Connected to the Cloud – Ha’azinu
יִמְצָאֵהוּ בְּאֶרֶץ מִדְבָּר וּבְתֹהוּ יְלֵל יְשִׁמֹן יְסֹבְבֶנְהוּ יְבוֹנְנֵהוּ יִצְּרֶנְהוּ כְּאִישׁוֹן עֵינוֹ (דברים לב, י).
We all know the famous perush by the Tur that says that any event that occurs during the week is hinted at in the parshat hashavua preceding it. So if Sukkot occurs during the week, it is hinted at in this week’s parsha.
In the Gemara (Sukkot 11b) there is a machloket between R’ Eliezer and R’ Akiva regarding the nature of the Sukkot referred to in the passuk -
לְמַעַן יֵדְעוּ דֹרֹתֵיכֶם כִּי בַסֻּכּוֹת הוֹשַׁבְתִּי אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּהוֹצִיאִי אוֹתָם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם (ויקרא כג, מג).
According to R’ Akiva it is referring to Sukkot (temporary dwellings) mamash and according to R’ Eliezer it is referring to the ענני הכבוד.
In this week’s parsha, the Mefarshim (Rashi, Rabbeinu Bachyei and others) say the word יְסֹבְבֶנְהוּ in the above passuk means that HKB”H “surrounded” us in the Midbar with ענני הכבוד.
As we know, when Am Yisrael left Egypt they were given three special miracles, in the merit of Moshe – the מן, Aharon - the ענני הכבוד and Miriam – the באר.
According to the Midrash the ענני הכבוד were omnipresent for the entire time Am Yisrael were in the desert, with two exceptions. After they sinned with the עגל and until the work began on the Mishkan there was an 85 day period where the ענני הכבוד totally departed. The second time was in Shittim, after Am Yisrael sinned with ba’al pe’or. Those who sinned were spotlighted and marked by rays of the sun shining through cracks that developed in the ענני הכבוד and were subsequently killed by the judges (see my shiur on Pinchas). According to R’ Eliezer’s opinion that Sukkot were the ענני הכבוד, this explains the halacha why the סכך must be צילתה מרובה מחמתה.
The Midrashim tell us that ענני הכבוד performed multiple miracles. They shielded Am Yisrael from their enemies. They filtered and cooled the rays of the hot desert sun during the day (the עמוד האש lit up and warmed up the cold desert nights) so that Am Yisrael basically had 24/7 air conditioning. Nobody had to do laundry in the Midbar. Every night they would hang their clothes outside their tent and the ענני הכבוד would launder and neatly press them for the following day.
According to the Rashbam and Rabbeinu Bachyei, in addition to the “logistic” miracles performed by the ענני הכבוד, they also acted as a “teleport” for מלאכי השרת who descended and figuratively “danced” with Am Yisrael כמחולת המחנים.
Whenever HKB”H’s שכינה appears, it does so in a cloud.
During the Creation of the World it says וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים מְרַחֶפֶת עַל פְּנֵי הַמָּיִם like a cloud over the water. According to the Midrash (Breishit Rabba 60:16) a cloud was permanently present over Sarah’s (and following her, over Rivka’s) tent. When we received the Torah, HKB”H appeared on Har Sinai in a cloud. When the Mishkan was inaugurated a cloud rested on the Ohel Moed. Every time HKB”H wanted to communicate with Moshe the cloud would rest on the Ohel. The cloud also functioned as a signal when to break camp and move to the next destination in the Midbar.
What I would like to explore in this shiur is the connection between ענני הכבוד, Aharon, Sukkot and believe it or not - the Lechem Hapanim.
To do so we need to introduce a few Kabbalistic concepts (which I do not understand, but they form the basis for this principle, so I am simply quoting them from the source, without even attempting to understand or explain them).
According to the Gemara (Chagiga 12b), during בריאת העולם, HKB”H separated שמים וארץ and divided Heaven into seven levels (from highest to lowest) - ערבות, מכון, מעון, זבול, שחקים, רקיע, וילון.
Aravot, the highest level, is where the כסא הכבוד resides. In this level you also find צדק, משפט וצדקה, the treasuries of life, peace, blessing, the souls of tzaddikim, unborn souls, and the dew that HKB”H will use to perform תחיית המתים.
Machon houses the משחיתים and the forces of פרענות, the treasuries of snow, hail, dew, storm, winds and steam.
Ma’on contains כיתות של מלאכי השרת who sing praises to HKB”H at night, but not during the day (so as not to compete with the Shira of Am Yisrael). (This level is also where the treasury of שמחה resides, according to the Zohar).
Zvul houses ירושלים של מעלה, in which the בית מקדש של מעלה sits and the angel מיכאל brings korbanot to Hashem.
Shechakim is where the “Mann Mill” sits, that grinds מן for the seudat tzaddikim in Gan Eden and also for tzaddikim here on earth.
Rakia contains the sun, moon, stars, planets and מזלות.
Vilon (the lowest level), is like a curtain. When the curtain is open it is day, when it is closed it is night. In this level HKB”H is מחדש בכל יום מעשה בראשית.
Incidentally, the reason we proclaim ה' הוא הא-לוקים seven times after Neilah on Yom Kippur is that, during Yom Kippur Hashem descends to the lowest level of Vilon and is in close proximity to us. After Yom Kippur ends, HKB”H ascends and returns to the כסא הכבוד in the highest level of Aravot. By repeating our affirmation of the unity of HKB”H we are in effect accompanying Him as he ascends each level, much like a host accompanies a guest when he leaves his home.
Immediately after the Creation, HKB”H’s שכינה was present on all seven levels. Following the sin of Adam Harishon and the sins of the subsequent ten generations until Avraham, HKB”H gradually departed from the lower six levels until the שכינה only remained in the highest level. The Avot, the 12 tribes and culminating with Yam Suf and Matan Torah, once again incrementally brought HKB”H’s שכינה back to the lower levels.
When Am Yisrael sang Shira after crossing the Red Sea they saw HKB”H’s שכינה - באספקלריא המאירה (Sota 30b), like looking through totally transparent glass. Similarly on Har Sinai, we were able to clearly see the שכינה which had returned to the lowest level of Vilon.
Aharon’s destiny was to be the כהן גדול and do avodah in the Mishkan. Why was Aharon chosen for this? Hillel Hazaken tells us why in Pirkei Avot (1, 12) - because Aharon was אוֹהֵב שָׁלוֹם וְרוֹדֵף שָׁלוֹם אוֹהֵב אֶת הַבְּרִיּוֹת וּמְקָרְבָן לַתּוֹרָה. Aharon loved his people and he always had a smile on his face.
When Aharon reunited with Moshe after Moshe returned from Midyan to redeem Am Yisrael, it says ושמח בלבו. Even though his younger brother, absent for so many years during which Aharon had been the de facto leader of Am Yisrael in Egypt, was coming to “replace” him, Aharon was happy! The Mefarshim (Avot DeRabi Natan 12, 3 and the Sifra, Shmini, 1) say that Aharon always used to smile at everyone and greet them בסבר פנים יפות. When people saw this, they thought to themselves “If only Aharon knew who I really am and that I am not such a groisse tzaddik, perhaps he would not have smiled!” and this spurred them on to do tshuva.
Aharon was performing the Avodah in the Mishkan which paralleled the avodah of מיכאל in the 4th Heavenly level of Zvul, where the מקדש של מעלה resides. However, due to Aharon’s unique character trait of שמחה he managed to rise to one level above that, the level of Ma’on, the wellspring of שמחה, where the מלאכי השרת sing Shira to HKB”H.
It was due to this intricate connection with the angels in the 5th level in Heaven that Aharon merited the miracle of the ענני הכבוד in which the מלאכי השרת descended to “dance” with Am Yisrael. Through his שמחה Aharon rose to a higher level even than Moshe, who was connected to the 3rd level of Shechakim where the Mann was “ground”. It was in Moshe’s merit that Am Yisrael received the Mann.
If we celebrate Sukkot (according to R’ Eliezer) to remember the ענני הכבוד, which we received due to the merit of Aharon and his attribute of שמחה, we also now understand why Sukkot is called - זמן שמחתנו.
You may ask – “Hang on a moment, weren’t the ענני הכבוד present the entire year round? So why do we specifically celebrate them on the 15th of Tishrei, on Sukkot?”
To understand this we have to understand HKB”H’s original plan for Am Yisrael when they left Egypt.
According to the Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni, Pinchas) the plan was to have Chagim - in Nissan to celebrate Pesach, in Iyar to celebrate Pesach Sheini, in Sivan to celebrate Matan Torah, in Tammuz to celebrate יום זכרון תרועה, in Av to celebrate Yom Kippur, In Elul to celebrate Sukkot and in Tishrei to celebrate Shmini Atzeret. However since Am Yisrael sinned with the עגל on the 17th of Tammuz, all the Chagim from Rosh Hashana onwards were delayed and “squashed together” in the month of Tishrei.
The Vilna Gaon in his perush on Shir Hashirim says that on the 17th of Tammuz when we sinned with the עגל, the ענני הכבוד departed because Aharon had made the עגל and the ענני הכבוד were bizchut Aharon. HKB”H only completely forgave Am Yisrael 80 days later on Yom Kippur, the 10th of Tishrei. The following day, the 11th of Tishrei, Moshe gathered all of Am Yisrael and asked them to donate materials for the Mishkan. The following two days, the 12th and 13th of Tishrei, Am Yisrael donated gold, silver, bronze, etc. for the building of the Mishkan until Moshe told them on the 14th of Tishrei to stop, because they had more than enough materials. On the 15th of Tishrei (Sukkot), Moshe handed the materials over to Betzalel and Oholiav to begin building the Mishkan.
So in fact the beginning of the building of the Mishkan began on the first day of Sukkot and continued until the 25 of Kislev. According to the Vilna Gaon, the day they began building the Mishkan, the ענני הכבוד returned and this is why we celebrate the “festival of the ענני הכבוד” on the 15th of Tishrei.
Here we discover an umbilical connection between Sukkot and the Mishkan/Bet Mikdash. In fact the Mefarshim say that the Sukkah is built according to the plan of the Ohel Moed. The יריעות of the Ohel Moed symbolize the first four levels of שמים as described above, thus connecting the מקדש של מטה with the מקדש של מעלה in the 4th level of Zvul..
(While on the subject of design and construction, here is a great “vort” for the Sukkot table. In the Torah, the word Sukkah appears חסר, without the vav – סכה, which hints to the different configurations of a halachically acceptable Sukkah – ס surrounded on all sides by 4 walls, כ only 3 walls and ה two walls and the third partial wall a minimum of 10 tefachim wide).
Of all the keilim in the Mikdash, only one has constructional similarities to a Sukkah – the Shulchan Lechem Hapanim (מאיר פנים, פרק יד).
The twelve loaves of Lechem Hapanim are surrounded by four קשוות (the Gemara calls them סניפין). These are like four “walls” alongside the loaves to support them from the sides.
On top of the loaves of Lechem Panim are a series of 28 pipes, called מנקיות in the passuk (the Gemara calls them קנים). The passuk says וּמְנַקִּיֹּתָיו אֲשֶׁר יֻסַּךְ בָּהֵן which Rashi explains as sitting on the bread like סכך on a Sukkah.
Incredibly the Lechem Hapanim is sitting (as it were) – in a Sukkah!!! This is not surprising since the shape of the Lechem Hapanim (ספינה רוקדת) looks like a smiling mouth, expressing שמחה - the essence of the Lechem Hapanim and the central theme of Sukkot.
We have spoken above about “clouds” and their meaning in a Torah context. Today everyone is familiar with the other term “the cloud”, meaning the internet. Modern technology enables us to travel almost anywhere in the world and constantly “enveloping us” is this “invisible” cloud. We cannot see it with our eyes, but all around us waves and waves of information are circulating through the air at lightning speed. For us to connect to this invisible cloud we need a cell phone or a computer with “Wifi” capability, which is a kind of a receiver/transmitter that can receive/send and decipher these invisible waves of information all around us.
Unfortunately the pretentious and misguided intention of the name “(internet) cloud” was to create “clouds” of our own in addition to G-d’s clouds, creating a man-made “entity”, totally under our control, that governs our day-to-day lives. Obviously that aspect of it is tantamount to עבודה זרה and reminiscent somewhat of a kind of Migdal Bavel. But despite that, we can still learn something profound from this technology which is מעשה ידי אדם. If you tell someone with no emunah, that all around them, every minute of the day and night, there are forces circulating that are invisible – שכינה, angels, יצר הרע, etc., they will probably think you are a nutcase! These same people have no trouble believing that all around them there are invisible waves of information in bits and bytes, flying at lightning speed from one corner of the world to another. If man can make something like that, then על אחת כמה וכמה and להבדיל אלף הבדלות, the Creator of the Universe, HKB”H can too.
When we move out of our homes in a few short days to the Sukkah, we are in fact moving into the modern day equivalent of the ענני הכבוד that Am Yisrael enjoyed in the Midbar and all around us angels are dancing כמחולת המחנים. The נפקא מינה of this is that we are entering, not simply a beautifully decorated “booth” with colored lights, hanging fruit and posters (which is nice too), but a more profound environment of enormous Kedushah and we must behave accordingly.
Firstly we must be makpid to be שמח in the Sukkah, because that is the essence of it. We must not חו"ח get angry with anyone around the table, but rather “let it go”. We must try diminish דברי חולין and increase דברי קדושה and Torah while in the Sukkah (and certainly not talk lashon harah there - Chafetz Chaim).
All year round, our neshama is (להבדיל) like a kind of a “Wifi” receiver and if we calibrate it correctly, we can pick up what is truly going on all around us. On Sukkot, more than any other time of the year, we have a unique opportunity to tap into this unique environment and connect directly to the REAL Cloud - the Clouds of Glory that are the Sukkah, through the medium of שמחה.