A vort from the Rebbe concerning Sukkos. The Gemara in Avodah Zarah says that the mitzvah of sukkah is a מצוה קלה. It's an easy mitzvah. And the simple pshat is why is it an easy mitzvah, because אין בה חסרון כיס, it doesn't cost much, because the main part of the sukkah is the schach and the schach is very cheap. So that's why it's called a מצוה קלה, an easy mitzvah.

But the Rebbe has a more רוחניותדיקע פשט. We know that one of the רמזים, one of the הוראות, one of the things that the mitzvah of sukkah teaches us is a ענין כללי concerning our approach to our whole life. Mitzvah of sukkah is a מצוה כללית, so it's a very general mitzvah. The best proof is that it's the first special mitzvah that we have right after Yom Kippur when we start anew. So obviously this is, since it's a new beginning, it has a fundamental ענין concerning עבודת השם בכלל, concerning all the mitzvot. So one of the things that the mitzvah of sukkah teaches us, we know, is that even when a person is involved in materialistic things, in physical things, he has to understand and feel that the gashmiyut, the physicality, and all the things in the world which are gashmiyut are only secondary, it's only temporary. The ikar is the spiritual part of your life. The ikar is the שליחות, the mission that Hashem gave you in this world, and that is to serve Hashem and make everything into ruchniyut, make everything into spirituality. And it's hinted in the pasuk where it says, ויבן לו בית ולמקנהו עשה סכת. ויבן לו בית, it says בנוגע Yaakov Avinu, for himself he built a house. Himself means his real thing, his real thing is a נשמה. So for the נשמה things, he built a house. A house is a permanent place. And ולמקנהו, for all the things that he acquires, which means all the גשמיותדיקע things, עשה סכת, there it's only a temporary thing, it's like a Sukkah which is a דירת עראי. Now this inyan is also hinted in the fact that the Gemara says that בנוגע a סוכה, תשבו כעין תדורו, you have to live in the Sukkah like you live at home. Everything else that you do at home, everything that you do at home has to be done in the Sukkah, which means like this: it has to be a דירת עראי, the Sukkah has to be a temporary dwelling. But everything that you do normally, you have to do in the Sukkah, in the temporary dwelling, which means that you have to realize that whatever you do, all the גשמיותדיקע things that you do, has to be felt that it's only temporary. The gashmiyut of it is a temporary thing, it's only a tafel, which means it's a secondary thing. The main thing is the רוחניותדיקע part. And that's what the Rebbe teitches means that it's an easy mitzvah. Sukkah is an easy mitzvah, why?

Every other mitzvah, you have to do something special. The mitzvah of matzah, you have to have matzah, that's something that's out of the ordinary, you don't always eat matzah, here you have to eat matzah. Shofar, you have to get a shofar, you have to blow shofar, that's something that you have to do outside of your daily routine, your daily life. Sukkah, you don't have to do anything different. You eat the same food, you drink the same drink, you do everything the same as you do throughout the year, but you have to do it in the Sukkah. That means there's no big change here. It's a change, but not in the physical thing that you do. It's a change in your approach, that you feel that all this is a temporary thing, you do it in the Sukkah. That's what it means it's an easy mitzvah. There's nothing special that you have to do besides the place where you do it. That means the place where you do it means, teaches you, that the way you do it is that you have to feel that it's all temporary. And that's an approach that we have to have in our life בכלל, and that's why this is the first mitzvah, the first special mitzvah that we have after Yom Kippur, to teach you that now that the year is starting, and we're going to do all our things that we always do בגשמיות, you have to remember it's all a tafel. We have to do all these things, but the physicality of it, the physical part of it, the materialistic part of it is only a tafel, secondary. And the main thing is the service of Hashem, but the gashmiyut is only temporary, it's only like a Sukkah which is a דירת עראי.