(Founder of the Mevaseret Zion Education Center and

the head of the Mevaseret Zion Religious Council in Jerusalem.)

We have begun the year 5760 - known in Hebrew by the letters T. Sh. S.,

which total 760 in value. These letters stand for Tehai Sh'nat Sukkot

May this be a year of Sukkot. What does this mean?

The Sukkah comprises many blessings, and of all the year's holidays, only Sukkot begins with the letter S (samekh). This holiday stands for our total dependence on and connection with God. We enter the Sukkah with our entire body and spirit. There are two commandments in which we are instructed to immerse our entire body: the Sukkah, and ritual immersion in a mikveh. The difference between them is that in a mikveh of water, we must stop breathing - while in the Sukkah, we continue to live fully, enjoying with all our senses the complete and joyful experience of being with Hashem.

The Sfat Emet explains that after Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, those who have truly regretted and turned away from their sins no longer have their usual frameworks in which to be. As such, they need a new place - and this is the Sukkah. This thought helps us to understand the essence of the Sukkah. After the Days of Awe, we must now allow ourselves to return to our old ways. We rather require a new framework for our lives - for if not, then all our work on Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur was in vain. The Sukkah, by its nature, is a temporary and flexible structure - it can be enlarged and changed easily. It thus stands for tolerance, patience, acceptance, and peace.

It's not easy for baalei teshuvah - those who have turned away from their sins and have begun a new life, in new surroundings. They require great courage and strength in order to leave their homes and begin anew.

Several years ago, a group of several irreligious families asked if I would give them a talk for an hour or so about the Jewish holidays. I agreed willingly, the hour turned into four hours, and they requested that I come back again and continue at a later date. Again I agreed.

The next day, one of them called and said that it had been decided afterwards not to continue with the talks. I didn't ask why, but she explained anyway: While talking among themselves about the ramifications of future classes on Judaism, one of the women got up and said, "I'm not trying to scare you, but let's be honest. Judaism can be very attractive, and if we continue with these talks, the next steps will be observance of more and more commandments, koshering our kitchens, transferring the kids to different schools, new friends - in short, a major change in our lifestyles. Are we ready for this?"

Unfortunately, the answer they chose was, Ignorance is Bliss - in the awareness that it requires great strength to become a baal teshuvah.

The switch that we make on Sukkot is from an old, familiar framework, to something better, but new and unknown. God greatly appreciated our consent even to depart from our lives in Egypt - slavery, true, but a framework with which we were familiar - and He remembered the kindness that you did unto Me when you followed Me in the wilderness. Israel's willingness to leave the permanent for the temporary required great strength, as we continue to see today.

The Baal Shem Tov notes that the Sukkah provides only one type of protection: that of shade. It does not afford shelter from high winds, or rain - only shade from the sun. Explaining the verse, God is your shadow, on your right hand, the Baal Shem Tov says that just as a person's shadow is dependent upon his movements and how he stands in relation to the light, so too God is our shadow - His providence and blessing comes to us in accordance with our movements and actions. This is manifest as we sit in the Sukkah, and rejoice in being able to do so. The more we fulfill the commandment of rejoicing in our holiday, the more we are guaranteed that the coming year will in fact be one of great joy.

The year T. Sh. S. also stands for Tehai Sh'nat Smachot - May this be a year of joy. When people remind me that Smachot starts with the letter Sin [the penultimate letter of the alphabet] and not Samekh, I explain to them that we see in the alphabetical E-l Adon prayer that in place of the letter Samekh we recite the words for joy and happiness. This simply teaches us that we must turn into happiness whatever is slightly similar to happiness, and not wait for the end of the alphabet to do so.

Happy Sukkot.

By Rabbi Berel Wein

The awe and introspective contemplation of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur induce a state of spiritual awakening that allows one to truly enjoy and be happy on Sukkot, the festival called zman simcha'sainu - the time of our joy. There is a great lesson in this progression of holidays, which is applicable to every facet of our lives. We are accustomed to think that joy is a spontaneous emotion, requiring no previous training, planning, or accomplishment. The holiday of Sukkot - the time of joy - instructs us otherwise. For without Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, there would not be Sukkot. Without serious preparation, sacrifices of time and wealth and effort (even deprivation and fasting), joy in Jewish terms is not lasting and ultimately not even meaningful.

[Without this preparation], joy becomes a good time, a night out, something which temporarily gives us distraction, but - like drinking seawater - never really satisfies us. So we must condition ourselves to the necessity of preparation and training if we want the experience of joy to influence us in an authentic way.

* * *

A second lesson of Sukkot is that joy is not a singular, unique emotion that is achieved in a vacuum. The holiday of Sukkot has many mitzvahs connected to it. There is the commandment regarding the sukkah (the booth constructed by Jews to eat and sleep in during the week of the holiday) itself, and there are the commandments that relate to the esrog, lulav, hadasim, and aravos (citron, palm branch, myrtle and willow which are used as part of the Sukkot ritual in the synagogue and home) - the four species of plants that are symbolic of God's bounty and blessing on this harvest festival. The synagogue service includes

hakafos and hoshanos - the processions around the synagogue and the special poems composed for recitation during those processions.

The mitzvahs of Sukkot may be defined as joy-enhancers. They gladden and enlighten us, they make the holiday meaningful to our younger generation in a fashion that no other means of communication can approach. They provide the spiritual connection that allows our joy to be internalized and memorable, forever subject to recall and self-study.

Jewish tradition knows no other form of commemorating meaningful joy except for the connection of such potentially joyful times to Torah and the G-d of Israel. Sukkot and its wealth of mitzvahs make this point tellingly clear to us.

* * *

One of my lifetime dreams has been to celebrate the holiday of Sukkot in Jerusalem within the confines of my own sukkah. This Sukkot, my dream has been realized. On my beautiful balcony there stands a wonderful sukkah made of wood and canvas. And my sukkah is wonderfully furnished with a comfortable cot to sleep on, a spacious table for our family and guests, even a conversation nook to seat our drop-in guests and friends. But the finest accessory to my sukkah is Jerusalem itself. I have found that the realization of many of my dreams is somehow disappointing, because reality hardly ever lives up to fantasy.

But not so when the dream is of a sukkah in Jerusalem. When a human dream is tied to a spiritual cause, to Jerusalem, to Sukkot, its actual realization never disappoints. For the mitzvah always transcends human definitions and expectations. To do a holy act, a godly deed, automatically uplifts and ennobles the one who performs. In so doing, the person is saved from the disappointment, which almost always accompanies purely physical accomplishments. This is also part of the message of Sukkot and helps us understand even more clearly the joy and happiness that are an integral part of this great holiday of Sukkot.

A thought from a Rabbi in Jerusalem on what Sukkot is all about:

Succot celebrates the super-natural protection we, the Jewish People, enjoyed when God took us out of Egypt. In this sense, Succot is like Passover. While Passover celebrates our rescue from the Egyptians, Succot goes a step farther, celebrating our miraculous existence in the desert for forty years after that.

Thus, the major significance of Succot is a message of gratitude. If not for the food, water, and shelter G-d gave us in the desert thousands of years ago, we wouldn't be here today. Our gratitude to God never fades, just like you never stop being grateful to your parents for giving birth to you. So, for the seven days of Succot, Jews leave the protection of their roofed homes and live in huts covered only with branches, recalling the fact that it is not our homes, but God who protects us.

Regarding the connections between Succot and messianic times: According to the Prophet Zacharia, the nations who survive the final War of Gog and Magog will come to Jerusalem every year to prostrate themselves to the King, Hashem...and to celebrate the Succot festival. (Zecharia 14:16)

The Prophet Ezekiel describes the Jewish People prior to the War of Gog and Magog as living in an almost-messianic state, having been recently gathered from amongst the nations and living in prosperity in their own land. Then, the world's nations -- led by Gog from the land of Magog -- will attack Israel in an attempt to put a final end to the Jewish People.

Magog is identified by the Talmud as Gothia, the land of the Goths. The Goths were a Germanic people, in keeping with the midrashic rendering of Magog as Germamia or Germania.

Our miraculous victory against Gog is to occur during the Succot season, and those of our enemies who repent and survive will come to Jerusalem each Succot to celebrate the anniversary of our victory.

Rabbi S.R. Hirsch notes that Gog is related to the Hebrew word for roof. A roof, with its ability to shut out the heavenly influences of rain and sun, symbolizes man's imagined independence from G-d. The symbol of the roof stands in diametric opposition to the weak succah-booth. A succah, covered only by some meager branches, symbolizes our dependence on G-d. Thus, Gog's struggle is the battle of the roof against the succah in which those who believe only in man's ability to manipulate nature try to eradicate the Jews, whose very existence loudly nullifies this world-view.

The universal nature of Succot is also alluded to in the special Succot offerings, which were seventy in number. This corresponds to the number of primary nations of the world; i.e., the seventy nations descended from Noah (see Genesis Chapter 10). Seventy is also the numerical value of the Hebrew phrase Gog and Magog.

Sources:

* Book of Ezekiel 38

* Ibid. Commentary by Rabbi Moshe Eisemann, Mesorah Publications

* Yerushalmi Megillah 3:9

* Targum Yonatan 10:2, Bereishet Rabbah 37:1

Dear Friend of Israel, as you read what the Rabbis have to say, pray for the thousands of Christians who are right now in Jerusalem celebrating the Christian Feast of Tabernacle. Pray for their security and protection by the Almighty as they celebrate in Jerusalem and tour the country God has promised to the Jewish People.

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Comfort Ye My People.......Isaiah 40:1

Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem....Psalm 122:6