Right before Sukkos I received a comic which was printed in one of the papers, which was titled "Sukkos in the North." Standing inside a sukkah, were a boy and a girl, and the girl says, "No, you need enough space in the schach to see the yerutim (missile intercepts)." It was a cute, yet sad, statement on the situation.
Twelve hours later, at 3 a.m., I was awoken in my sukkah by a very loud explosion. As I sat up, I HEARD the "woosh" of a low-flying rocket, followed by another explosion. I ran out of the sukkah to get the kids in their sukkah (I don't share my sukkah with no-one!), where I hear the woosh and the explosion of a third. I see the kids are up as well as we run into the house. Around 20 seconds later, the air-raid sirens woke up and gave a half a round of wailing before going silent.
I asked the kids if they saw what happened, and they replied, 'Yeah, we saw it through the schach!"
Sigh.
At least, for us, it's been relatively quiet since. (Of course, you know right after I send this, we'll get attacked)
I ran into the Gemara in Taanis (22b-23a) which discusses the concept of having too much blessing in life. The Gemara quotes a teaching: "When the Torah writes, 'I will bless you with rains in their time,' it means that it will not be too much and it will not be too little. If it's too much, the land becomes muddy and the ground does not produce proper fruits. Another way to understand the words 'in their times,' is that the rains should fall on Tuesday night (the reason for this night is beyond the scope of this writing) and Shabbos night, when people do not venture out."
As support, it tells us of the time of Rebbe Shimon ben Shetach, who lived at the time where the grandsons of the original Maccabees ruled the country. Unfortunately, the grandchildren did not live up to their grandparents' standards. At one point, the king died and it was the queen, Shlomis, who ruled over Eretz Yisroel. Shlomis just happened to be the sister of Rebbe Shimon ben Shetach, and together they prosecuted those who led the nation astray and began to rebuild the nation's spiritual life.
In those times, the Gemara reports, the rains fell only on Tuesday nights and on Shabbos nights, and the "wheat became as large as kidneys, the barley as large as olive pits, the lentils as large as gold coins, and they put some away for future generations to show how much sin ruins, as it is stated (Yermiyah 5:25): ' Your sins have turned these away, and your transgressions have withheld the good from you.'"
Sin doesn't just bring negative things to the world, but it withholds good from flowing into our lives. We think that our world, as we see it, is what things are "supposed to be" and when we sin, things go down from there. However, we see from this Gemara, that wheat should be as large as kidneys, barley should be as large as olive pits…. THAT is what is "supposed to be," and unfortunately, we have cut off that good from flowing down.
And this is what we learn in this week's parsha.
Adam was given what was supposed to be. Everything good at its fullest potential. But that one sin caused a clog in the spiritual pipes, if you will. And that good is diminished. It's still good, but … it's not as good as it's supposed to be.
When we build ourselves spiritually, not only does it help keep us away from negative repercussions, but it also allows more good to flow down into our lives, and slowly moves us from Good Minus, to Good Plus.
Wishing you all a wonderful Simchas Torah and Shabbos!