October 16, 2022|כ"א תשרי ה' אלפים תשפ"ג Sukkot drasha: A "Deeper Dive" into the Ushpizin By Rabbi Jonathan Muskat

John had a pet parrot for a number of years but the parrot always uses rotten words when guests come over. Fed up, John gets really mad and throws the parrot in the freezer to shut him up. After a little bit, he hears the parrot kicking and screeching but then he stops. John thought that something might be wrong so he opens the freezer door. The parrot hops out and says I'm so so sorry for my rude behavior and that bad language will never happen again when the guests come over! John was shocked by the turnaround! “By the way,” John asks the parrot, "May I ask what the chicken did?”

We also need to be on our best behavior over Sukkot because the guests, the ushpizin, the ancient guests, come over and visit us. What do I really think about the ushpizin? There is this custom to welcome seven guests from our past to the sukkah each day of Sukkot. This custom is not recorded in the Shulchan Aruch, the code of Jewish law. Its source is the Zohar. The Zohar actually cites two opinions. According to the first opinion, when a person sits in the shade of God, in the sukkah, the Divine Presence spreads its wings upwards and Avraham and five other righteous people come to dwell with him; however, according to a second opinion, Avraham and David and five other righteous people dwell with him. Our custom is like the second opinion, that seven guests come visit us in the sukkah. The Biblical allusion to the fact that these seven guests visit us is that the Torah first states baSukkot taishvu – in Sukkot you will live and then later the Torah states yaishvu baSukkot – they will sit in Sukkot. Rabbi Abba in the Zohar explains that taishvu – you will sit in the sukkah refers to the ushpizin and yaishvu – they will sit, refers to the Bnei Yisrael.

What are we supposed to feel when we invite these guests every day and when we single out one every day? These types of customs generally are supposed to create a mindset, a mood, if you will, for this holiday. But what mindset are the ushpizin supposed to create?

Let’s study a machloket, a debate, regarding this custom and hopefully by trying to understand the rationales underlying each side of the debate, we can develop the proper perspective for this ushpizin custom. What’s the big debate when it comes to the ushpizin? Yosef – when do we say Yosef? According to the Arizal and the Shlah Hakadosh, the order of the ushpizin is Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Moshe, Aharon, Yosef and David; however, according to standard Ashkenazic texts, based on a different version of the Zohar, the order is Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Yosef, Moshe, Aharon and David.

In other words, the question is when do we say Yosef – between Yosef and Moshe or between Aharon and David?

On the one hand, it would seem that if we’re following chronological order, Yosef should follow Yaakov and precede Moshe, so what is the rationale for the Arizal and Shlah Hakadosh who place Yosef after Moshe and Aharon? Now I’m sure that there are deep, mystical kabbalistic reasons for each position and some of you here can probably talk more intelligently about this than me. However, I’m a simple man who likes a classic Brisker analysis to explain where Yosef is to be situated in the ushpizin. For this, let us turn to the Ateret Zvi, a commentary on the Zohar, written by Rav Tzvi Hirsh, Rebbe of Zidichov and student of the Hozeh of Lublin.

He explains the debate based on the gemara in Bava Batra. The gemara in Bava Batra, as codified in the Shulchan Aruch, explains that if a group of people are sitting down, who receives the most prominent seat? The answer is that b’yeshiva halekh achar hokhmah, bimsiba halekh achar ziknah. When it comes to a sitting of Torah, such as a din torah, a Jewish court, the one who is the greatest hakham, the wisest, receives the most prominent seat; however, if they are sitting in a party, a non-Torah sitting, then the oldest receives the most prominent seat.

The Ateret Zvi explains that that is the debate as to the placement of Yosef. If you hold that sitting in the sukkah is like yeshiva, like a regular sitting of Torah, then the order follows wisdom and Moshe and Aaron precede Yosef. This is the position of the Arizal and Shlah Hakadosh. However, if you hold that sitting in the sukkah is like a mesiba, like a party, a celebration, then the order follows age and Yosef would precede Moshe and Aaron. This is the position of Ashkenazic texts.

As a side point, if we follow wisdom and therefore, Moshe and Aaron precede Yosef, then we need to ask why isn’t Moshe the first of the guests since he is the teacher of all of klal yisrael and the Sfat Emet deals with this question and it’s beyond the scope of this drasha. However, this debate about the placement of Yosef in the order of the ushpizin highlights the following question: what is the mood that we should feel when we enter the sukkah?

According to the Arizel and the Shlah Hakadosh, the experience in the sukkah is a yeshiva, primarily an intellectual experience when we are aware of our state of galut, of exile. After all, sitting in the sukkah reflects sitting in exile and the purpose of the ushpizin, as pointed out by a number of Chassidic masters, is for us to work on our midot, our character traits and correct our flaws in order to bring an end to this exile. Each day of Sukkot represents another Biblical guest that excelled in a particular midah that we should emulate. For example, Avraham represents lovingkindness and Yaakov represents truth and Moshe represents Torah. I think it would be a wonderful exercise for all of us to learn a little bit about the special guest of the day every day of Sukkot and discuss what he stood for and try to commit ourselves to strengthen ourselves with regard to that particular trait in a small way.

However, according to the Ashkenazic texts, the experience in the sukkah is a mesiba, it’s more of a celebration. What is our celebration in the sukkah? Even though we are aware of our galut, our insecurity in this world as we sit in the sukkah, we respond by celebrating, by realizing that we are part of something greater, a community which was burdened at the dawn of history with serving as God’s ambassadors. This awareness results in a feeling of simcha and we celebrate the sukkah experience as a mesiba, as a joyous celebration. This is where our guests come in. Our guests, in age order, represent our connection to something greater. For these purposes, Yosef precedes Moshe because he is closer to our roots. We belong to this community of Godly ambassadors and we follow in their footsteps.

Rabbi Lamm asks us to probe even deeper. Each of our ushpizin excelled in this midda of celebrating in a sukkah, of excelling and thriving while they lived a life of galut, a life of alienation and exile. Avraham was forced to leave Ur Kasdim to a new land, Yitzchak felt alienated from his wife and children in his home as he did not understand them. Yaakov fled from his home for twenty years. Yosef was an alien in Egypt. Moshe was a refugee in the desert of Midyan. Aaron was left stranded by Moshe who ascended to Heaven to receive the tablets while the people down below wanted to build a golden calf and David fled during his life both from King Shaul and from Avshalom. The company that we have on Sukkot provides us with comfort to take pride at being aliens in this world, that we can simply follow the lead of our beautiful guests in having a mesiba, a celebration, even in the sukkah.

But perhaps there’s also a more concrete take home message from this connection to our fellow holy aliens. Perhaps on this holiday of Sukkot we should understand how lonely an alien, an outsider feels. On a holiday that forces us to focus on feelings of loneliness, let us resolve to make this a year when we will proactively try to look around our community and ask ourselves, who is feeling lonely, who needs a Good Shabbat at the end of the davening, whether they’re a visitor from out of town or perhaps someone in town who needs a friendly hello? Who needs places to eat on Shabbat? Who among us is struggling with an issue that needs a listening ear? Hopefully the simcha that we feel on this day of Sukkot will be contagious and spread to everyone in our community.