A vort from the Rebbe on Sukkos. We know that in Sukkos we have a few mitzvot, special mitzvot. The two main ones is the mitzvah of sukkah that we have to sit in the sukkah, and also we have to bentch on the daled' minim or the four kinds: the etrog, lulav, hadasim and aravot. And the question is, why is the Yom Tov called חג הסוכות, the Yom Tov of Sukkos? Pesach is called חג המצות because Pesach there is one thing that you have to do, you have to eat matzah. But Sukkos there are two things you have to do mainly: you have to sit in the sukkah, eat in the sukkah, and you also have to bentch on the daled' minim. So why is the Yom Tov called Sukkos not on the name of the daled' minim? And the Rebbe gives all kinds of reasons, but I want to mention just one of them. The mitzvah of daled' minim is you have to, on the first day of יום טוב מדאורייתא and mid'rabbanan on all the other days of Yom Tov, you have to make a berachah, shake the daled' minim. Mid'rabbanan you make a berachah, mid'oraita you have to take the daled' minim into your hands. But the moment you finish doing it, you have done the mitzvah. The mitzvah is a one-time thing, it could take a minute, a few a few minutes, whatever it takes. But at that moment after you did it, you are finished with the mitzvah for the day. The next day you have to do it again, etc., etc.

The mitzvah of sukkah is so special that not only when you're actually sitting in the sukkah are you mekayem the mitzvah of sukkah, the mitzvah of sukkah becomes part of your מהות, part of your being during the week of Sukkos. How? The Gemara says, מי שאין לו בית אינו אדם, someone that doesn't have a house is not a person, which means having a dwelling place, having a דירה, having a house is part of the being of the person. Part of the essence of a person is to have a house, that's what the Gemara says. Sukkos, the person's house becomes the sukkah. תשבו כעין תדורו the Gemara says, that means you have to live in the sukkah. And therefore, even if you're not actually sitting in the sukkah, you're out doing something else outside, לפועל, since the sukkah is your house that week, and the house is part of the essence of the person, so the concept of the sukkah is part of you even when you're not sitting in the sukkah, even you're not actually fulfilling the mitzvah, because it became your דירה and that's your מהות. And that's one of the reasons why the Yom Tov is called by the name of the mitzvah of sukkah, because that expresses even more than the ד' מינים. ד' מינים is a mitzvah that you have to do during that week, but the mitzvah of sukkah becomes part of you because that's the house that becomes your house, it has to be your dwelling place, your house during that week, and that is part of the מהות of the actual essence of the person. Like the Gemara says, actually the Gemara doesn't say this exact לשון, but it's based on Tosafot, but the תוכן is, that מי שאין לו בית אינו אדם, a person is not a person if he doesn't have a house, a dwelling place, so the dwelling place makes him into a person. So during the week of Sukkos, one of the things that makes him into a person, person, because he has the house, which house? During the week of Sukkos it's the sukkah. And therefore, the mitzvah of sukkah is so special, and therefore the Yom Tov is called with the name Chag HaSukkot, not in connection to the ד' מינים.