Anyone who has ever done Israeli folk dancing or simcha dancing at a wedding or a bar or bat mitzvah is familiar with the Mayim Mayim (Water Water) circle dance. The words from the song come from Yishayahu 12:3: Ushavtem mayim b’sason mimaayanei hayeshua You can...
The Rabam, Mishneh Torah- Zmanim- Hilchot Shofar, Sukkah and Lulav 7:13-18 speaks about the evolvement of the mitzvah of Lulav:The Original Mitzvah:The mitzvah of shaking the lulav only applies on the first day of the holiday of Sukkot in every place during every...
The Haftara for the first day of Sukkot (Zecharia, Chapter 14) speaks about the war of Gog and Magog and the future days when the nations of the world will be obligated to come to Jerusalem to observe the holiday of Sukkot.What is the connection between Gog and...
In Nechemia 8:13-18 we read about how Sukkot was celebrated after the Second Beit HaMikdash (Temple) was built:On the second day, the heads of the families of all the people, the Kohanim and the Leviim were gathered together to Ezra, the scribe, to delve into the...
When the angels disguised as men went to visit Avraham, he was more than happy to host them. In Breishhet 18:4 Avraham tells his guests: “Let a bit of water be brought and wash your feet. Rest yourselves under the tree.”In Breisheet Raba 48:10 we learn...
Out of the twenty-four books of the TaNaCh, Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) which we read on Shabbat Chol HaMoed Sukkot is one of the least well known. An excerpt of the book (3:1-8) did become popular as part of the song “Turn Turn Turn” written by Pete Seeger...
In Dvarim 16:13-15 we read: “You shall make a festival of Sukkot for a seven day period, when you gather in from your threshing floor and from your wine cellar. You shall rejoice on your festival (visamachta bichagecha)- you, your son, your daughter, your...
On the last day of Sukkot, when we leave the Sukkah for the last time, we say the following prayer: Yehi Ratzon- May it be Your will, Hashem, our God and the God of our forefathers that just as I have fulfilled the mitzvah and dwelled in the Sukkah, so may I...
Why do we sit in Sukkot? The answer is found in Vayikra 23:43: “So that your generations may know that I made B’nai Yisrael dwell in Sukkot when I brought them out of the Land of Egypt”. The Tur in Orach Chayim explains: We sit in the...
From Rosh Chodesh Elul through Shmini Atzeret we recite Psalm 27 L’David Hashem Ori… The psalm alludes to Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. The sentence that alludes to Sukkot is sentence 5: “For in the day of evil he shall hide me in...
In Tehillim (Psalms) 76:3 we read: “Vayehi viShalem Suko, umeonato viTzion”, In Shalem also is His Sukkah and His dwelling place is in Tzion. The Vilna Gaon points out that the Mitzvah of dwelling in the Sukkah and the mitzvah of Tzion, dwelling in...
In Vayikra- Emor 23:40 we are told "You shall take for yourselves pri etz hadar- the fruit of the beautiful tree."How do we know that this fruit is the etrog? According to Ramban, the word etrog is the Aramaic word for the Hebrew word hadar. The word etrog means...
The Mitzvah: (Vayikra 23:42) "You shall dwell in sukkot for seven days, every native born Israelite shall dwell in sukkot".The Reason: (Vayikra 23:43) "So that generations will know that in the sukkot I caused B'nai Yisrael to dwell when I took them out of the land...
As the Sukkot holiday begins tonight, Israel is bustling with lots of action. Lulavs and Etrogs are abound, Sukkot are on almost every street corner,including four in front of our building. Jerusalem is gearing up for many activities including Ir David, The City of...