Happy Returns

After such a successful harvest, why not enjoy the profits in your cozy home instead of spending the week in a flimsy hut?

We all know that on Succos, we have a positive commandment to be joyful, but it’s puzzling: How can a person be instructed to be happy? And what are we supposed to be specifically joyful about on Succos? About eating our meals in a temporary hut out in the yard instead of in our dining room?

Let’s figure this out by closely examining the Torah’s words: “You shall make for yourself the festival of Succos, seven days, when you gather in [the produce] of your granary and your winepress. You shall rejoice in your festival… and you shall be only joyful” (Devarim 16:13-15).

One key phrase here is often misunderstood: “When you gather in [the produce] of your granary and your winepress” seems to evoke a natural simchah. Succos comes at the harvest season, indeed a happy time for our forefathers in the Biblical Land of Israel, when they saw the fruit of their labor. The sheaves of grain, bundled and lined up in rows, made their hearts swell. Their year of toil had paid off, and their silos were full. This was clearly a time to feel happy. But is this really the simchah that the Torah intended? Does the Torah need to command a person to be joyful while indulging in a feast? Who wouldn’t rejoice in the fruit of his labor in the field and vineyard, to see his granary full and his winepress busily crushing vats of grapes?