Shabbat Chol HaMoed Sukkot - 5782

Shabbat Chol HaMoed Sukkot - 5782

Rabbi Hal Miller

Go eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a glad heart, for God

has already approved your deeds. [Kohelet 9:7]

Our prayers during Sukkot are full of the phrase, zman simchateinu, the

time of our joy. It is the end of the harvest season, which was the lifeblood of

the Jews in ancient times, from which they now have storehouses full of

food, and are now able to rest through the winter. The water libation ceremony

in the Temple was supposed to be the epitomy of joy. So why do we read

Kohelet in the middle of the holiday?

We think of Kohelet as anything but joy. But is that correct?

Rashi reads most of the book as being a description of wicked people. They

are not able to understand beyond whatever they experience directly, thus

become fatalists, seeing the operation of the world as being by chance. If

that is so, they reason, there is no justification for requiring people to go out

of their way to be 'good', so they grab for all the physical rewards they can

get in this world. Then in our verse, King Shlomo speaks to the few righteous

people, telling them to continue living in righteousness because they have

already been approved by God. While perhaps not so for the wicked, this

position should be joyous for those who have been living a Torah life and

those who have done true teshuvah.

Ibn Ezra reads it as an attack on the logic of those wicked people, saying that

there is indeed Divine judgment. The position of living it up because there is

no tomorrow is unjustified, and those who eat and drink to excess, or do any

other such enjoyment to excess, are doomed to a bad judgment. This applies

even to Jews. Although we are commanded to drink wine for kiddush, we

are limited to the amount it takes and are not allowed to get rollicking drunk,

even on Purim when some people mistakenly let themselves go. That, by

definition, is not joy, but gluttony. Having a glass of wine, for those who like it,

eases the heart/mind and provides joy, but so does the knowledge that one

has fulfilled the Divine commandments.

Alshich concentrates on "your bread", saying that one is joyous only when

eating the product of his own labor. Further, he writes that God having

already approved one's deeds is the permission to enjoy this world.

Midrash Rabbah on Kohelet writes that our verse is God's confirmation that

He has accepted our prayers and teshuvah.

The Dubner Maggid explains Kohelet as a reminder that worldly things are

not where we should be concentrating, but rather on the spiritual. Our desire

for physical pleasure and worldly success is strong, like riding a boat upstream.

Only through persistent and vigorous effort can we prevail. He adds that this

does not mean we must suffer, rather we should make our enjoyment of the

world a part of our spiritual growth.

Rav Hirsch tells this in his story about a visit to the Alps. At the height of a

struggle with Jews who supported throwing off Judaism to become Germans,

he told his staff that he was taking a trip to the Alps. Flabbergasted, they

asked him how he could consider this. He said that, after 120 years, he was

going to meet God, who would ask him, "So, Shimshon, what did you do in

your life?" He would explain all the books he had written, lectures he had

given, etc., and God would keep nodding. At the end, God would say, "Yes,

very nice, but did you see My Alps? I made such beauty in the world for

people to enjoy. Did you see My Alps?" Since Rav Hirsch worked so hard

on such important endeavors, he was entitled also to enjoy some of God's

beautiful creations.

Kohelet is telling us that those who work hard on what God wants us to do

will enjoy life in this world, as well as in the World to Come. This is why we

read it especially on Sukkot.