08 October, 2009

Simchas Torah

R' Moshe Weintraub (a rebbi in Torah Vodaath) once said: The world says that mikvah is a big mitzva, for it encompasses all of your body without a separation. Succah is a bigger mitzva for you enter your succah even with your muddy clothing. I say that simcha is the biggest mitzva, for you can sit in a succah and yet your mind can be somewhere else, whereas when you are besimcha your entire mind is filled with simcha.
We can say that this refers to the days of Tishrai. Yom Kipper is like a mikvah, for there is nothing that separates us from Hashem on that day. On Succos we come into our succah with our muddy clothing. The climax of Tishrai is Simchas Torah when all of our mind in filled with simcha. We have no mitzvas execpt to fill our minds with happiness.

Mazel Tov to a dear reader (I hope) Luzy Steinmetz on the birth of a baby girl!

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