Time for Torah: By Rabbi Elimelech Kohn Zt"l
Sep 22, 2026 · 1 hr 34 min · 11 segments
Shiur from Rabbi Elimelech Kohn Ztl on סוכות.
In fact, we're gonna go to the very basic heart of what the mitzvah of Sukkot is all about.
Everybody knows you dwell in booths to commemorate or whatever the case may be.
No reason need be given, yet there's an extra-- there, there's an entire passage devoted to explaining why we dwell in the Sukkot, which we also now have to understand what that reason actually is.
Whatever these sukkahs were, was it that important to make an entire holiday to commemorate it? I mean, what about all the other miracles that happened? What about the manna that came down every single day for forty years? So we should have something to commemorate the manna or some holiday to commemorate the manna, not just something, some ritual, but actually a holiday to commemorate the manna, the water that was b-being given to the Jewish people, the, the air, the, the wa- the well that went with them.
Why is there a s- a specific celebration and an entire festival devoted to commemorating the Sukkot that we dwelt in in the Midbar? What was so important about it that we should make a Yom Tov for it? Thirdly, the idea of living in Sukkot, if one understands it in, in its literal sense, that the Jews dwelt in booths and they have these flimsy huts to live in, and therefore we have to leave our homes and live in these flimsy huts, is that something to celebrate and to rejoice? Sukkot is known as Zman Simchasenu, the time of our rejoicing, of our rejoicing.
So we're going to leave our homes to live in huts to commemorate something that the Jews did in the desert, and this is a way of thanking Hashem and appreciating something? If anything, Sukkot comes out then to be a kind of a burden, a kind of a, a chore and a, uh, and a burden on us rather than something that's a pleasurable experience.
So we're gonna wind up making a seven-day festival living in these temporary hut-like, uh, structures.
I guess you could say as a corollary, we're trying to commemorate this kind of, uh, existence that the Jews lived, so why even the huts? Why not, uh, just camp out under the stars, you know? Take sleeping bags or something like that.
So w-what's the significance of the sukkah itself or of the hut itself? The, the question is-- Okay, so far we have three questions so far.
The fourth question is, what does it have to do precisely with, with Mitzrayim, with Yetziat Mitzrayim? When I took them out of Egypt.
I mean, it should more, it should more correctly say when they went through the desert.
In fact, we're gonna go to the very basic heart of what the mitzvah of Sukkot is all about.
Everybody knows you dwell in booths to commemorate or whatever the case may be.
No reason need be given, yet there's an extra-- there, there's an entire passage devoted to explaining why we dwell in the Sukkot, which we also now have to understand what that reason actually is.
Whatever these sukkahs were, was it that important to make an entire holiday to commemorate it? I mean, what about all the other miracles that happened? What about the manna that came down every single day for forty years? So we should have something to commemorate the manna or some holiday to commemorate the manna, not just something, some ritual, but actually a holiday to commemorate the manna, the water that was b-being given to the Jewish people, the, the air, the, the wa- the well that went with them.
Why is there a s- a specific celebration and an entire festival devoted to commemorating the Sukkot that we dwelt in in the Midbar? What was so important about it that we should make a Yom Tov for it? Thirdly, the idea of living in Sukkot, if one understands it in, in its literal sense, that the Jews dwelt in booths and they have these flimsy huts to live in, and therefore we have to leave our homes and live in these flimsy huts, is that something to celebrate and to rejoice? Sukkot is known as Zman Simchasenu, the time of our rejoicing, of our rejoicing.
So we're going to leave our homes to live in huts to commemorate something that the Jews did in the desert, and this is a way of thanking Hashem and appreciating something? If anything, Sukkot comes out then to be a kind of a burden, a kind of a, a chore and a, uh, and a burden on us rather than something that's a pleasurable experience.
So we're gonna wind up making a seven-day festival living in these temporary hut-like, uh, structures.
I guess you could say as a corollary, we're trying to commemorate this kind of, uh, existence that the Jews lived, so why even the huts? Why not, uh, just camp out under the stars, you know? Take sleeping bags or something like that.
So w-what's the significance of the sukkah itself or of the hut itself? The, the question is-- Okay, so far we have three questions so far.
The fourth question is, what does it have to do precisely with, with Mitzrayim, with Yetziat Mitzrayim? When I took them out of Egypt.
I mean, it should more, it should more correctly say when they went through the desert.
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