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Sukkot has always been a favorite holiday of mine. Besides many rational reasons, like school vacation, my birthday, and its culmination in the ever-so eventful, sugar-high-induced Simchat Torah, something about this chag has always appealed to me on a deeper, more personal and emotional level.

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There is a famous teaching which I have heard many times about the holiday of sukkot. I hear it quoted by many different rabbis without ever really understanding what we are supposed to understand from it. I think I now found the key to understand it properly.

I traced back this teaching to the Vilna Gaon in Kol Hator but it might have even earlier sources.

The teaching goes like this: “There are only two mitsvot in this world in which you fully enter your body in the mitzvah: The mitzvah of Sukkah, and the Mitsvah of Yishuv Erets Israel”. Nu, ok, great! We enter our the mitzvah with our whole body. Whats the chiddush? What does this change in my life? Why do I need to know this interesting fact?

I think, that if we understand this teaching more deeply, we will, together, be able to understand the true nature of the sukkah we are sitting in and also, we will be able to more fully understand and appreciate the nature of erets Israel.

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I miss seminary a lot. It’s not just the friendships. It’s not just the tiyulim around our beautiful country. It’s not just the tzadikkim/ot that taught us.  And it’s not just the enlightening shiurim I had. All these contributed to my growth and enjoyment.

But what I miss most is the environment. We were all going through the same process; living with strangers, trying to survive on sem food, adapting to the intense schedule and culture. We all celebrated Shabbat and chagim together, we all experienced the more solemn events together from Yom HaShoah to Yom HaZikaron, and we all experienced the magnitude of Eretz Yisrael and Am Yisrael on occasions like Yom Yerushalyim, Yom Haatzmaut and visits to Hevron and the like. But most of all, we all had one mission. We all wanted to grow in our Torah. All we did and went through was for the purpose of Torah. Every song we sung was to get close to Hashem, every pasuk we learnt was to learn His wisdom. 

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While the Third of Ellul is, for many, just the third day of a special month of Teshuva - While Gimmel Ellul is, for many sfardim, simply the second day on which to wake up for Slichot - in the past 73 years, Gimmel Ellul has become, in the Religious Zionist movement, a very special day. This is the day of the Yarzheit, or Hilloula, of Rav Avraham Hakohen Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of the State of Israel and the spiritual leader of the Religious Zionist movement. As has become the custom, we, at Tzipiyah.com, want to celebrate this Gimmel Ellul by celebrating Rav Kook’s life and learning from his teachings. I therefore want to share a video which I got the permission to upload on YouTube - a video I feel every single Jew should be watching on Gimmel Ellul. I am also including quotes from various sources on the personality of Rav Kook in order to better grasp how incredible this Tzadik was. Finally, I will conclude with a few quotes from Rav Kook himself so that we may also be inspired by his wisdom.

How better to describe to life of this spectacular figure than with the words inscribed on his grave:

He rose to Israel (made aliyah) on the 28th of Iyar (later to be Yom Yerushalaim).
He rose to Jerusalem on the 3rd of Ellul.
He rose to the heavenly skies on the 3rd of Ellul.

His whole life, as described on his grave, was a constant aliyah - constantly reaching to higher spheres of holiness.

The video

If you are not on Tzipiyah.com, click here to see the movie.

About Rav Kook

There is so much to say about this incredible person, but here are a just few quotes from some biographies. I highly suggest that all should read this book when they have a chance.

There is a well-known story about R. Kook which captures much of what made him so unique. When R. Kook moved to Israel, he was appointed Chief Rabbi of Yaffo; this job included serving as the rabbi of the secular Zionists in the outlying agricultural settlements. One summer, Rav Kook and his colleagues went on a tour of these settlements in an attempt to encourage the pioneers to observe more mitzvot, especially the laws pertaining to agriculture and produce. Their campaign was met with minimum of success. One night, toward the end of the trip, Rabbi Y. M. Charlop, who was sharing a room with R. Kook, awoke to the sight of his teacher restlessly pacing about their small room. As he looked closer, he noticed that R. Kook’s face was flushed with passion and excitement. Rav Kook noticed him and slowly approached his disciple, placing his ice cold hands on R. Charlop. “What is wrong, master?” R. Charlop asked. R. Kook ” responded, “I am consumed with a burning love of God.”
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R. Kook did not write in normal expository prose. His writing flowed from inspiration; he attempted to capture his powerful experiences in words. His hand was driven to write by the overwhelming emotions bursting forth from him. Once he started writing, he didn’t stop. Sometimes he didn’t even notice that he had reached the end of the page and kept writing straight onto the table. He even preferred pencil over pen, because fountain pens constantly had to be re-dipped in ink, interrupting his passionate writing. Yet, despite the spontaneity of his expression, we never find thoughts crossed out or erased in his manuscripts. Not only did his thoughts flow, they flowed correctly the first time. (from Here)

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This article has been written by Rav Ari Shvat (Chwat), Rosh Midreshet Tal Orot in Michlelet Orot, Elkana. He has graciously offered to share his wisdom with the readers of Tzipiyah.com, and given me a few, very powerful and all very relevant, articles to share with you. This is the fifth part of the second article. Enjoy!

6. Sovereignty in the Land of Israel is a Mitzva

Up to this point, we have seen that the State of Israel, even if secular, is important as a means to guarantee both our physical and spiritual existence. On a completely different plane, we learn that there is an obligation from the Torah that the Land of Israel be under Jewish rule. In other words, the State of Israel is an ideal in of itself, not just a necessary median to alleviate the difficulties of anti-Semitism and assimilation. As the Ramban says:

“We are commanded to inherit the Land that Hashem gave to our forefathers, to Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya’acov, and not to abandon it in the hands of the other nations or to desolation. And He said to them: ‘and you should inherit the Land and settle in it, because I have given you the Land to inherit.’[1]… This is what our rabbis call milchemet… chova (an obligatory war) as the war of Yehoshua to conquer (Israel)… understand, that this mitzvah is to conquer …this is a positive mitzva for every generation”.[2] (more…)