Sitting in the Future Sukkah of the Livyatan

Based on Likutei Ya”M HaChochmah: Festivals and Seasonal Avodah Series:
Succos: Sitting In The Future Succah of the Leviathan

The value of longing and desiring Hashem

When we leave the sukkah for the final time, we recite:

יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְּפָנֶיךָ ה׳ אֱלֹהֵינוּ וֵאלֹהֵי אֲבוֹתֵינוּ, כְּשֵׁם שֶׁקִּיַּמְתִּי וְיָשַׁבְתִּי בְּסֻכָּה זוֹ, כֵּן אֶזְכֶּה לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה לֵישֵׁב בְּסֻכַּת עוֹרוֹ שֶׁל לִוְיָתָן.
May it be Your will, Hashem our God and God of our ancestors, that just as I fulfilled the mitzvah and dwelled in this sukkah, so may I merit in the coming year to dwell in the sukkah made from the skin / עוֹר of the Livyatan.
—Expanded farewell tefilla printed in many machzorim and siddurim

The earlier formulation recorded by the Rema is:

וּכְשֶׁיּוֹצֵא מִן הַסֻּכָּה אוֹמֵר: יְהִי רָצוֹן שֶׁנִּזְכֶּה לֵישֵׁב בְּסֻכָּה שֶׁל לִוְיָתָן.
When one leaves the sukkah, one says: “May it be His will that we merit to dwell in the sukkah of the Livyatan.”
—Rema, Orach Chayim 667:1

Rav Morgenstern connects this farewell tefilla with the future seudah of the Livyatan / לִוְיָתָן and the Shor HaBar / שׁוֹר הַבָּר. We ask that we merit to eat and recline at that great seudah.

At that seudah, Hashem will reveal the truth of every machshavah tovah / מַחֲשָׁבָה טוֹבָה and every sincere spiritual ratzon / will that a Jew carried within herself in this world.

There are those among us who yearn to attain every form of avodah. We long for depth in Torah, devekut / דְּבֵקוּת in tefilla, refinement of the middot / מִדּוֹת, and complete closeness to Hashem. We want to accomplish all of it now.

When we confront the distance between our ratzon and our actual attainment, we may judge ourselves to have been unsuccessful. We see what we did not complete, the madreigot / מַדְרֵגוֹת we did not reach, and the avodah that remained beyond us.

Rav Morgenstern teaches that in the future Hashem will show us wonders. He will reveal that every authentic longing for kedushah was itself accomplishing a tikkun / תִּקּוּן.

A holy ratzon is not empty merely because its desired outcome has not yet appeared within the revealed world. The longing itself acts. The kisufin / כִּסּוּפִין / desire themselves elevate, clarify, and draw a person toward Hashem.

In the future, we will discover that these spiritual longings did not merely accomplish something. They accomplished wonders far beyond anything we imagined.

“This is Hashem for whom we hoped”

Yeshayahu describes the revelation / gilui of the future:

וְאָמַר בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא: הִנֵּה אֱלֹהֵינוּ זֶה, קִוִּינוּ לוֹ וְיוֹשִׁיעֵנוּ; זֶה ה׳ קִוִּינוּ לוֹ, נָגִילָה וְנִשְׂמְחָה בִּישׁוּעָתוֹ.
And it will be said on that day: “Behold, this is our God; we hoped for Him, and He saved us. This is Hashem for whom we hoped; let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”
—Yeshayahu 25:9

Chazal teach:

וְכָל אֶחָד וְאֶחָד מַרְאֶה בְּאֶצְבָּעוֹ.
Each and every one will point with a finger.
—Talmud Bavli, Ta’anit 31a

Chazal then cite the complete pasuk from Yeshayahu quoted above.

Rav Yitzchak Eizik Chaver explains in Pitchei She’arim that the finger alludes to da’at / דַּעַת.

Pointing with the finger expresses a recognition that has become direct and unmistakable. What we held in this world through emunah / אֱמוּנָה, hope, and longing will then be apprehended through a wondrous da’at.

We will recognize that nothing holy for which we truly yearned was lost. Every spiritual attainment we sought will be received in revelation / gilui—doubled beyond what we believed we had been trying to accomplish.

The future seudah of the Livyatan thus reveals the immeasurable value of ratzon / will. A holy desire is not merely a preliminary step toward avodah. The desire itself is an avodah.

Our task is not to dismiss the ratzon because we have not yet reached its fulfillment. We are asked to guard it, deepen it, and continue directing it toward Hashem. In the future, Hashem will reveal what every hidden longing achieved.

The future seudah of the Livyatan

The Gemara teaches:

וְאָמַר רַבָּה אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן: עָתִיד הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לַעֲשׂוֹת סְעוּדָה לַצַּדִּיקִים מִבְּשָׂרוֹ שֶׁל לִוְיָתָן.
Rabbah said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: In the future, HaKadosh Baruch Hu will prepare a seudah for the tzadikim from the flesh of the Livyatan.
—Talmud Bavli, Bava Batra 75a

The Gemara bases this teaching upon a pasuk in Iyov:

יִכְרוּ עָלָיו חַבָּרִים; יֶחֱצוּהוּ בֵּין כְּנַעֲנִים.
Will companions prepare a feast from it? Will they divide it among the merchants?
—Iyov 40:30

The Gemara explains that yikhru / יִכְרוּ denotes the preparation of a seudah, while chaverim / חַבָּרִים refers to talmidei chachamim. The pasuk is therefore understood as an allusion to the future seudah that HaKadosh Baruch Hu will prepare for the tzadikim from the flesh of the Livyatan.

The future sukkah of the Livyatan

The Gemara further teaches:

עָתִיד הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לַעֲשׂוֹת סֻכָּה לַצַּדִּיקִים מֵעוֹרוֹ שֶׁל לִוְיָתָן.
In the future, HaKadosh Baruch Hu will make a sukkah for the tzadikim from the skin of the Livyatan.
—Talmud Bavli, Bava Batra 75a

The Gemara cites the complete pasuk:

הַתְמַלֵּא בְשֻׂכּוֹת עוֹרוֹ, וּבְצִלְצַל דָּגִים רֹאשׁוֹ.
Can you fill his skin with barbed implements, or his head with fishing spears?
—Iyov 40:31

Chazal read the word vesukkot / בְשֻׂכּוֹת as an allusion to the sukkah that HaKadosh Baruch Hu will fashion from the skin of the Livyatan.

The future sukkah is not merely the setting in which the seudah will be eaten. It expresses the completed structure of the future tikkun.

Repairing every fall and concealment

Hashem will slaughter the Livyatan with a bone. The depth of this teaching is that the entire lower realm in which we presently dwell will be repaired, and all the fallen sparks of kedushah / נִיצוֹצוֹת הַקְּדֻשָּׁה will be elevated.

The Hebrew word for bones, atzamot / עֲצָמוֹת, alludes to Atzmut / עַצְמוּת—the innermost dimension that will be revealed in the future.

A bone represents the inner structure concealed beneath the external garments. The tikkun of the bones therefore signifies a tikkun that reaches the essential root of the fallen sparks.

Rav Morgenstern explains the correspondence between the parts of the Livyatan and the structure of the sefirot:

• Skin repairs Malchut / מַלְכוּת.

• Flesh / בָּשָׂר repairs Zeir Anpin / זְעֵיר אַנְפִּין.

• Sinews / גִּידִין repair Binah / בִּינָה.

• Bones / עֲצָמוֹת repair Chokhmah / חָכְמָה.

The bones express the sod of the birur / בֵּרוּר of the fallen sparks through Chokhmah.

This is alluded to in the complete pasuk:

מָה רַבּוּ מַעֲשֶׂיךָ ה׳, כֻּלָּם בְּחָכְמָה עָשִׂיתָ; מָלְאָה הָאָרֶץ קִנְיָנֶךָ.
How abundant are Your works, Hashem! You made them all with wisdom; the earth is full of Your possessions.
—Tehillim 104:24

“Through Chokhmah they will all be clarified” means that the fallen sparks will be identified, refined, and elevated through the illumination of Chokhmah.

From these elevated sparks, the sukkah of the future will be built.

The sukkah made from the skin of the Livyatan is therefore constructed from the completed birurim / בֵּרוּרִים of history. Every spark raised from concealment becomes part of the makif / encompassing light within which the tzadikim will dwell.

Within that sukkah, the great seudah of the Shor HaBar and the Livyatan will be eaten.

The place of concealment becomes the place of revelation / gilui

The future seudah is bound to the tikkun of every yeridah / יְרִידָה and every hester panim / הֶסְתֵּר פָּנִים.

The Admor of Lusk teaches, who heard it from his son-in-law, the Sar Shalom of Belz, in the name of the Rema MiPano: the future seudah will be eaten in the place of Gehinom.

The meaning is that the deepest sodot and the greatest oneg of revelation / gilui Elokut will be disclosed precisely through the elevation of the fallen sparks and the tikkun of the place of hester panim.

The place that appeared furthest from revelation / gilui Elokut will itself become the place of the greatest gilui.

The future tikkun does not discard the choshech / darkness. It elevates the sparks concealed within it. The choshech itself is thereby transformed into a keli / כְּלִי for a gilui that could not have been received without the preceding hester.

Every limitation and every dimension of hester panim will be elevated and joined with the Ein Sof / Infinite Light. Through this joining of the finite with the Infinite, Elokut will be revealed with even greater intensity.

The skin of the Livyatan and the tikkun of Malchut

The future sukkah is made specifically from the skin of the Livyatan.

Skin is the outermost garment. It marks the boundary between the inner life of a being and what lies outside it. For this reason, skin corresponds to Malchut.

Malchut descends into the lower worlds and enters the place where Elokut is concealed. It is associated with limitation, choshech / darkness, and hester panim.

Yet it is precisely the skin—the aspect corresponding to Malchut—that becomes the material of the future sukkah.

What once concealed the light will become that which shelters us within the light. What appeared to create separation will become a makif / encompassing light of kedushah.

The future seudah will be eaten within this repaired dimension of Malchut, precisely where Hashem’s presence had appeared most deeply concealed.

This is the sod of the sukkah made from the skin of the Livyatan. The final revelation / gilui does not come through abandoning the places of concealment. It comes through elevating them.

Every fall, every boundary, every place of hester, and every unfulfilled holy longing will be gathered into the final tikkun. Once its concealed spark is revealed, it becomes part of the future sukkah.

We will then recognize that our kisufin / כִּסּוּפִין / desire were themselves building that sukkah.

Every ratzon / will for Torah, every yearning for devekut, every tefilla whose answer remained concealed, and every holy aspiration that appeared incomplete was raising another spark. The longing itself was preparing the future seudah and forming the makif / encompassing light within which the final revelation / gilui will be received.

Then we will point with complete da’at and say:

וְאָמַר בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא: הִנֵּה אֱלֹהֵינוּ זֶה, קִוִּינוּ לוֹ וְיוֹשִׁיעֵנוּ; זֶה ה׳ קִוִּינוּ לוֹ, נָגִילָה וְנִשְׂמְחָה בִּישׁוּעָתוֹ.
And it will be said on that day: “Behold, this is our God; we hoped for Him, and He saved us. This is Hashem for whom we hoped; let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”
—Yeshayahu 25:9

We will see that the hope itself was never empty.

The ratzon was an avodah. The kisufin were raising sparks. The longing itself was already part of the geulah / גְּאֻלָּה.

Mekorot

• Rema, Orach Chayim 667:1: the tefilla recited when taking leave of the sukkah.

• Talmud Bavli, Bava Batra 75a: the future seudah and sukkah of the Livyatan.

• Iyov 40:30: the source for the seudah of the Livyatan.

• Iyov 40:31: the allusion to the sukkah made from the skin of the Livyatan.

• Yeshayahu 25:9: “This is Hashem for whom we hoped.”

• Talmud Bavli, Ta’anit 31a: each of the tzadikim pointing toward the future revelation / gilui.

• Tehillim 104:24: “You made them all with wisdom.”

• Rav Yitzchak Eizik Chaver, Pitchei She’arim: the finger as an allusion to da’at, as attributed by Rav Morgenstern.

• The mesorah of the Admor of Lusk, received from the Sar Shalom of Belz in the name of the Rema MiPano: the future seudah will be eaten in the place of Gehinom.

• Rav Yitzchak Meir Morgenstern, Likutei Ya”M HaChokhmah: Festivals and Seasonal Avodah—Sukkot, teaching 6, “Sitting in the Future Sukkah of the Livyatan.”