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Welcome Back from Galus!

By Rabbi Zvi Teichman

Posted on 10/24/19

Parshas HaShavua Divrei Torah sponsored by
Dr. Shapsy Tajerstein, DPM - Podiatry Care.
(410) 788-6633

A little over a week ago many of us uttered a poignant prayer as we entered the Sukkah. In it we request that G-d bring His Presence to reside among us. We add that in the merit of leaving my house to go out - and I will enthusiastically pursue the path of your commandments - may this be reckoned for me as if, הרחקתי נדוד, I have wandered afar.


This supplication is based on a Pesikta that asserts that in the event it was decreed upon us, over the days of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, to be sentenced to ‘exile’, we aspire to fulfill that edict by leaving the comfort of our home and descend into the galus of our Sukkah.


(ילק"ש אמור תרנג)


Isn’t the Sukkah supposed to be reminiscent of our entering the Temple, as we are taught that even its wall are similarly sanctified with Name of Hashem? Doesn’t the Gra assert that the Sukkah is equated with the command to dwell in the holy land, as both mitzvos are uniquely fulfilled with one’s entire physical being entering there?


How is this glorious realm suddenly transformed into a sentence of exile?


The historically very first exile was Kayin, when due to his having murdered his brother he was cast off and doomed to become a vagrant and a wanderer on earth.


Where did he wander to?


The verse states clearly that Kayin left the presence of Hashem and settled in, ארץ נוד קדמת עדן, the land of Nod, east of Eden.


The Vilna Gaon claims that the phrase קדמת עדן, doesn’t mean east of Eden, but rather, that which ‘corresponds’ to Eden. The parcel of land on this earth that most closely resembles Eden is the holy land! He was thus sent into the ‘galus’ of Eretz Yisroel!


How can inhabiting the glorious holy land fulfill the decree against Kayin to be exiled?


HaRav Yaakov Zvi Mecklenberg suggests a marvelous interpretation of Kayin’s initial response upon hearing his fate, “My sin is greater than can be borne. You have surely Banished me today from the face of the earth, and from before You I will hide myself, and I will be a wanderer on the earth and whomever finds me will kill me.”


Whereas most understand Kayin as complaining that the decree is too overwhelming, he claims it is quite the opposite. Kayin was expressing sincere contrition and acceptance of his due punishment.


My sin is very great, and I have transgressed exceedingly by spilling my brother’s blood, and it is too great to bear or to forgive. Justly and fairly You have decreed upon me that I be exiled and be forced to wander in the earth. And the embarrassment of my disgusting actions will cover my face to be hidden from the Light of Your Face, and I cannot find the courage to plead on behalf of my life for forgiveness and atonement. And I declare the righteousness of Your judgment, and I accept with all my heart the decree to wander in the earth. And if only it should come to pass that my wanderings will eventually lead to my death, whereby someone will encounter me in the road and he will take my life, and my death will constitute a complete atonement for all of my evil to have extended my murderous hand against my brother.(הכתב והקבלה)


G-d having accepted his repentance forewarns others with sevenfold retribution if they seek to harm Kayin. Kayin leaves joyously, settling in the land of Nod, the land of Israel. The Gra explains it is thus called נוד, wander, since in the future its inhabitants will be ‘exiled’ from the land. Rav Mecklenberg suggests on the contrary, it is called ‘wander’ because all who are aware of its remarkable quality readily trek happily there to lay claim to it. Quoting a verse in Tehillim where Dovid HaMelech describes מלכי צבאות ידודון ידודון (סח), Kings of legions flee, they flee, he alleges it refers to how in the end of days these kings will move with joy towards the momentous events, implying that the ‘movement’ intimated within this form נד, is one of glee.


If this is true, how then shall we understand our being נדוד, ‘exiled’ to the Sukkah?


Was Kayin to go scot free with nary a challenge as a result of his sincere repentance? Was he being rewarded rather than punished?


We recited in the course of Yom Tov during Mussaf the sentiment, ומפני חטאינו גלינו מארצנו ונתרחקנו מעל אדמתנו, But because of our sins we have been exiled from our land and have become distanced from our land. This seems redundant - exiled and distanced. The illustrious Leader of the Old Yishuv, Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, averred that it refers to two types of galus. There is firstly the physical reality of being driven from our land, forced to relocate to foreign lands. But then there is a greater exile, being distanced from the land we are yet standing upon, blinded to its specialness and deaf to the providence that is shouting out to us at every turn.


Kayin had been guilty of being so self-absorbed with his own success, allowing his instinct of personal frustration to lash out so murderously. He was guilty of a mindlessness that permits the weeds of greed to grow wildly in damaging the terrain before it is too late.


Before his moment of repentant realization, he was doomed to physically wander never finding success and permanence, with the hope that eventually he would ‘get it’ and fathom the depths of his poisonous attitude. It would require a sentence of נע, a constant and frustrated movement that would force him to that reality.


Now that he grasped it, there was no longer a need to catch his attention. But he was still in need of living with a sense of pervasive and consistent attentiveness, lest he fall into comfortable mindlessness, and all its consequences.


נד, wandering, is not as much a physical state of movement as it is mental restlessness, the inability to stay focused and mindful. This would be his challenge. Would he maintain an absolute consciousness of his surroundings and the numerous opportunities to connect with G-d in every circumstance, that would contain his otherwise powerful instinctive urges?


The galus of a Sukkah is not about the physical journey from our home but about the ability to quash our urges for mindless comforts and remain absolutely focused on our relationship with Hashem.


Our challenge lays in whether we can create islands of Eretz Yisrael by permeating the atmosphere with a purposefulness and a sense of G-d’s presence in every facet of our being.


One can not only be exiled even while one stands on the terra firma of Eretz Yisrael, but with an even greater power one can create parcels of ‘holy land’ wherever one may find oneself.


So welcome back from galus, as we implement that talent we honed while dwelling in the Sukkah, in bringing the warmth, inspiration and holiness of our special land into our very homes!


באהבה,


א געזונטער ווינטער,


צבי יהודה טייכמאן