I applied for a fellowship the other day, which required me to find, read in Hebrew, translate and interpret for a general audience a short passage about one of the Jewish holidays from a Hasidic master. Quite the mouthful!

One of my favourite Shabbat readings is the work of Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter of Ger (1847-1905), one of the foundational thinkers of the Hasidic movement. He is generally known as the Sefat Emet, after the book of his compiled table talks for Shabbat and the holidays. Rabbi Art Green wrote a wonderful translation and interpretation (The Language of Truth), but thankfully he couldn’t possibly cover all of the Sefat Emet’s work, so I found a lovely little passage on Sefaria about the holiday of Sukkot, which is not in Rabbi Green’s book. (Sefat Emet, Deuteronomy, Sukkot, chapter 5).

I wanted to share with you what I wrote – I’m hoping you will give me some feedback on it. I’ve included the Hebrew for those of you who can read it, but if you can’t, just skip it. The intended audience almost certainly can’t, and would not be seeing it.

Original 

והיית אך שמח. לאשר כי השמחה יכול להתפשט לבוא לידי פריקות עול ח”ו לכן נאמר בו אך לשון מיעוט. ואחז”ל אך את הזהב שצריכין להעביר החלודה כמו כן אך שמח להיות השמחה רק לשם שמים בלי פסולת. 

Translation

“And you shall only be joyful” (Deuteronomy 16:15). To show that joy can spread to the point of breaking off the yoke, heaven forfend, and that is why it says “only”, which is a diminishment. Our Sages interpreted “Only the gold” (Numbers 31:22) to mean removing any tarnish. In the same way, “only be joyful” means that the joy should only be for the sake of heaven, with no waste. 

Interpretation

The Sefat Emet recognises that it is human nature to want to throw off the yoke (by which he meant living according to traditional Jewish rules, but we can extend the idea to any kind of discipline or sobriety). The holiday of Sukkot is called “the time of our rejoicing”, and when we are feeling joyful and celebratory, we may make choices that are not in our best interest. The rebbe reminds us that the gold used for building the Tabernacle was kept clean and untarnished – and in the same way, we can rejoice and have fun without harming ourselves and others.

Does this make sense to you? I’d love to know.