The רמ"א writes (הל' יוה"כ, סי' תרכה);
"והמדקדקים
מתחילים מיד במוצאי יום כיפור בעשיית הסוכה כדי לצאת ממצוה אל מצוה"
Questions: 1) Why out of all the Mitzvos that we could do
after Yom Kippur, is building a Succah chosen? Why shouldn’t it be the Mitzvah
of Tzedaka for example that we should do right after Yom Kippur?
2) To deepen the question, the Netziv
writes that the Mitzvah of Succah isn’t your typical מצות
עשה מן התורה, rather it is a הכשר מצוה הכתובה בקרא,
meaning it is really a preparation for the eventual Mitzvah of living in the
Succah but not a Mitzvah in of itself. If so, doesn’t it seem strange that if
after Yom Kippur we would want to bring out the idea of being involved in
Mitzvos, to go from 1 Mitzvah to another, we would do a Mitzvah which is a השכר מצוה?
Shouldn’t we do something that in of itself is a full fledged Mitzvah?
Explanation: Perhaps we can explain based on the following
Mashal: There were two juniors in high school who both wanted to play on the
varsity basketball team, Jack and Anthony. Anthony was considerably more
talented than Jack was. However Jack spent the entire summer before tryouts,
working out, exercising & developing his basketball skills. He would rise
at 4 in the morning to go for an early run and take 1,000 jump shots and by the
end of the summer he was just as good as Anthony. Anthony, confident in his
skills, spent his summer tanning at the beach. When the day of tryouts came,
despite Jack played extremely well but still Anthony’s natural talents were
visible to all and he outplayed Jack. However the coach chose Jack.
Why would he choose Jack if Anthony played better? It’s
simple, the coach had been aware how each of them had spent there summers. He
saw Jack’s effort and his commitment to making the team in the fact that he
spent the whole summer before the season practicing & trying to improve his
game. This is the type of player the coach wanted on his team.
We can bring this idea into understanding part of what our
Avodas Hashem should be after Yom Kippur. Coming off a day where Hashem in His
great mercy has forgiven us for all out sins, we want to show Him we are
committed. We are on His team. A great way to show commitment is showing up to
the show early. We want to show Hashem that we are committed not just to
keeping each Mitzva but that we want to be involved in His Torah so much that
we run to do the actions which are the preparatory steps for those Mitzvos.
That very point that building the Succah is a Hechsher
Mitzvah is the exact reason why it should be the Mitzvah we run to after Yom
Kippur since it shows our commitment to Hashem in not only doing the Mitzvos
but preparing & committing our free time to the Mitzvos as well.
May we all take this message to heart in our preparation for
the Yom Tov of Succos and further deepen our relationship with Avinu She
BaShemayim.
