“And Hashem said to Kayin, why are you angry? And why are you crestfallen?” (Bereishis 4:6)

I feel that through the Chag of Sukkos, most of us were in a state of zman simchaseinu, but then on Simchas Torah suddenly a cloud of devastation and sadness enveloped us. We may feel forlorn, lost, and perhaps even cheated out of our holiday. One who had those feelings may feel proud that they cherished their connection to Hashem. When that connection is abruptly interrupted, they are saddened.

The Sforno addresses an obvious question about the verse above. Kayin – who himself invented the idea of serving Hashem through an offering – gives an offering to Hashem, but Hashem rejects it. Would not that be a legitimate reason to be crestfallen? What is the message that Hashem is imparting to Kayin by questioning his seemingly noble reaction? The Sforno explains that the lesson was that Kayin should look forward and work on not repeating his mistake, instead of dwelling in the past.

About a month ago I had a conversation about the following famous story: A Rebbe didn’t have enough money to purchase food for Yom Tov, and his only worldly possession of value was a pair of tefillin from a Rebbe of the previous generations. On Erev Sukkos he sold those tefillin and bought a beautiful Esrog. His wife, upon realizing that they had nothing to eat, and that her husband no longer had his most precious tefillin, became enraged and bit off the pitom. The Rebbe looked heavenward and said to Hashem, “Tefillin I don’t have; food for Yom Tov I don’t have; now even an esrog I don’t have! However, I will not let my shalom bayis also be taken away from me!”

The person who brought up this story then asked, “What is the point of this story? Did the Rebbe act properly or not? Does the Esrog come before his other needs or not?” To which I responded, “Your question is valid, but I think you missed the point of the story, which is that when everything looks like failure, don’t throw in the towel; salvage what you can and move forward.”

I heard a parable from my Rosh Yeshiva concerning the bad days which we all have from time to time. He said, “Imagine a stockbroker who is watching his screen and every stock in his portfolio is plummeting. Half an hour before the market closes he gives up, closes his briefcase with a loud bang, and goes home in a huff.” My Rosh Yeshiva said that this man is not a savvy broker. A broker will stay until the moment the market closes to try to salvage something from the day’s trading. So too, in our service of Hashem, even when things are not going well, we should try to salvage what we can.

For instance, if you didn’t daven the first half of shemoneh esrei with proper kavana, don’t give up! Instead, try to have proper kavana during the second half!

The Sforno tells us that even though Hashem didn’t accept Kayin’s initial offering, He was still willing to accept further service from Kayin. Kayin just had to find a new way to get closer to Hashem.

Perhaps Hashem is similarly telling us, that though we would have liked to have served Hashem through the joy of Shemini Atzeres, we should salvage what we can from the present and turn our situation of despair into a profitable one. We can come closer to Hashem and attain greater emunah by strengthening our tefillos and aiding our fellow Jews who are in difficult situations all around Israel.