“I will tell you how once upon a time people were joyous (from within despondency).”
It is the marriage of the lost children, a boy and a girl, who were forced to run away after some undefined event which left them lost and alone in a darkening forest. Realizing that they were all alone, they began to cry out to Hashem for help, when suddenly a stranger, a beggar of sorts, appeared in the forest offering them food and drink. After receiving help from the enigmatic stranger, the children came to realize that he was, in fact, blind. The lost children begged him to stay with them, but he refused. He simply fed them and blessed them that they should live a long life just like him.
This happened six more times; after crying out to Hashem from the darkness in the forest, the lost children were visited by another enigmatic beggar; the only difference was that each of the visitors had, what appeared to be, a different deficiency. There was the blind beggar and the deaf beggar and the stuttering beggar and the crooknecked beggar and the hunchbacked beggar and the handless beggar and the legless beggar. Each time the beggars offered them food, the children pleaded with them to stay, but instead they each blessed the children that they should be like them before departing back into the darkened forest.
After the seventh beggar came and went, the children were left to fend for themselves, yearning and begging for sustenance everywhere they went. Joining together with a band of beggars, the boy and girl, who were lost in the forest, grew older, and it was decided amongst the beggars that these two lost children should be married. But how could beggars make a wedding? From where would the sustenance arrive?
It was decided that on the day of the great fair in the city, when all members of the kingdom joined together, the beggars would come and gather leftovers from the food and drink. The beggars then dug a large pit deep into the mud that could hold up to one hundred people. They covered the pit with twigs, branches, and whatever else they could find, and the marriage of the lost children took place with great joy and illumination.
Reflecting upon their joy and the process it took to get to where they were now, the lost children remembered the early days of kindness and grace when the seven beggars visited them in the forest, offering them food and drink, blessing them that they should be like them. Craving for the days of the past, the bride and groom yearned for the beggars, and suddenly they appeared. “Here I am,” each one said, and one after another they came to offer a blessing at the wedding.
They said to the bride and groom: “Back then in the forest we blessed you that you should be like us, but now we are here to give you the gift that you should really be like us. For while it appears that we are deficient, in truth, each deficiency reflects a profound spiritual strength that must be hidden in order for it to be revealed.
“You thought I was blind, but, in truth, I simply don’t look at the darkness of this world for I am so old that I remember a blinding light from a world beyond this one. You thought I was deaf, but, in truth, I simply refuse to listen to the cries that emerge from within frustration and lack, for I have heard a song of the good life and my ears only have space for good things. You thought I was stuttering, but, in truth, I sing songs of the future, words so precise and powerful that they can’t be spoken yet. You thought I was crooknecked, but, in truth, I just know the secret of breath, the work of patience and calm. You thought I was hunchbacked, but, in truth, I simply know what it means to care for another person, to ease the burdensome weight we all walk around with. You thought I was handless, but in truth my hands are so fast that they can fix things even before they break; hands of healing that build rather than destroy.”
The above story is part of the Tale of Seven Beggars, as told by Rebbe Nachman of Breslov to his disciple Rebbe Nosson. (Regarding the Legless Beggar and his blessing, Rebbe Nachman did not complete the tale, and as per Rebbe Nosson, we must pray for the arrival of the legless beggar who will dance the dance of Moshiach ben Dovid.)
Let us understand. The joy of the wedding takes place within a pit, covered over with twigs, branches, and leaves. How can it be that the joy of unity takes place within such a sunken place, covered over with shade? How can it be that the lost children find joy again within this world?
When we look at the nature of the sukkah, we gain a little bit more insight. Like a pit dug into the mud, the sukkah is a temporary dwelling, exposed to nature and vulnerable like the dirt. Like the twigs and leaves that covered the wedding pit, we cover our sukkah with s’chach, the leftovers from last year’s harvest. Like the seven beggars who came to offer their blessings, the seven Ushpizin come to bless us in our sukkah. Sukkos is a time of delicate joy, a subtle and humble calmness of spirit that is joyous with its lot, both materially and spiritually. While it appears to be the opposite of what we may have expected, the transience of the sukkah, like the loveliness of the pit, can teach us a lot about being human in the service of Hashem.
JOY FROM WITHIN
When Rebbe Nachman began telling this tale to Rebbe Nosson, he exclaimed, “I will tell you how once upon a time they were happy.” Rav Avraham ben R’Nachman added that in truth Rebbe Nachman added the words “from within despondency.” Rebbe Nachman is always revealing to us the secret of a joy that is built from within rather than imposed from without, the secret of endless hope which reveals that we are never more than one step away from the holy of holies, the calm joy of the soul in its illumination. When Rebbe Nosson edited Rebbe Nachman’s “Tales of Ancient Days,” he did not include the words “from within despondency,” it was only added later on in the writings of R’ Avraham ben R’ Nachman.
The question is why the shift? The Gaon and Tzaddik R’ Yitzchak Meir Morgenstern shlit”a explained that while the role of R’ Avraham ben R’ Nachman was to record everything that was said, the job of Rebbe Nosson was to reveal only that which was needed for practical divine service. When it comes to what we need to know, we need only know the secret of joy — joyous joy — flowing from a place of enoughness and calm. But when it comes to understanding the origin of joy — the possibility of happiness in this world — it must emerge from within the darkened forest of this world, where for but a moment things appear dark, only to give way to the blinding light of faithful joy and the joy of faith.
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 54 Sukkos 2025.
