The Joy of the Drawing of the Water The holiday of Sukkot is referred to as “the season of our rejoicing”, as the Torah commands us: And you shall rejoice in your Festival-you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite, and the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow, who are within your cities. (Deuteronomy 16:14) The Mishna tells us about the joyous celebration that occurred in the temple in Jerusalem each night of Sukkot, “the Celebration of the Place of the Drawing”, in connection with the drawing of the water for the libation on the altar. The Mishnah describes: One who did not see the Celebration of the Place of the Drawing of the Water never saw celebration in his days. This was the sequence of events: At the conclusion of the first Festival day the priests and the Levites descended from the Israelites’ courtyard to the Women’s Courtyard, where they would introduce a significant repair, as the Gemara will explain. There were golden candelabra atop poles there in the courtyard. And there were four basins made of gold at the top of each candelabrum. And there were four ladders for each and every pole and there were four children from the priesthood trainees, and in their hands were pitchers with a capacity of 120 log of oil that they would pour into each and every basin. From the worn trousers of the priests and their belts they would loosen and tear strips to use as wicks, and with them they would light the candelabra. And the light from the candelabra was so bright that there was not a courtyard in Jerusalem that was not illuminated from the light of the Place of the Drawing of the Water. What is so unique about the joy of the drawing of water for libation, and why is a libation of water associated with joy more than the libation of wine, which occurs every day of the year? Wine, which has a pleasurable flavor, represents joy that is based on reason. The Hebrew word “Taam” means both “taste” and “reason”. When the human mind grasps an idea, it is as pleasurable and delightful as taste. Wine, therefore, naturally awakens joy as the verse states, “wine brings joy to the heart of man”. The libation of wine, therefore, represents the joy that comes from contemplation and understanding the value and benefit of cleaving to G-d. Water, by contrast, has no taste and therefore does not awaken joy. In fact, the Mishnah states that, since water has no flavor, one does not recite a blessing when drinking water unless one is thirsty. Libation of water, then, represents the joy the soul feels that is deeper than articulation in logical terms, a joy that is not limited to what the mind can comprehend. The deep thirst of the soul to experience the embrace of G-d, generates the powerful, overwhelming joy of the libation of the water. Chasidic philosophy explains that “Joy breaks boundaries”. When people are happy, they do things that seem illogical, including what we call dancing, which, essentially, is getting up and moving their bodies in unusual ways, something they would not do in an ordinary context. Cleaving to G-d on Yom Kippur, breaking the usual boundaries between creator and creation, inspires intense joy that is beyond the limits of logic. Adapted from the teachings of the Rebbe, Lekutei Sichos vol. 2