Simchat Torah

Today is Simchat Torah, "Rejoicing in the Torah," and so it seemed like a good idea to review just what the Torah is and why we should rejoice that the Holy One graced us with it. The Torah is the Way God commanded us to walk (Deu. 11:22), the Truth (Psa. 119:142), and is the …

Sukkot, Part 4: The Holy One Provides for His Bride

The second theme of Sukkot is God’s provision for His people. The ceremony of the water-drawing was done in anticipation of God providing the winter rains, but this theme is exemplified in the command to live in booths, “that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when …

Sukkot, Part 3: The Ingathering

As previously noted, one of the names for this Feast is the Ingathering:  “And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of Ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field" (Exo. …

Sukkot, Part 2: The Holy One Dwells Among His People

As we saw in the previous article, when the people of Israel committed the sin of the golden calf, Moses removed the Tent of Meeting to outside the camp, to show that the sin of the people was so great that God had removed His Presence from them. And we saw that Moses fasted and …

Sukkot, Part 1

Happy Sukkot! Since there is a lot of misunderstanding about the importance of this incredibly rich and important Feast, I thought that instead of trying to jam everything into one post, six or seven would be more appropriate. In previous posts, we looked at the significance of Yom Teruah (more commonly called Rosh Hashanah), the …