The Joy of Torah and Mitzvot

Rav Ilan Goldman Former Rav Shaliach of Bnei Akiva UK Incoming Educational Director of Torah MiTzion Click Here for the PDF version There is a story in the Midrash[1] regarding a pasuk from our Parasha: Rabbi Yannai saw a man whom he thought to be a Talmid...

Is it preferable to use an Etrog that grew in Israel?

Rabbi Moshe Bloom Former Rosh Kollel (Warsaw, 2013-2017) Currently Head of the English department at Machon HaTorah Ve’Haaretz, the Institute for Torah and the Land of Israel Click HERE for the PDF version Edited from an article of Rabbi Yehuda Zoldan, Sukkat...

Why do we sit in Sukkot?

Rabbi Moshe Aberman Former Rosh Kollel (Chicago, 1997-1999) Currently a Torah advisor to the Shlichim Click HERE for the PDF version The Torah commands us “בַּסֻּכֹּ֥ת תֵּשְׁב֖וּ שִׁבְעַ֣ת יָמִ֑ים כָּל־הָֽאֶזְרָח֙ בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל יֵשְׁב֖וּ בַּסֻּכֹּֽת”...

Sukkot and its Pagan-like customs

  I’ve grown accustomed to hearing, year after year, that “Sukkot is the hardest holiday to explain to outsiders”, or the o-so-popular “if a non Jew saw us shaking our Lulavim he’d think we were all pagans”. A popular answer is the standard default of “yes, it...

Be Happy – 5778

  Rav Gideon Weitzman Former Rosh Kollel in Kansas City   Be Happy The custom is to read Kohelet on Shabbat Chol Hamoed Succot (see Masechet Sofrim 14:1) which presents a stark and honest introspective view of life and joy. The choice of this Megillah as the one...

Sukkot: The Festival of the Land – 5777

Rabbi Ilan Goldman Former Rav-Shaliach, Bnei Akiva England Currently Executive Director of Project Aseret   Sukkot: The Festival of the Land Sukkot is the last of the three Regalim. We all know that Pesach is a reminder of Yetziat Mitzrayim, and that Shavuot is a...

Hakhel, Shmita, and Baseball

Dani Eisenstock Former Shaliach, Kansas City (2002-03)   Once every seven years we have a very special Mitzvah- Hakhel. The Torah commands that at the end of the Shmita Year, on Succot when you all gather together in Yerushalayim, men, women and children should...

The Reality of the Sukka

What does the Torah intend for the experience of sitting in a Sukka to mean to us? Vayikra 23 tells us: Sit in a Sukka– so that all generations will know that I Hashem put Bnei Yisrael in sukkot when I brought them out of Egypt. But this only raises the...