Leaving the permanent for the sukkah

ענין הליכה מבית לסוכה צא מדירת קבע כו'.

The matter of going from one's house out to the sukkah — "leave your permanent dwelling" etc.

Chazal teach that on Sukkos one departs from one's fixed home (dirah keva) and moves into a temporary dwelling, the sukkah. This act of leaving the permanent for the temporary is the theme the Sefas Emes will develop.

הוא מעין מצוה ראשונה שנצטוה אברהם אע"ה לך לך מארצך.

It is a likeness of the very first mitzvah with which Avraham Avinu was commanded: "Go for yourself from your land" (Bereishis 12:1).

Just as Avraham was told to leave his familiar place behind, so too leaving one's home for the sukkah re-enacts that first call to follow Hashem into the unknown.

וכמו כן בבנ"י שנא' זכרתי לך חסד נעוריך כו' לכתך אחרי כו'.

So too with Bnei Yisrael, as it says: "I remember for you the kindness of your youth… your following after Me [in the wilderness]" (Yirmiyahu 2:2).

Bnei Yisrael's defining merit was their willingness to follow Hashem out of Mitzrayim into a barren desert — the same readiness to leave security behind that the sukkah expresses.

ובודאי אין יכולין לקיים זה כראוי רק בתחילת.

And surely one can fulfill this properly only at the beginning.

The pure, wholehearted readiness to leave everything and follow Hashem comes most naturally at a fresh start, before a person becomes settled and attached to the familiar.

ולכן אחר יוהכ"פ שנעשים טהורים כקטן שנולד מתעורר זה הרצון בכל איש ישראל להיות נמשך אחר השי"ת.

Therefore after Yom Kippur, when we become pure like a newborn child, this ratzon (will) is awakened in every Yid to be drawn after Hashem.

Yom Kippur cleanses a person back to a newborn's purity. From that fresh "beginning," the same yearning Avraham had to follow Hashem reawakens in everyone — and Sukkos right afterward is when it is acted upon.

אחריך נרוצה.

"After You we will run" (Shir HaShirim 1:4).

This verse captures the renewed drive to chase after Hashem — the very movement of "going" that the sukkah embodies.

ומסתמא פי' חסד נעוריך הוא אברהם אבינו ראשיתן של ישראל.

And presumably the meaning of "the kindness of your youth" is Avraham Avinu, the beginning of Yisrael.

The "youth" of the nation traces back to Avraham, its root and starting point — tying the verse in Yirmiyahu back to the first "lech lecha."

ושמעתי מפי קדשו של מו"ז ז"ל על מאמר המדרש תנחומא בפ' לך ילמדנו רבינו מה לקבל עליו מ"ש כשהוא מהלך כו'.

And I heard from the holy mouth of my grandfather, of blessed memory, regarding the statement of the Midrash Tanchuma in Parshas Lech Lecha: "May our master teach us — what should a person accept upon himself when he is walking on the road" etc.

The Sefas Emes cites a teaching he received from his grandfather, the Chiddushei HaRim, on a Midrash that opens by asking what a traveler should take upon himself as he sets out on his journey.

והגיד כי כיון שהיתה זו מצוה ראשונה א"כ למה התחיל בהליכה ומיישב כי כבר עמד אע"ה בענין ואהבת כו' ודפח"ח.

He explained: since this was the first mitzvah, why then did it begin with "going"? And he resolves it — that Avraham Avinu had already attained the level of "And you shall love [Hashem]" etc. — and these are beautiful words of the living God.

The question is why the very first command was an act of movement rather than something more foundational. The answer: Avraham had already reached the inner level of loving Hashem (ahavah); "going" was the natural expression of a love already in place — the deed that flows from an inner attainment.

וכמו כן נוכל לומר בסדר ימים הללו.

And similarly we can say regarding the order of these days.

The Sefas Emes now applies this idea to the sequence of the Yamim Noraim and Sukkos.

כי בר"ה הוא האחדות שמע ישראל כו'.

For on Rosh Hashanah there is the oneness of "Shema Yisrael" etc.

Rosh Hashanah is the day of declaring Hashem's absolute oneness — "Shema Yisrael, Hashem is One."

ואז צריכין להתבטל אליו ולא שייך הליכה.

And then one must be in a state of bittul (self-nullification) before Him, and "going" does not apply.

When the soul is wholly nullified before Hashem's oneness, there is no "movement toward" — the person is already entirely absorbed in Him. Bittul is a state of stillness, not travel.

וכן ביוהכ"פ הוא בחי' בשכמל"ו.

And likewise Yom Kippur is the aspect of "Baruch shem kevod malchuso le'olam va'ed" (Blessed is the Name of the glory of His kingdom forever).

Yom Kippur corresponds to the second verse of Shema, the praise of Hashem's eternal kingship — another level of total submission rather than movement.

ובסוכות מתחיל ואהבת כו' שיהי' ש"ש מתאהב על ידך כדאיתא בספרי.

And on Sukkos begins "And you shall love [Hashem]" etc. — that the Name of Heaven should become beloved through you, as is brought in the Sifri.

After the bittul of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur comes Sukkos, the level of active love (ahavah) — making Hashem's Name beloved to others through one's own conduct, as the Sifri darshens on "ve'ahavta."

לכן אז המצוה הליכה.

Therefore the mitzvah then is one of "going."

Because Sukkos is the level of love that must be expressed outwardly, its mitzvah is an act of movement — walking out of the house into the sukkah, just as Avraham's love expressed itself in "lech lecha."

ולכן מקריבין ע' פרים על האומות ג"כ התפשטות הקדושה לכל המקומות כנ"ל.

And therefore we offer seventy bulls on behalf of the nations as well — this too is the spreading of kedushah (holiness) to all places, as above.

The seventy bulls of Sukkos, brought for the seventy nations, are another form of this outward "going": holiness reaching beyond Bnei Yisrael to fill every place in the world.

ועי"ז זוכין אל הארץ אשר אראך.

And through this one merits "the land that I will show you" (Bereishis 12:1).

Just as Avraham's "going" led him to the Promised Land, this outward avodah of spreading kedushah leads a person to his own "land that I will show you" — the destination Hashem reveals only once one has set out.

וכן בסוכה זוכין לרוח הקודש ע"י מצוה זו כנ"ל.

And so too in the sukkah one merits ruach hakodesh (divine inspiration) through this mitzvah, as above.

The reward for this "going" is an elevated spiritual awareness — the sukkah becomes a place where ruach hakodesh can rest upon a person.

ולכן סוכה מלשון יסכה שסכתה ברוח הקודש כנ"ל:

And therefore "sukkah" is from the same root as "Yiskah," for she "saw" (sachsah) with ruach hakodesh, as above.

Chazal identify Sarah with "Yiskah," explaining the name from a root meaning to gaze with prophetic vision. The Sefas Emes hints that "sukkah" shares this root — the sukkah is a place of prophetic "seeing," where one merits ruach hakodesh.

Summary: Leaving the permanent house for the temporary sukkah re-enacts Avraham's "lech lecha" and Bnei Yisrael's following Hashem into the wilderness. After the bittul of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Sukkos is the level of active ahavah that must move outward — spreading kedushah to all the world — and through this very "going" one merits ruach hakodesh within the sukkah itself.