A Thought on Simchat Torah: What Should We Be Feeling Now?

As we approach Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, we realize we are reaching the conclusion of the holiest days of the year. What should we be thinking about? What should we be feeling?

Thirteen years ago, I heard a mashal from Rabbi Moshe Weinberger that I often think about and share before Simchat Torah.  

There was a man named Matul. He was not an intelligent man and therefore, he was often called Matul Naar, which is the Yiddish version of Matul the tipesh. After a number of years they found him a shidduch and from that moment onwards, they called him חתן מתל.

The night before his wedding, the Rebbi saw Matul sitting and crying and inquired why he was crying the night before the happiest day of his life? Motul answered it was because ever since he became a Chatan he was being called Matul Chatan. But he knew that after the wedding, people will return to call him Matul Naar and that made him sad. He preferred the name Matul Chatan to stick.

Rabbi Weinberger explained the nimshal that this is how we feel at the end of Simchat Torah. The whole year we are Matul Naar, finally Elul and the Yomim Noraim come along and we make some chnges, reignite our relationship with Hashem and perhaps perhaps He looks at us as Chatan. Now we might be sad as we do not want to go back to being called Matul Naar.

How do we prevent that? How do we maintain the growth we have experienced over the last few weeks?

We know from the Torah, that on Sukkot the korbanot are decreased each day; from 13 down one each day. Rashi in Pinchas quotes the Medrash Tanchuma which explains that the Torah is trying to teach us derech eretz. Just as if one has a guest -  on the first day you serve him the finest meats. On the second day you serve him fish. With each passing day the quality of what you serve becomes less and less. So too, we decrease the korbanot.

What does this mean? How is that teaching us derech eretz?

Rabbi Weinberger explained that the medrash means that the longer a guest stays with you, the closer he becomes to you, the more you begin to treat him like a בן בית. You don’t serve fancy delicacies in your house all the time; that is only for special guests. But the longer he stays, the less he is viewed as a guest and the more he is viewed as a בן בית.

So too, we, after a whole year, we wake up during Elul, Rosh Hashana we are mamlich Hashem, on Yom Kippur we are forgiven and cleansed of our sins, and then an even higher level on Sukkot of  ושמחת לפי ה'. But we still feel kind of out of place; we feel like a guest. So we start out with big fancy korbanot, but the longer we stay, the longer we feel like we are a בן בית by the רבונו של עולם. That is why we decrease the korbanot, we feel at home.

We should focus on שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד and constantly focus on our relationship with Hashem so we can remain comfortably as בני בית.