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Chabad.org » The Jewish Woman » Spirituality and the Feminine » Time in Thought » Sukkot, Hoshanah Rabbah & Simchat Torah
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Sukkot, Hoshanah Rabbah & Simchat Torah



A Backpack Full of Kisses
A Backpack Full of Kisses
Sukkot
“This morning I put a sandwich and carrot sticks in your bag, so that you won’t be hungry. Do you know what I am going to put in now? Kisses! And hugs! And smiles! Lots and lots of them! When you begin to feel sad in school, then you just open up the bag a little bit and put your cheek on the hole, and kisses and hugs will fly at you!”
Our Harvest
Our Harvest
Sukkot
The purpose of life is to end up where we began. The final destination of the soul is firmly rooted in its inception—the spark of G‑d preceding the cosmic descent into the physical world, the essential self achieved when the potential meets the actual . . .
In His Arms
In His Arms
Sukkot and My Baby Boy
And there I am, perched on the edge of birth and death, merged into each other. How can it be? I am terrified. I am so far from my potential. How often have I devoted my life to the mundane details of the day? And now here I am. About to be judged. And I have no merits. No evidence. What do I have?
The Wonder of the Willow
The Wonder of the Willow
The Simplicity of Hoshanah Rabbah
The tree gives no fruit and the leaves give off no fragrance. Yet it is precisely in that “blandness” of being that we recognize the presence of something beyond. The willow’s minimalism is indicative of the inner point of the Jewish soul which is indivisible and thus empty of discernable distinctive qualities…
What Massage Therapy Taught Me About Simchat Torah
What Massage Therapy Taught Me About Simchat Torah
For maximum effect, you need to deal with your 'challenge' from all sides. You need to focus the setting, gather your energy beforehand and then dispense it evenly and deliberately. A sudden spill of forceful energy in one area will never equate to careful attention to all details...
Celebrating Sukkot from Nairobi to Israel
Celebrating Sukkot from Nairobi to Israel
I naturally connected to the concept of transience, the devitalization of the material. It fitted in with my psyche neatly: I was the girl who never noticed the fashion, who never visited the malls. I was the girl who meditated instead of watching Dallas on TV...
The Only Real Home
The Only Real Home
She motioned me to sit on a bench next to the table covered by a white cloth. And then she sat down next to her husband who stood at the head of the table. Here was all of their furniture—two benches, a table, and the mattresses stacked up against the wall of the succah...
Sheltering Me From My Own Inner Walls
Sheltering Me From My Own Inner Walls
Lessons on Sukkot From Inside a Bomb Shelter
My most potent Sukkot memory didn't happen on Sukkot at all, but it has all of the important Sukkot ingredients: unity, protection, joy, and faith...
A Peaceful Dwelling
A Peaceful Dwelling
Finding Beauty in Our Differences
We tied everything with thick twine, and we watched the stars through the green branches, smelled figs and roses through the thin walls...
The Sukkahs in My Life
The Sukkahs in My Life
Connecting to My Past, Present, and Future
Sometimes I imagine my grandparents' sukkahs in the courtyards and on the rooftops of the Lower East Side tenement buildings. I think of the sukkahs in Poland and Hungary before the war; maybe they were also once covered in pure, white snow. Maybe my great- great-grandparents sat across from one another in their own first year of marriage in a tiny sukkah filled with light...
Four Species Visualization
Four Species Visualization
A Meditation for the Sukkah
You are sitting in a sukkah. Its walls are panels of fragrant wood. On the floor beneath you dance patterns of light and shade, cast by the sechach, the scented roof of leaves above your head. Take a deep breath. Imbibe the peace within your sukkah’s walls...
Lessons From a Temporary Supermom
Lessons From a Temporary Supermom
The Meaning of Sukkot
Why would I, on one of the few times I could travel without any children, put myself in a situation where I am caring for a baby? And why would I be so quick to want to take care of Zoe, a little girl I don’t know and will most likely never see again, when I didn’t seem to have that kind of time, patience, or ability for my own baby?
Slums and Stones
Slums and Stones
The Meaning of the Sukkah
They're given different names depending on the country that hosts them. Bustees in India, pueblos jovenes in Peru. Shanty towns if you want to odorize the concept. "Slums" if you call it like it is...
A Homeless Experience
A Homeless Experience
A Sukkot Lesson
As I sit back in my chair behind my large oak desk, waiting for Windows to load, I wonder when I had become so conceited, where had this feeling of superiority come from? What is it that makes me believe even for even a fleeting moment that I am better than those two men?
Sukkot in Veronezh
Sukkot in Veronezh
While I can say that I always loved the exotic palm scent that permeates the whole festival, always enjoyed the elbowing and squashing that comes with a Sukkah packed to capacity, and the rainwater that cooled and diluted our soup, I can never say I treasured the Sukkah - until this year...
A New Perspective
A New Perspective
Lessons From the Sukkah
The three-year-old stood in her living room and carefully held the camera in her small hands. "Smile, Mommy!" Snap. We gathered around to see the digital image on the small screen. My friend was a giant, her head framed by the ceiling light fixture. "Wow," she said, startled. "This is how she sees me. I tower over her!"
The Women's Balcony
The Women’s Balcony
A Sukkot Experience
“I want to know why the women aren’t allowed to dance with the men.” My anger sounded to my own ears flat, bold, the way I wanted it . . .
After the High
After the High
Internalizing the Holidays
The children cut out a paper suitcase and four pieces of paper. They are asked to reminisce about everything that happened over the holidays, and to draw four things that they want to carry with them. They place these four drawings in their "suitcase" to keep them company in the months ahead...
This Is My Torah Scroll
"This Is My Torah Scroll"
The soldier stared at the boy, fighting back tears. "Over these four terrible years, this is the first live Jewish child I have seen..."
The Jewish Woman and the Festivals
The Jewish Woman and the Festivals
A Beacon of Light
In our lifetime, we do not have the luxury of sitting back and hoping someone else will take over the reins. We, the Jewish women of our generation, must be leaders. In many ways, the reins are in our hands. As the saying goes, the buck stops here. We must persevere, learn and speak up...
What a Trip to Israel Taught Me About Sukkot
What a Trip to Israel Taught Me About Sukkot
The Jewish definition of joy is anticipating the future. We are joyful because we are planning, through hard work, to have a future together...
Sukkot Recipes
Sukkot Recipes
From traditional kreplach to the soon-to-be-classic Pumpkin Soup...

Time in Thought
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The Month of Elul
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Rosh Hashanah
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Yom Kippur
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Sukkot, Hoshanah Rabbah & Simchat Torah
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Cheshvan, Chanukah & Kislev
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The Month of Tevet
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The Month of Shvat
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Purim & Adar
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Passover & Nissan
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The Month of Iyar
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Shavuot
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The Month of Tammuz
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