. Of course,
changing realities require our Torah
Sages to determine how the timeless laws
and principles of the Torah practically
apply under the new circumstances. But
those laws and principles themselves
never change.
This is the message of the Sukka – that
we leave Yom Kippur with a renewed
commitment to the 248 Misvot, without
any thoughts whatsoever of trying to
enhance the Torah or tamper with it in
any way.