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ust before Succos here in Israel an anonymous e-mail informed me of the Talmudic comment that “whoever had not seen the simchas beis hashoeivah the Holy Temple’s water-drawing ceremony had never in his life seen a simchah”(Talmud Succah 51). Then it graciously reminded me that the season for simchas beis hashoeivah — the intermediate days of Succos — was just around the corner.

I wondered what were they selling? The answer appeared a few lines below: We were invited to a musical concert and if we wanted to have a simchah-filled evening it would cost us $50 (not shekalim). And if we really wanted to feel the joy we could sit in the VIP section and have front row seats for two plus “a lavish meat buffet” for only $400 (not shekalim). Well I thought $400 seems a little steep but maybe they meant that the heavy VIP kavod and heavy meal would make our simchah full and satisfying the kind that we “have never seen in our lives.”

There were two odd items about the notice: Firstly was this a benefit for some charity? Apparently not: No sponsors were listed. Secondly why were they charging dollars and not shekalim? One did not have to be Sherlock Holmes to realize that the target of this notice was not shekel-holding Israelis but those who visit Jerusalem with dollars in their pockets aka American tourists.

If the anonymous promoters of the event want to profit off gullible tourists that is their business. But what is my business is their commercialization of the concept of simchah and their cavalier use of an ancient sacred event in order to make a few dollars (not shekalim).

In truth the term “simchah” has so lost its pristine meaning that a refresher is needed: During the recently celebrated Succos festival our davening relentlessly referred to the holiday as “zeman simchaseinu the season of our simchah.” Question: Why is it that Succos alone among the three pilgrimage festivals is called zeman simchaseinu. Pesach is zeman cheruseinu (freedom) and Shavuos is zeman mattan Toraseinu (the giving of our Torah). But only Succos is the “season of our simchah ” even though the Torah mandates simchah for all three festivals.

Beyond the fact that Succos is the joyous harvest season there is a deeper meaning. We enter the festival of Succos immediately after Yom Kippur: Our souls are cleansed of their dross and we experience a great intimacy with G-d. And there is no greater simchah than connectedness with G-d. Therefore Succos alone hard on the heels of the cleansing Yom Kippur is the quintessential “time of our simchah.” This is why the great water-drawing celebration — the simchas beis hashoeivah — was such a major joy. Its ecstatic reaching out to G-d was made possible by the preceding Yamim Noraim.

Simchah then is not just an ordinary happy-happy concept. It is a sine qua non for example for a prophet to receive the Divine Word because G-d’s Spirit rests on a person only when he is in genuine spiritual simchah. The original simchas beis hashoeivah was the ultimate simchah so much so that the masses could only observe it; the actual participation in it was reserved only for the “great ones” of Israel (Maimonides Hilchos Lulav 8:14; see also Rav Y. Hutner’s Pachad Yitzchak Succos 45:16 on the “seeing” element of this simchah).

How the mighty have fallen! This mysterious transcendent rite in which the foundation waters of Creation were drawn up from the deep caverns beneath the Temple poured onto the holy mizbeiach altar and then returned to the deep — a rite so numinous that it caused profound fervor and ecstasy in those who witnessed it and gave Jonah the gift of prophecy — has been so devalued and cheapened that every Succos party and klezmer evening is today called simchas beis hashoeivah. In our grubby little hands this lofty celebration has reached its nadir with the peddling of VIP seats and lavish meat buffets.

This is not to suggest that in our day there cannot be authentic simchah. During Succos profound ethereal spirituality could be experienced in the passionate dancing and singing in many yeshivos and minyanim. Without special seating or eating one could in such places sense a heartfelt Jewish ecstasy even if it did not quite reach the apex of the Beis Hamikdash.

One is grateful to have been reminded that the simchas beis hashoeivah was around the corner. With apologies to the concert’s promoters it remains around the corner. In the fullness of time however when we are found worthy to turn that corner we will experience simchah in all its unsullied splendor. Until then we will have to manage with ordinary joyous occasions which we pray will in G-d’s benevolence pervade our coming days and nights.