By Reuvain Borchardt

 

Rav Nachum Binder, rav of K’hal Hampshire Heights, discusses how Sukkos and Shemini Atzeres lift us to the deepest intimacy and greatest joy in our relationship with Hashem

 

Klal Yisrael is just coming off the Yamim Nora’im. We’ve experienced the month of Elul, when our Heavenly King comes down to be closer to us, as it were, and we resolved to come closer to him. We had the intense tefillos of Rosh Hashanah, in which we declared Hashem’s malchus. And then the sublime Yom Kippur, when we reach the level of the angels as we achieve complete mechilah and our souls are once again pure as the driven snow. We’ve reached our pinnacle of holiness—the highest level of ruchniyus and the closest to Hashem that we can achieve.

At least that’s how we might feel. But in fact, the best is yet to come.

 

The truest simchah

“The zman simchaseinu of Chag HaSukkos is the truest simchah of a Yid,” Rav Nachum Binder says. “Rav Shimshon Pincus explained that the avodah of Yamim Nora’im is personal growth. The Shalosh Regalim commemorate communal events. Sukkos is a unique Yom Tov in that it’s both the culmination of the Shalosh Regalim and the culmination of the Yamim Nora’im.

“The Vilna Goan explains that even after Hashem was mochel our aveiros on Yom Kippur—after the Chet Ha’egel Hashem said salachti kidvarecha—we didn’t return to our previous level of hiskarvus to the Ribono Shel Olam until Sukkos, because the ananei hakavod, which we’d lost by the Chet Ha’egel, didn’t return until then. When we have the ananei hakavod, we’re enveloped by the Ribono Shel Olam under His embrace,” Rav Binder says.

Rav Binder is sitting in his sefarim-filled study, speaking with The Voice about the key lessons of the upcoming Yom Tov.

While on Yom Kippur we reach a spiritual ecstasy, it’s one largely achieved through privation and restriction. But on Sukkos, we’re back in the “real world.” We eat fine foods at our Yom Tov seudos and enjoy the pleasures of life. But we’re doing these physical activities under the embrace of the Ribono Shel Olam, and in His honor.

“The limud,” says the rav, “is that spiritual elevation is bringing the closeness to Hashem into our physical lives. And when we reach that level, the simchah knows no bounds.”

This is why this Yom Tov is called “zman simchaseinu,” because the true simchah of a Yid is when he has that relationship with Hashem even in his mundane acts.

 

The ultimate

But even Sukkos isn’t the ultimate, Rav Binder says. That’s reached on Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah.

“If on Sukkos we’re embraced by the Ribono Shel Olam, on Shemini Atzeres there’s a yichud (intimacy), like a personal seudah between Hashem and us.”

And how do Yidden celebrate that special relationship? By joyously dancing with the Torah.

“That,” says the rav, “is the ultimate connection a Yid can have with the Ribono Shel Olam. We can have our connection in our eating and our drinking, and we can have a connection with living our lives and being close to Hashem. But what makes us one k’vayachol with Hashem is our connection to the devar Hashem, which is the Torah.”

 

Simchah on Yom Tov…and year round

Rav Binder believes that while we should teach our kids about how special the Yamim Tovim are and have uplifting, ruchniyus’dige seudos, it’s important not to pressure them needlessly to the point they feel the holiday is a burden.

“Help them feel the simchah of the Yom Tov,” he says. “And the same is true with chinuch all year round.

“The most important thing is to instill the enjoyment of Yiddishkeit, the enjoyment of mitzvos, the enjoyment of Torah. And the metziyus is that Torah has a force that when one starts a little bit and he enjoys a little bit, it pulls the person more and more into it, until he becomes connected to the Torah in a real way.”

 

A geshmake chinuch

Rav Nachum Binder grew up in Chicago at a time when the families of kollel members, like his father, Reb Zev Binder, lived in the yeshivah dorms. At the age of nine, his family moved to Montreal, where Reb Zev became a rebbi.

“I was always zocheh to be part of the yeshivah,” he says with obvious appreciation to his parents. “My father zichrono livrachah and my mother yibadlah l’chaim were a tremendous influence on us on chashivus haTorah and a geshmak in Yiddishkeit.”

He later learned in Novominsk in Boro Park, then in Brisk and Lakewood.

These days, Rav Binder is the rav of K’hal Hampshire Heights in Lakewood (and travels to Boro Park daily, where he serves as rosh yeshivah in Aleksander). It’s with palpable pride and affection that the rav discusses his kehillah, a community of 45 duplex homes near New Hampshire and Cedar Bridge.

“The kol Torah in the beis medrash, whether it’s before Shacharis or at night, the avodah, the davening, the geshmak is unbelievable, and the davening is ehrlich. The gemilas chasadim is unique and special. And that’s the kehillah I’m privileged to be part of.”

When I ask for the particular mehalech or focus he takes with his congregants, he smiles and says, “I try to make sure that Yiddishkeit is not dry, but alive.”

 

The worst tzarah

This Shemini Atzeres will mark the second anniversary of the October 7 attacks. There are still 48 hostages in Gaza, only around 20 of whom are believed to be alive. No matter how many top Hamas commanders are killed, there is no end in sight to a war that has already killed well over 400 Israeli soldiers.

“The fact that the most devastating thing that happened to Klal Yisrael as a nation in one day since the Holocaust happened on the day of the closest relationship we have with the Ribono Shel Olam is in a way the most painful part of the whole thing,” says Rav Binder. “Because on that day there was some type of feeling that k’ilu Hashem was telling us that with all My love that I have for you, there are things we have to fix up.”

Antisemitism has soared worldwide during the past two years. That it’s been most notable on college campuses in no coincidence, the rav says.

“Rav Chaim Volozhiner famously said that when the Jew doesn’t make kiddush, the goy makes havdalah. College campuses are, unfortunately, where the liberalism of the secular Jews comes out the most, and that’s where we see the strongest manifestation of their wanting to be like goyim. Similarly, the Meshech Chochmah says that in the places where there’s less of a separation between the Yidden and the goyim, that’s where there’s going to be more antisemitism. Wherever we want to be like goyim, they’re going to throw us away.”

But, Rav Binder says, as tragic as October 7 and the deaths and antisemitism are, we’re experiencing something even worse now.

“A worse tzarah than Shemini Atzeres is the fact that we’re living in a tekufah that Yidden, the children of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, are putting gezeiros on bnei Yeshivos. That Torah that we’re all going to celebrate with on Shemini Atzeres, they want to pull it away from us,” he says.

And, in a nod to how controversial that statement may seem, he points at me and insists, “And this should be written!”

Rav Binder says that one way to try to fight these gezeiros is to “be mechazek our appreciation for the olam hayeshivos, realize that the yeshivah bachurim who came home for bein hazmanim and are sitting in the beis medrash learning over Yom Tov are the pride and joy of our nation.

“We have to have appreciation for yungerleit and gedolei Torah—and for our own limud haTorah. When you’re walking with your child, point out, ‘That’s a talmid chacham,’ ‘That’s a yeshivah bachur,’ ‘That’s a kollel yungerman’ with a chashivus. When we do that, we’re taking the lessons that Hashem is trying to give us to perfect ourselves and become better. There’s no other message from anything that happens in the world ever besides that it’s Hashem telling us, ‘My dear children, I want you to become better at something.’”

Rav Binder himself served as MC at the most recent Ma’amad Adirei HaTorah, the event that has become the largest annual homage to those who dedicate their lives to Torah.

 

The enjoyment and the fear

With all the good, every generation could use chizuk in certain areas. When I ask the rav if there’s anything in particular he suggests that people focus on, he replies that we should be sure to use Shabbos as a tool for spiritual growth rather than just a pleasant weekend day to indulge in food, reading newspapers, and getting a good nap.

“Shabbos is a day to grow in ruchniyus. Chazal tell us that Shabbos was given for limud haTorah. Come to shul on time and say the whole Pesukei D’zimrah. Enjoy the seudos Shabbos in a ruchniyus’dige way—not just as a place to discuss the hot topics of the week,” though he reiterates that this should be done in a pleasant and enjoyable manner and that children shouldn’t be pressured or forced into things they resent.

“Shabbos is the mekor habrachah, and the more we invest into our Shabbosos, the more we will be zocheh to brachah both in ruchniyus and in gashmiyus.”

Yet with all his emphasis on the simchah and geshmak of Yiddishkeit, Rav Binder bemoans that some people are afraid to discuss the fear of Hashem that is also a fundamental aspect of Judaism.

“Unfortunately, today, yiras Shamayim is a taboo subject,” he sighs. “We don’t talk about s’char v’onesh. A child should be taught that when you do good you get s’char, and if you do an aveirah you get an onesh. It’s one of the yud gimmel ikrei emunah, and it has to be instilled from a young age.

“People are scared to do that today. But we’ve existed as a nation for thousands of years, and the chinuch always was that yesh din v’yesh dayan.”

 

Growing and growing

A Jew is never stagnant; the only way he isn’t regressing is if he’s progressing.

That means that even upon reaching the highest of all possible levels on Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah, the growth doesn’t stop.

“There’s a fascinating memra from chassidishe sefarim,” the rav says, “that the heilige teg are all a hachanah for the heilige necht. What are these holy nights? After Simchas Torah. When we come back to the world and we have the winter nights to sit and learn Torah. The purpose of this simchah is to elevate ourselves that we should be a different person post-Yamim Nora’im, Chag HaSukkos, Shemini Atzeres, and Simchas Torah than we were before. If a person enters the winter with a renewed commitment and a renewed relationship to Torah and to the Ribono Shel Olam, then the heilige teg had an effect on him that he was koneh.”

Though it’ll be impossible to maintain the level of intimacy with Hakadosh Baruch Hu that we achieve on Shemini Atzeres, and though we’ll certainly fall (again and again) during the year to come, these holy days are never wasted.

Rav Binder cites Rav Chatzkel, who compared Yamim Tovim to spiritual structures.

“Once you’ve built the building, it’s there,” Rav Binder says. “It’s a metziyus. In your ruchniyus’dige portfolio, you have now a successful Rosh Hashanah, a successful Yom Kippur, a successful Sukkos, and a successful Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah. It’s there and can never be taken away from you.

“Live the moment of Yom Tov, and take in the most that you can from it! That in itself is the biggest kinyan that one can have.”