![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/shutterstock_1973034341%20%281%29.jpg?itok=fVExpWa_)
“And you shall take for yourselves on the first day, the fruit of the hadar tree, date palm fronds, a branch of a braided tree, and willows of the…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/shutterstock_1939843573.jpg?itok=7TC4lFAw)
When studying literature we must study not only its content, but also its form. This is especially true in the study of poetry, where the words…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/shutterstock_1492318364.jpg?itok=sUxlWdRG)
Holidays are a most opportune time to instill in our children the values and character traits that personify a Jewish lifestyle. At first glance…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/shutterstock_1936124590.jpg?itok=aNl-ItCH)
It is hard to imagine a more impactful ritual than that of our weekly Torah reading. While its origins date to Moshe Rabbeinu—acting in his capacity…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/shutterstock_604054886.jpg?itok=m-DTgdOI)
"On the first day, you must take for yourself a fruit of the citron tree, an opened palm frond, myrtle branches, and willows of the brook, and you…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/Sukkot.jpg?itok=q6YE2ED7)
For many years, students were introduced to the study of Talmud with Eilu Metziot, the second chapter of masechet Bava Metzia, focusing on the…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/shutterstock_540430642.jpg?itok=2QwxM2zT)
For seven days a year, one is to “make his home temporary and his Sukkah permanent”. Ideally, we move our finest furniture, china, and…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/shutterstock_314805005.jpg?itok=zNpYH3-0)
As important (if not more so) as what one says is how it is said, when it is said, and what is not said. This is equally true regarding both our…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/shutterstock_1304543572.jpg?itok=W5VZdFW2)
Sukkot is a holiday full of contradictions. At the time we celebrate our harvest, we are bidden to leave the comfort of our home and expose ourselves…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/shutterstock_1499634446.jpg?itok=WgThldUE)
Judaism is not oblivious to the power and even importance of physical beauty. Phrases such as yefat tohar v’yefot ma’areh, loosely…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/pikiwiki_israel_23373_religion_in_israel_1.jpg?itok=KhKVmwdL)
Sukkot marks the beginning of the end of the holiday season. As the fall season commences, and as the days get progressively shorter and colder,…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/shutterstock_1385636237.jpg?itok=UwTMnMG2)
"Keep the harvest festival as the year changes" (Shemot 34:22). This (half) verse is the only reference to Sukkoth (or more precisely Chag…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/shutterstock_1519044740.jpg?itok=wW6krj0U)
The Jewish year begins with the aseret yemei teshuva, the ten days of repentance. They begin with the strict justice of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Hadin; and…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/shutterstock_1905512101.jpg?itok=HV6Ks3-T)
"And you shall dwell in sukkot for seven days, all citizens of Israel shall dwell in a sukkah so that your generations may know that I made the…
Pesach and Sukkot are the twin pillars of the Jewish year. They are exactly six months apart, each on the fifteenth day of the first month of their…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/portable_sukkah.jpg?itok=_txoczx4)
The Talmud classifies sukkah as a mitzvah kalla, a light and easy mitzvah. Where one must be almost deathly ill before one is permitted to eat…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/225px-EtrogC.jpg?itok=cAq50aV6)
"And you shall take for yourself on the first day a beautiful fruit of the tree, an unopened palm frond, myrtle branches, and willows and you shall…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/shutterstock_1182854209.jpg?itok=Dz2qUEfj)
The history of our nation is linked with Pesach. Many of our mitzvoth—mezuzah, tefillin, Shabbat, honest weights, the prohibition of charging…
![](/sites/default/files/styles/square_big_600x/public/shutterstock_1897154332.jpg?itok=oBEoCbry)
This week’s d’var Torah is sponsored by Gershon and Leah Vandenbrink with best wishes for a joyous Sukkot. In rabbinic literature, Sukkot is known…