“TREE TASTES LIKE THE FRUIT”- Sukkot/Etrog as a Microcosm of Eretz Yisrael
Rav Kook points out (Orot HaTeshuva 6, 7) that just as most of the tree is roots, trunk, branches and leaves, despite the fact that the goal of an apple tree is her fruit, similarly most of life is preparations (e.g. eating, sleep, dress, work, cooking, changing diapers), and often one doesn’t even achieve his goal. Does that mean that he wasted his life?! The existential question is, if most of life is “tree” (= a ‘means’ to achieve a goal), and I want to have meaning in life, I have no choice but to find a way to have “taste” in the tree, not just in the fruit. This was the original plan in Eden (where Hashem commanded “let there be fruit trees that produce fruit”, but the earth didn’t listen and just grew “trees that produce fruit”, Yalkut Shimoni Breishit 1), and is meant to be the ideal lifestyle, as expressed in the Etrog where the tree still tastes like her fruit (the last remnant of the ideal world, Sukkah 35a). The Vilna Gaon says that living in Eretz Yisrael is like living one’s entire life in a Sukkah (Kol HaTor, p. 470), where even the secular/mundane/”tree” is not just preparation and ‘means’, but also has meaning/taste/holiness, and all that you do is a mitzva!
Usually eating, walking, work, speaking, sleep etc. are just a ‘means’ to achieve some higher goal in life, but in the sukkah, whatever you do there is a mitzva. Similarly in Eretz Yisrael, there is spiritual value in producing and eating her holy fruit and all really all occupations (Chatam Sofer, Suka 35); in walking 4 steps (Mishna Brura 248, 28); in speaking her Holy Language of Hebrew (Sifre, Dvarim 11,19), and even serving in her army is a Milchemet Mitzva (Rambam hil. Milachim 5, 1).
Rav Kook (Ma’amarei HaReiya, p. 235) points out that Yom Kippur, when we pretend to act like angels and distance ourselves from physical pleasure, is extreme “shock treatment” for the spiritually sick, who temporarily need bitter medicine in order to return to health. But the final mitzvah of Yom Kippur is to go out and build a sukkah, return to living a daily life of kedusha. Similarly, the Mesilat Yesharim (ch. 26) explains that Tahara (refraining from physical pleasure to the bare minimum), is a lower level than Kedusha (revealing G-dliness in the physical world). Accordingly, Rav Kook explains why we have over 50 Shabbatot and many Yom Tovs over the year, and only one Yom Kippur. This is the Living Torah of Eretz Yisrael which embodies Kedusha (ibid, p. 179), as opposed to the Torah of Chutz laAretz which makes do with Tahara (as does Christianity). Accordingly, we understand why the Talmud Yerushalmi written in Eretz Yisrael, considers the “preparation” for a mitzvah (like writing a mezuza, building a sukkah or tying tzitzit) as an additional mitzvah (even deserving its own bracha: e.g. “לעשות סוכה”), as opposed to the Talmud Bavli (Tosafot, M’nachot 42b) written in Chutz laAretz, which does not consider the preparation a mitzvah.
Rav Kook similarly explains why the Simchat Beit HaSho’eva (literally: “the party of the water-drawing”) on Sukkot is not called “Simchat Nisuch HaMayim” (the party of the pouring of the water), even though the mitzva was to pour the water on the alter on Sukkot, and the “drawing” of the water was just a “PREPARATION”. Similarly, the Torah mentions the preparation of building a sukka (“תעשה”) and acquiring the 4 species (“”ולקחתם) even though they aren’t “officially” part of the mitzva, where in contrast, it doesn’t say “you shall BAKE matzot”. These 2 mitzvot are also unique that the preparation involves much effort, time and money, but the mitzva itself is short and simple (just enter the sukka or pick up the species). Similarly, these 2 mitzvot are the FIRST 2 of 5 examples listed in the Talmud (Shabbat 133b) of HIDDUR mitzva (from the root: HADAR, the name for the etrog, Vayikra 23, 40!), as THE prime samples of doing mitzvot physically beautiful (details of Hiddur ALL (!) mitzvot are found in hil. Etrog, Or.Ch. 656). Even today, there are no other mitzvot where we invest so much DECORATION, and examination for no BLEMISHES, despite that usually physical beauty is just means/”tree”/preparation and not a goal/”fruit”!
For this holiday teaches that the preparations/tree in life are also important, not just the fruit/goal. This is all befitting for Chag HaAsif, where we worked an entire agricultural year, plowing, planting, irrigating, fertilizing, pruning etc. in PREPARATION for gathering the fruit, the produce. Sukkot teaches us that even if chalila there was a drought and not that much fruit, we did not waste a year, for in Eretz Yisrael, there is “taste/meaning/ideal in the tree (e.g. the work), just as in the fruit!” This is a throw-back and “throw forward” to the ideal world. Accordingly, the Abravanel (Dvarim 16) says that just as Pesach celebrates Am Yisrael, and Shavu’ot- Torat Yisrael, Sukkot represents a microcosm of Eretz Yisrael. This also explains why only Sukkot is called “Zman Simchatenu”, because all pleasure is considered holy! Chag Same’ach and we should hear Besorot Tovot from all Yisrael!! (Refuah Shleima to all, including Neria Dov son of Yechiel and Chani (Weiss) Leiter seriously wounded yesterday by terrorists), Rav Ari Shvat (Chwat)
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