Readings

Immediately after Ne'ilah, the rejoicing increases, with a powerful enthusiasm, and it is the joy of inner closeness where previously there has been distance...

It is not enough that sechach contains nothing disqualifying; there must be positive qualifying conditions. This principle also applies to individual spiritual service...

The word “Ramses” means that the evil has already melted and become nullified, for the Jews had already left the limitations and boundaries of Egypt...

The water offering expresses how the waters descended for the sake of an ascent, ultimately reaching a higher level...

The spiritual service of Yom Kippur stems from yechidah, the attachment of the essence of the soul to G-d’s essence. On Sukkot this attachment is brought to revelation, until it envelops the whole person...

The spiritual service of the soul in this world elevates it to the level of “motion,” i.e. true progress without limit. This progress is expressed in the Jewish custom of swaying while learning Torah and praying...

On Rosh Hashanah all Jews are unified based on the inner soul, a level on which all Jews are equal. On Sukkot, by contrast, the unity is outward and revealed, based on the interdependence of all Jews...

The law disqualifying only most of an etrog, a majority, teaches us, then, not always to follow the majority...

The rejoicing of a ba’al teshuvah is like the powerful rejoicing of a son who was separated from his father by a great distance and afterwards returned...