THE CHOFETZ CHAIM החפץ חיים

One of the outstanding personalities of the last 150 years in the Jewish, Charedi world, if not the most outstanding of all was R’ Yisroel Meir Kagan, universally known as the Chofetz Chaim. His fame as a great author of ספרים and universal acclaim as a great Tzaddik is acknowledged by all segments of Jewry, whether they are Ashkenazim or Sephardim, followers of the Lithuanian school or Chassidim.

His classic on Halacha, the Mishnah Berurah, has become the standard sefer on אורח חיים, the laws pertaining to day by day conduct for the whole year round.

There were other great scholars, teachers, Tzaddikim and phenomenal Torah luminaries in the same period. What was it that has made the Chofetz Chaim this outstanding person, so looked up to and respected by one and all.

One could perhaps attribute it to a number of factors including his great humility, the fact that he lived well into his nineties, was a Kohen, wrote his ספרים in a clear style, easy to understand and follow, and was one of the great leaders of the Agudas Yisroel movement in the early twentieth century. But, if one delves into the history of the period, one can find other people who also approached his greatness in various spheres.

I believe that the secret of his acceptance by all, of this outstanding personality, lies in two stories that I read about in a book produced by Rabbi Pesach Krohn, Travelling with the Maggid (from pages 138 onwards).

In short, the father of the Chofetz Chaim, Rabbi Aryeh Zeev Kagan lives in a suburb of Grodno, known as Zhetel. He married a lady called Miriam, and they had two sons, Moshe and Aharon and a daughter Reizel. Miriam unfortunately passed away and he was left as a widower with three small children. He then married Miriam’s younger sister, Dobrusha, and in 1839 they had a little boy named ah BrYisroel Meir. He was an extremely bright boy and by the time he was nine, Rabbi Aryeh Zeev decided to take the young boy to Vilna where a suitable melamed could be found to teach him.

Rabbi Aryeh Zeev himself had been supporting his family by giving private lessons in Vilna, as well as teaching in Yeshiva there and he decided that accordingly he would be able to keep a fatherly eye on his son, Yisroel Meir. When he was eleven years of age a cholera epidemic raged and Rabbi Aryeh Zeev, who was only 47, passed away, a poor man. Therefore, Yisroel Meir was left to fend for himself. He was taken in by a man who did that in exchange for Yisroel Meir tutoring his grandson.

Three years after Dobrusha was widowed, she remarried a person called R’ Shimon, a widower from Radin who had attended the Volozhin Yeshiva in his youth. The family moved to Radin and the Chofetz Chaim was by then approximately 15 years of age.

Some time later, R Shimon who had a daughter Freida by his previous marriage thought that it would be a good idea for his daughter to marry Yisroel Meir.

Shidduchim had already been suggested for this very bright and gifted boy, for example, a dowry of 10,000 rubles, a fabulous sum, had been offered by one of the wealthy Jews of Vilna. In addition, he had been suggested to the daughter of a very famous Rabbi and another who was a Rosh Yeshiva.

When his older half brother, Aharon, heard about the suggestion that he should marry Freida, his step-father’s daughter, he was incredulous, he stated emphatically that Yisroel Meir was doing a disservice to himself. “Not only is the girl much older than you but you could also marry into either a home full of Torah, being that of a great Rabbi or Rosh Yeshiva, or alternatively, with a father in law who has wealth and is able to keep you for the rest of your life.”

Yisroel Meir would not hear of it. He stated “If I marry Freida, can you imagine how grateful R’ Shimon will be to our mother. He will appreciate her all the more, imagine the good will that will be engendered between R’ Shimon and our mother.” Reading between the lines, I am tempted to suggest that there may have been friction or potential friction in the family and the Chofetz Chaim wanted to make sure that his mother would be looked up to and treated in the best possible manner.

Against all the advice that he was given, and his own natural inclination, he agreed to marry the daughter of his step father. I believe that they got married around 1860 and the Chofetz Chaim lived in Radin with the rest of the family.

Some ten years later, a bitter dispute broke out in Radin between the Rav and some members of the community. As a result the Rav had to leave his position and within two years he died, still suffering the heartache of having been forced to leave the position he loved. Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan, now a mature young man who was very learned, was terribly pained by that episode and he decided to write a sefer about the problems that words can cause. He worked on the book for a number of years and when it was published, he was in his mid thirties. This was the famous sefer Chofetz Chaim – Shmeras Haloshen, חפץ חיים, שמירת הלשון which basically is a definitive Shulchan Oruch on the laws of speech.

Incidentally, before I read this story, I often wondered how it was that the Chofetz Chaim, in his sefer, so accurately portrayed in detail the way people think, speak and spread tittle tattle, loshen hora etc. If, as I believe we all know, he was such a Tzaddik, how did he hear it all. However, having learned that he lived in this small town, almost a village, known as Radin for all the years that the community was in turmoil, because the dispute between the Rav and some of the members of the community, he, no doubt, could not avoid hearing various opinions expressed wherever he turned. Whereas a lesser person might have just ignored them or perhaps even accepted them, he stored them in his memory and utilised them to illustrate so brilliantly in his sefer, how one may not behave and how one must try to strive to speak and behave in general and indeed, in detail, according to the rules of our Holy Torah.

I am the proud possessor of a first edition of the Chofetz Chaim and Shmeras Haloshen which was printed in Warsaw in 1877. This sefer has on it, handwritten, that it has been מוגה, gone through by the Chofetz Chaim himself to ensure that there are no major mistakes. Furthermore, it does not give the name of the author, even though it has four approbations from famous Rabbis, they also do not give the name of the author. In his humility, the young man as he was then, R’ Yisroel Meir Kagan, had his first sefer published anonymously.

Now let me return to my original question, as to why this giant of stature has been so phenomenally successful and he and his ספרים accepted by every segment of the Charedi community.

I believe that the two stories I mentioned above, are the key to it. The Chofetz Chaim when turning down more glittering shidduchim and settling for the girl he married went beyond the call of any duty of Kibbud Av V’em. He set aside completely his own preferences in favour of his mother having a better life. Secondly, when he witnessed the terrible results of loshen hora and rechilas, he did something about it practically. He did not look for his own honour and he disregarded the fact that he might have considerable antagonism when he published the sefer and when it would finally come to light who the author was. He was motivated by a pure desire to try to repair the problem and help improve klall Yisroel.

It is related that he, himself, used to go round from town to town and city to city to sell the sefer. A leading scholar once suggested to him that he was, in fact, stopping people from talking, as people would be afraid to say something that was either loshen hora or rechilas etc. The Chofetz Chaim retorted that the opposite was the truth. Whereas previously, people were unsure as to whether they were allowed to say things because they might be doing something wrong, once they had studied his sefer, they would know what they may say and could speak clearly, in accordance with the Torah guidelines.

Once the Chofetz Chaim found that his sefer had been accepted with acclaim and was achieving his objects, he set about writing other seforim, only publishing those which he felt there was a burning need for in the particular context of the times.

For example, there is a sefer נדחי ישראל which goes into detail for the people who emigrated to the USA and other such places to ensure that they kept the minimal halachos even if they did not have a Rabbi or Torah structure in which to live. He wrote a sefer specifically for the Jewish soldiers who were conscripted into the Russian army, once again, to try to ensure that they kept the minimal halachos and there are many other examples in his numerous seforim published.

The sefer Ahavas Chesed is as its name would suggest devoted to showing the importance of doing kind deeds and charitable deeds with every fellow Jew. We are talking about a time and place where people were extremely poor in the main and it was very difficult to keep Jewish life going and his sefer helped considerably to raise standards of chesed.

I mentioned earlier on that the חפץ חיים was a Kohen. He was for ever hoping that the Moshiach would come quickly and that the Bais Hamikdosh would be rebuilt. Accordingly, he started off a Kollel to learn specifically קדשים in Radin. One famous member of that Kollel was the Ponivizher Rov. He discovered that there were very few classic commentaries on the Mesechtas of קדשים and that they were very rare and difficult to find. He, therefore, published a sefer ליקוטי הלכות which incorporates a number of the great classic commentaries to assist in understanding the difficult Mesechtas as well as bringing clarity to the matter.

I, in fact, myself heard from his grandson Rabbi Mendel Sacks who was in my house many years ago that his grandfather never published a sefer unless there was a major need for it and he felt that he could fill the gap.

His crowning effort was the famous משנה ברורה which was published originally, commencing in approximately 1885. It took the Torah world by storm and as I mentioned earlier on, has become the standard textbook studied world wide in Yeshivas and by lay scholars as well as, of course, all Rabbonim. It is considered as the final פסק to be relied upon.

In short, Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan’s extraordinary success was triggered by the fact that Hashem decided that because the Chofetz Chaim had been so self effacing and willing to give away his own future life of comfort, for the sake of his mother, coupled by his burning desire to produce seforim needed for the times and for future generations, Hashem has ensured that he be accepted as the final authority in so many ways as far as Jewish scholarship and learning is concerned.

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The Mishkon – Veyakhel - Pekudei

The commandment to build a Mishkon – Tabernacle and the detailed instructions pertaining thereto cover almost two sedras, namely Terumah and Tetzaveh. It is again briefly mentioned in the next sedra Ki Sisa and the way it was carried out in practice is gone into again in great length in the next two sedras Vayakhel and Pekudei. We find many important dinim – laws, which are mentioned very briefly, sometimes are even only deduced from an extra word or a letter. We know that the Torah does not repeat itself unnecessarily and here we have over 300 pesukim – verses with many obvious repetitions.

Rabbenu Bachaya, one of the leading medieval commentators, states at the beginning of Veyakhel that the Mishkon is mentioned five times, which emphasises the point I have been making, and this begs the question why was it necessary to go over this again and again and in such detail on so many occasions.

In order to understand this at least partially, let us consider in detail the Kodesh Kodoshim, the Holy of Holies that was the repository of the Oron – Ark containing the Luchos, the Ten Commandments.

The instructions as to how to build the Mishkon are precise and the internal measurements, within the walls, of the Kodesh Kodoshim are ten amos – cubits long by ten amos wide by ten amos high, namely a perfect cube, ten by ten by ten.

Inside, the Ark was ten tefochim – handbreadths high and on that were the Keruvim Cherubs on which Rashi comments that with their hands held up they also were ten handbreadths high. Inside the Ark were the ten commandments.

Furthermore, the Buddim, the staves, which held the Oron, were themselves each ten amos long.

We can see from this that there was a particular emphasis on ten in respect of all these measurements in the Holy of Holies.

It goes even further as the Gemora tells us מקום הארון אינו מן המדה, the Oron miraculously did not take up any physical space, meaning, of course, that the ten by ten by ten remained a perfect cube without losing any space internally.

To add one further facet, one person was allowed to enter once a year, namely the Kohen Godol, high priest, and this was on the tenth day of the seventh month. Ten is obviously a salient factor in the whole series of instructions.

I believe that the key to this can be found in a Mishna at the beginning of the fifth chapter of Pirkei Ovos – Ethics of our Fathers that states בעשרה מאמרות נברא העולם Hashem created the world with ten utterances. The Mishna continues “but He could have created it with one, why did He make ten utterances? To punish evildoers who destroy the world, which was created with ten utterances and to give reward to the righteous who rectify the world that was created with ten utterances”. However, the question is obvious, why not twenty or thirty utterances and one could have even more reward. It appears that ten was the blueprint with which the world was created and that is the way Hashem wanted it to be. We also find that the ארי ז"ל, Rabbi Yitzchok Luria goes into great detail concerning ten Sefiros – levels by which the creation of the world descended to our lowly world in which we live, again the emphasis on ten.

We, therefore, see that when the world was created and obviously, as the creation of Hashem, it was a perfect world, ten was a key element. Unfortunately Adam and Eve ate from the עץ הדעת, the fruit that was forbidden to them, and this caused degeneration, which gathered pace over the next ten generations. The Mabul, flood, took place and Noach was left with his children but once again there was further degeneration until ten generations later, Avrohom Ovinu began the improvement and rectification of the world.

This was continued by his son Yitzchok and grandson Yaakov, but they still did not achieve a full recovery. That only occurred when the children of Israel said “Naasei Ve’Nishma” “We will do and hear” and received the Torah, the ten commandments. At that time, we are told, the world returned to the level of Adam before the sin.

The holy presence of Hashem, the Shechina, dwelled within each Jew. Unfortunately, the episode of the golden calf spoiled this.

Hashem then decreed that a place had to be built according to His specifications where the Shechina, his presence, would dwell and from which place He would speak to Moshe Rabbenu. It was in this Holy of Holies from between the Keruvim mentioned above, that the Torah clearly states there had to be perfection of ten namely, ten by ten by ten.

I mentioned above that there were ten generations until Noach, ten again until Avrohom and remarkably enough there were ten generations from then onwards to Betzalel the architect of the Mishkon. It was indeed extraordinary that this young boy, just bar-mitzvah should be the person to whom was entrusted the building of the Mishkon and the Torah goes so far as to say, in the case of the Oron, ויעש בצלאל, Betzalel himself built it and our Rabbis tell us that in his name one finds an allusion to his greatness, in that יודע היה בצלאל לצרף בהן אותיות שנבראו בהם שמים וארץ Betzalel knew how to combine the letters, with which were created heaven and earth. The Mishkon was not just a physical edifice, it was a power house of spirituality from which emanated the Shechina in the same way as this had permeated the whole world at creation.

We begin the see the reason for the detailed instructions and repetition in this one area, the most Holy in the Mishkon and it can be projected to many other areas of the Mishkon as well, each having is own focus.

One further interesting point is that the word Eser in Hebrew עשר, when spelt out fully as a total numerical value עין שין ריש adds up to 1,000 (עין equals 130, שין equals 360 and ריש equals 510).

One thousand is ten times ten times ten!! Furthermore, the middle letter each time is Yud namely ten times ten times ten.

The word for a thousand in Hebrew is Elef, which we are told refers to אלופו של עולם The Chief, the ultimate power of the world.

The Mishkon was taken down and put up again repeatedly during the 39 years from its building whilst the children of Israel went round the wilderness, in fact 42 times in total. This was to signify that whenever Jews would go into the wilderness, exile, they could rebuild and recreate the holiness that the Shechina, Hashem’s presence should dwell among them. Furthermore, Rabbenu Bachaya states at the beginning of Bereishis that the first 42 letters represent one of the holy names of Hashem namely that consisting of 42 letters. This is exactly equivalent to the 42 journeys echoing the mirror image of the creation of the world.

The Gemora statesכל ביה עשרה שכינתא שריא the Shechina dwells in every house of ten Jews, but why just ten? Bearing in mind the remarks above, it becomes fairly obvious. The blueprint of the world was with ten and the recreation of this in a small and focused way was in the Holy of Holies, with the emphasis on ten. Therefore, even when we no longer have a Tabernacle or a Temple, wherever Jews get together and build a Bais Haknesses – synagogue, Bais Hamidrash – place of learning etc and pray and learn there, the Shechina dwells there. We understand now why every דבר שבקדושה, Holy Act requires ten, which we call a minyon, when one can say Kaddish, Kedushah, read out of a Sefer Torah etc.

We also begin to appreciate how important it is to behave in such places with the necessary dignity and reverence and to Daven with Kavonnah – devotion and concentration.

The highlight of Tefilla B’Tzibbur – praying with a minyan, is the קדושה. The first sentence recited by participants comes from the vision of the prophet Isaiah who beheld Hashem sitting on a throne and the angels were saying קדוש קדוש קדוש ה' צבאות מלא כל הארץ כבודו, Holy, Holy, Holy is Hashem. The word קדוש means a number of related things, Holy, Sanctified, Separated, all of which are implied by using this expression. The actual word in Hebrew is spelt Kuf Dalet Vov Shin, קדוש and the two middle letters Dalet (4) and Vov (6) add up to ten. The word is repeated three times.

May I suggest that this refers to the three dimensions of the קודש קדשים – Holy of Holies in the Mishkon which, down on earth, represent the Holiest abode and the connection between our physical world and the spiritual world above. Our Rabbis tell us בית המקדש של מטה מכוון כנגד בית המקדש של מעלה, the Temple in this world is apposite to the Temple up above.

To sum up, the Mishkon was the spiritual power house from which the Jewish Nation then and in all future generations until the coming of Moshiach would derive Holiness, strength, inspiration, comfort and much more. The detailed instructions and repetition was to emphasise its importance and to enable us to appreciate at least some of its depth and to bring us nearer to the Shechina in every generation wherever we are in the world.

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Let us perhaps dwell on a few points other than this, which also have a significance connected with ten. I mentioned earlier about Abraham being the first who began to rectify the world and he, himself, was given ten tests by Hashem. This was not by chance, he had to overcome all the evil influences on all the ten levels culminating in the Akeida, the bringing of his special son Yitzchok onto the altar and at that moment both he and his son reached an unbelievably high level of holiness and subservience to Hashem and this was passed on to later generations and still stand us in good stead to this very day.

When Bnei Yisroel who had been enslaved for over a hundred years in Egypt were to be saved, Hashem sent ten Makkos – plagues through Moshe and Aharon in order to break down the shells of uncleaniness which had been covering the קדושה – Holiness, culminating in the Makkos Bechoros at which point the King of Egypt, Paroh, agreed to let them go. It was on the tenth day of Nissan that they set aside the Korban Pesach, the Paschal lamb, which led directly to their deliverance.

Turning to Moshe, during the seven days of the consecration of the Mishkon and particularly on the eighth day in which he inducted Aharon into his role as Kohen Godol, Moshe had to bring korbonos on the mizbeach - altar, which was ten amos high (according to one of the Rabbis whose opinion we follow. According to the other Rabbi the slope leading up to the altar was ten amos long) and the Gemora tells us that Moshe Rabbenu unlike most people who on average are three cubits high, was in fact ten amos – cubits tall.

Not for nothing did Moshe Rabbenu when blessing the Bnei Yisroel at the beginning of Devorim say יוסף ה' עליכם ככם אלף פעמים ויברך אתכם May Hashem, the G-d of your forefathers add to you a thousand times, (ten by ten by ten).

We also find numerous other references to ten referring to holiness. The tenth animal born in a flock each year became “holy” and we also had to take tithes – ma’aser of food and give them to the tribe of Levi which was the tribe of Moshe and Aharon as enumerated in Torah. (In fact, the commentators state that commencing from the youngest son, Benjamin – Joseph upwards, the tenth son of Yaakov was Levi and that is why he and his tribe were set aside as the holy ones.)

There are four levels of physical objects in this world, דומם, צומח, חי, מדבר - namely, Inanimate objects e.g. stone, metal etc., Items which grow from the ground e.g. plants trees etc., Animate objects e.g. animals, birds etc. and finally animate objects with speech, namely human beings.

As mentioned earlier, the internal measurements within the Kodesh Kodeshim are ten amos. The ground underneath was an inanimate object, דומם . The walls were made of wood, צומח. The covering was from the wool and skins of animals,חי , and the Kohen Godol, מדבר, performed the avodah.

At the level of items which grow צומח, we were commanded to take maaser, a tithe, (one tenth) from three objects, דגן, תירוש, יצהר - grain, wine and oil. At the next level, animate objects, we were also told to take maaser, a tithe each year, from three types of animal, בקר, כבשים, עזים - cattle, sheep and goats. All this had to be carried out by the representatives of the highest level, the human being.

The Kohen Godol, the high priest went into the Holy of Holies on the 10th day of the New Year and the Holy of Holies represents the spiritual state but at the same time he stood on the earth the lowest level, an inanimate object. However, at the next two levels, farmers growing produce in the Holy Land of Israel had to also symbolically take a tithe from three objects each year. At the next level up cattle owners had to take a tithe from animals bred in the Holy Land from three types of animal. These last two levels reinforce and blend with the holiness emanating from the Holy of Holies which itself is ten by ten by ten as mentioned previously. Furthermore, one could surmise that the emphasis on three objects is to elevate the world in general which at the lowest level is known as עולם העשיה - the physical world we live in, עולם היצירה - the world of formation of objects and above that עולם הבריאה - the world of original creation.

Would it be too fanciful to suggest that each one of the objects from which we are enjoined to take a tithe represents one of these worlds בקר , cattle, representing the strongest and most physical part of the world, namely עשיה. עיזים, goats representing the יצירה, and כבשים, lambs representing the gentlest and, therefore, the most elevated level בריאה, the world of creation.

In the same wayדגן , grain would represent the עולם העשיה, יצהר, oil symbolised by fire, where the flame goes upwards towards the upper world represents עולם היצירה (note the similarity ofיצהר and יצירה) and finally תירוש, wine, represents בריאה the world of creation. (The Gemora states נכנס יין יצא סוד, there is an affinity of wine to the hidden world of creation.)

Ten in Loshen Hakodesh is represented by the letter yud, י, as we all know our forefathers’ names are significant but the first one Abraham was given his name Avrom by his father Terach and, therefore, can be discounted as we all appreciate. However, Yitzchok יצחק was the name that Hashem instructed Abraham to give his son. Yaakov, יעקב was also named by Hashem as Rashi states. Three sons of Yaakov had names commencing with yud. Yosef, יוסף the special son of Yaakov, Yehuda, יהודה from whom the kingship of Dovid emanated and Yissochar, יששכר known as the font of Torah. Of course, the name of essence of Hashem starts with the letter yud, יהו-ה. The first letter of all these paramount names all start with the letter yud which has the numeric value of ten. Furthermore, when one writes out yud in full, יוד, the final two letters again add up to 10 so we once again have ten plus ten.


We also find that when Solomon built the Temple he added, with Ruach Hakodesh, ten menorahs, candelabras in addition to the one from the original Mishkon.

There is a series of mishnas in the first chapter of Keilim which commence as follows
עשר קדושות הן, there are ten degrees of holiness, Eretz Yisroel – the Land of Israel is holier than all other lands etc. and the tenth one being the most holy of all, you guessed it, was the Kodesh Hakodoshim, the Holy of Holies.

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Let us jump forward to a different age, to the famous story of Purim with which we are all familiar.

Let us pose just two questions, firstly why is it that the Gemora asks המן מן התורה מנין where is Homon mentioned in Torah and the Gemora answers from the verse after Adam had eaten the forbidden fruit, המן העץ אשר צויתיך – אכלת Hamin Hoeitz (the letters ה מ ן are the same as the name Homon, even though they are pronounced differently) Did you eat from the Tree that I commanded you not to? Why is it so important to find an allusion to Homon in the Torah? The same Gemora questions where do we find Mordechai and Esther and that we can understand because they were the heroes of the Megillah, but why Homon?

Secondly, the Gemora says that Homon has 208 children yet we find that a great play is made of killing of his ten sons in Shushan (and that is why we have a Shushan Purim, which is also kept in Jerusalem to this day).

Homon, as we know, erected a tree 50 amos high on which to hang Mordechai but Homon himself was hanged from the top of it. Ten months later his ten sons were hanged from the same tree as the Targum Sheini explains in detail on the Megillah. Rashi on the Megillah quotes a Seder Olam that these ten sons wrote letters of hatred as mentioned in Ezra and that this was at the beginning of King Ahashverous’s reign. What were these letters of hatred? To stop the Jews who had already gone up to Jerusalem at the time of Koresh to start building the Beis Hamikdosh and obviously their intention was that the Shechina should not dwell again on the Temple and in particular in the Kodesh Kodoshim, the holy of holies. Therefore, their punishment was that all ten should die and be strung up below their father Homon who had tried to defile the fifty gates of understanding חמישים שערי בינה. We now can understand why the Gemora quotes the allusion to Homon in Torah from that tree which had caused the original lowering of holiness and therefore a partial rectification of the whole matter was the hanging of Homon and his sons in this particular manner.

The Megillah continues קימו וקיבלו היהודים the Jews confirmed and undertook upon themselves and later generations etc. and the Gemora says they accepted again the ten commandments with the same enthusiasm as the Bnei Yisroel had accepted them at the time the Torah was given.

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On Rosh Hashonah each year, the whole world is judged. We all pray to Hashem that we should be written in סיפרן של צדיקים, the book of the righteous. The focal point of the prayers of Rosh Hashonah is the Mussaf with three special brochos מלכיות, זכרונות, שופרות, the first proclaiming the kingdom of Hashem, the second that we should be remembered for good and this is through the sound of the shofar. Each one of these three brochos has to have ten pesukim – verses, specifically relating to the three particular points. This is dealt with in detail in the Gemora Rosh Hashonah where a connection with the עשרה מאמרות with which the world was created and the עשרת הדברות, the Ten Commandments, is made. The connection with the three measurements of the Kodesh Kodoshim, Holy of Holies, ten by ten by ten, is obvious.

Furthermore, the custom is that in the evening prayer on Rosh Hashonah after Shemonah Esra, chapter 24 of Tehillim לדוד מזמור is recited which speaks about the kingdom of Hashem. It is also significant that this also consists of ten verses. We are plugging in to the Kedusha - holiness at the same time as we are praying for a spiritual and physical good year.


The mitzvah of Sukkah is the only one which envelopes a person from top to toe and the holiness is all around us when we are inside the Sukkah. We are enjoined to go out of our houses and live for a week in temporary booths. Here again, we find some important connections with the Holy of Holies. Whereas in the case of Sukkah generally, we find numerous easings of the normal laws for, example, two walls plus the third of just a handbreadth, a tefach, is enough to make a Sukkah. We also find that the walls themselves need not be complete from the top to the bottom (technically known as Gud Asik and Gud Achis) and many other such lenient rulings including דופן עקומה, “a bent wall”.

However, what we do find, is that the first Mishna in Sukkah says that as long as the height of the Sukkah is a minimum of ten tefachim, handbreadths (less than 1 metre in height) this is sufficient for a minimum height. It is significant that it must have ten tefachim and the Gemora in Sukkah learns this from the height of the Oren and Kaporas, the Ark of Testimony in the Kodesh Kodoshim. If anybody has tried to live in a Sukkah with such a minimal height, one can understand that this is an extreme leniency, but quite obviously the minimum level was that which we find in the Holy of Holies namely ten tefachim.

At the other end of the scale the maximum height of a Sukkah, one would have thought, would be ten amos, the same as the height of the Kodesh Kodoshim. However, the leniency here is that it is double, namely 20 amos and perhaps this is to incorporate the length of the Kodesh Kodoshim, itself ten amos, so 20 amos was chosen as a precise measurement to reinforce the connection with the Holiest place. (From around 20 amos upwards a person’s eye does not travel and therefore, it would not register that it is, in fact, a Sukkah with schach above that level.)

A portion of the holiness therefore, transfers from the Kodesh Kodoshim to each and every Sukkah and envelopes every Jewish person thereon.

Let us turn to one other aspect of Jewish Law and, that is, that a person male or female, can promise to pay over their worth or that of any other male or female from a month upwards, and there is a fixed scale, this is known as Arachin.

However, if a person saysדמי עלי , my worth I promise to give, or דמי פלוני עלי , the worth of another specific person I promise to give (for the upkeep of the Mishkon or Bais Hamikdosh) then one has to make an accurate calculation of the worth of the person being valued.

The way this was done was to take ten people including one Kohen and they had to come to an assessment as clearly stated in the first Mishna of Mesachtas Sanhedrin. Based on the premises above mentioned, one can understand that ten Jews together, enables the Shechinah to dwell on them and with the presence of one of them being a Kohen this enables them to come to a true valuation which otherwise would be very difficult to reach.

The Gemorah in ,בבא קמא פ''ב to פ recounts at length that יהושע enacted ten rules when he conquered Eretz Yisroel. In later generations, עזרא made a further ten enactments. Finally, there were ten special rules applied to Yerushalyim. All this was to assist in the settlement of Eretz Yisroel and keeping the whole land holy. Once again we find the emphasis in each case on ten.

We can now appreciate how the concept of עשר, TEN permeates Jewish Holiness in practice and law and has a strong connection with the קודש קדשים, Holy of Holies in the Mishkon and indeed with בריאת העולם, the Creation of our World.

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Simchas Purim: The Joy Of Purim

The festival of Purim is one of joy as the Megillah states ימי משתה ושמחה. These are days of drinking, joy and Yom Tov. This is carried to the extent that the Gemora quoted in the Shulchan Aruch says חייב אדם לבסומי בפוריא עד דלא ידע בין ארור המן לברך מרדכי. We are enjoined to become intoxicated on Purim until we cannot discern the difference between cursed is Haman and blessed is Mordechai. This extremity of simcha seems strange to understand as it seems to imply that one should not exercise self control.

To understand this, I believe that we need to examine the Yomim Tovim mentioned in the Torah. We find that in the case of Pesach there is no mention of simcha. In the case of Shavous the Torah enjoins us to be b’simcha once and in the case of Sukkos, twice, namely the Torah states ושמחת בחגך, you should rejoice in your Yom Tov, והיית אך שמח and you should be only joyful. In the davenning Sukkos is referred to as זמן שמחתנו the time of our rejoicing.

To understand the different emphasis between the three Yomim Tovim, I would suggest that the Pesach celebration of the children of Israel going out of Egypt was a physical redemption without being a spiritual redemption. This was not yet a cause for simcha but more a sense of relief. The way the children of Israel would act following leaving Egypt was still open to question.

Seven weeks later, they accepted the Torah, the spiritual font from which we continue to drink and this was a good reason for simcha. However, they were still in the desert and were fed by spiritual food, such as מן, manna, and had to prove their affinity to the spiritual acceptance. We all know what happened shortly after, when the golden calf set matters back and it was only on Yom Kippur when Moshe came down for the third time and Hashem forgave the children of Israel that the simcha gained its rightful place. Therefore we celebrate Sukkos after Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur when the teshuvah of the children of Israel has refined everybody so that the spiritual and physical come together in the joy of keeping a mitzvah. This coming together of the spiritual and physical is represented by us dwelling for seven days in a Sukkah where the physical walls enclose spiritual levels


At the time of the Beis Hamikdosh, there was also the simchas Beis Hashoevah, the joyful procession of drawing water and pouring it on the altar. However, that was water, not something that will intoxicate anybody. Furthermore, the final time that the Torah mentions the idea of simcha, in respect of Sukkos, the expression used is והיית אך שמח, our Rabbis tell us that “Ach” is an expression denoting diminution, namely that one should be careful that the simcha should not spill over from becoming pure joy of a mitzvah to the joy which is unrefined and not worthy of our nation.

With this introduction, I think we can begin to understand why in the case of Purim we are told to go the whole way and be extremely joyful. We have to read the Megillah both in the evening and again in the morning, which highlights the terrible decrees imposed on our Jewish nation, throughout virtually the whole known world at that time and the extreme danger in which they found themselves, from which mercifully Hashem saved the children of Israel.

The events are told vividly and in detail and as we internalise them they leave an indelible mark on everybody’s character. True this wears off some time later, but for the day following there still remains a very strong impression. Therefore, extreme joy during the day, even to the extent of intoxication will not lead to the simcha being anything other than one of mitzvah. The backdrop has a sobering effect.

In the same way as our Rabbis told us חייב אדם לקרות את המגילה בלילה ולחזור ולשנותה ביום, a person is obliged to read the Megillah at night and to read it again and to learn it during the day, they also used the same expression of חייב אדם לבסומי , a person is obliged to become intoxicated on Purim.

The Arizal, Rabbi Yitzchok Luria, says that Purim, if anything, is greater than Yom Kippur referring to Yom Kippur as Yom Ke-purim, יום כ-פורים a day like Purim. This, of course, seems very strange but the explanation given is that whereas on Yom Kippur we reach a high level comparable to angels through fasting and penitence, on Purim we can reach the same level whilst eating, drinking and enjoying the Yom Tov.

Whoever attended the Tischen of the late Gerrer Rebbe, the Beis Yisroel זצ"ל will vividly recall that the tisch on Erev Yom Kippur was very serious but the Purim tisch was even more so. In fact, it was the most serious tisch of the whole year, despite the fact that plenty of food, and especially wine, was consumed.

However, I think one must emphasise, that it is only a person who properly internalises the lessons of Purim in the Megillah who is really entitled to go to the extremes of intoxication.

The Gemora also comments on the words in the Megillah קימו וקבלו אליהם, they re-established that which they had already accepted at the time the Torah was given. Namely, they re-established the spiritual high level of contact with the Torah, comparable to that which the Children of Israel reached at the time the Torah was originally given. This also sheds light in the rabbinical interpretation of a verse in the Megillah which is said by all the congregation and repeated by the בעל קורא, reader and is well known in the introduction to the Havdalah, namely, ליהודים היתה אורה ושמחה וששון ויקר, the Jews had light, joy, happiness and splendour. Our Rabbis comment as follows Orah is Torah, Simcha is Yom Tov, Sosson is Milah – circumcision Yekor is the Tefillin worn on the head. This means that they appreciated that true light was the light of Torah, true simcha the joy of a Yom Tov, true sosson a bris milah, and the true splendour of a person is wearing the tefillin.

On Sukkos, the Yom Tov mentioned in Torah, where simcha is emphasised, one must dwell in a place which is holy, namely a sukkah, eat, drink and sleep there, (and at the time of the Beis Hamikdosh additional simcha was based on the Beis Hamikdosh). On Purim, the thrust of the Yom Tov is that it is to be celebrated everywhere and anywhere and one may work, carry out all mundane matters, unlike the Yomim Tovim. The joy of Sukkos is a joy with a fence round. On Purim because of the stark trauma of the Megillah that is sufficient antidote to ensure that the simchas Purim, the joy and spiritual uplift of Purim is achievable to an extreme in all circumstances and places.

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