JOY OF SUKKOS

Dear Family,

I hope everyone is well.

I would like to mention here that Joy Comaroff had a car accident, and is in need of our Tehillim. Her Hebrew name is Josepha bas Bracha.

Wishing you a speedy recovery Joy!

I also hope that everyone had an inspiring Yom Kippur.

Mazal Tov to those who got through the 'marathon' davening successfully.

As with everything, to succeed one needs training and practice, and we have the opportunity for this 3 times a day (at least) at Shacharis, Minchah and Maariv, every day of the year!

We now move on to Sukkos which is Zman Simchaseinu - The FESTIVAL OF OUR JOY

All the Yom Tovim are times of joy, but joy is particularly emphasised for Sukkos, where we move out to the Sukkah, gather our lulavim and esrogim etc

The first 10 days of Tishrei from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, is a period of earnestness, and this now translates into the JOY OF SUKKOS.

In a sicha in Book 2 of Likutei Sichos, the Rebbe explains this connection as follows:

Rosh Hashanah connection to Schach (which covers the Sukkah)

Rosh Hashanah

We blow 100 notes on the shofar

60 tekios

20 shevarim

20 truos

Sukkos

The Hebrew word for schach has 3 letters:

The samech of schach (first letter), has the numerical value of 60.

The second letter of schach is chof, which has the numerical value of 20

The third letter is end of chof, which again has the numerical value of 20

Clouds of Yom Kippur and Sukkos

Yom Kippur

On Yom Kippur the Kohen Gadol created clouds of incence by burning it on the Golden Altar

Sukkos.

The covering of the Sukkah is a reminder of the 'Clouds of Glory' which protected Bnei Yisrael in the dessert.

The 7 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and the 7 days of Sukkos

Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur

Each of these 7 days does teshuvah for all the year eg Sunday will do teshuvah for all the Sundays of the year, Monday for all the Mondays, etc

Sukkos

Now those 7 days of teshuvah translate into JOY in each of the 7 days of Sukkos

AND FROM HERE, SUKKOS SPREADS THIS JOY TO ALL THE DAYS OF THE UPCOMING YEAR.

Gut Shabbos and Gut Yom Tov to all with MUCH JOY.