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Sukkot (2025)

Sukkot

Dvar Torah
Sukkot is my favorite holiday. We come out of Yom Kippur pure as snow and set out with new resolve to the new year. The streets are noisy with the banging of the hammer building Sukkahs and people running to get their lulav and etrog. Where I live it’s as normal to see someone tying down wooden planks on top of their car as it is to get milk in the grocery store.
But the Torah doesn’t expect us just to be happy, but explicitly tells us that this joy is to be shared together with those less fortunate - the widows, orphan, the landless and others. The four species (lulav etrog etc.) which the midrash teaches as representing different parts of the Jewish people, are only valid when bound and held together. The sukkah itself is built outdoors and brings us closer to our neighbors. Sukkot is a holiday of communal joy and strengthening our communal bonds. It’s a holiday of finding happiness together in the things we hold dear.

Chag Sameach!





 

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