Tuesday
Oct152019
Why Not an Esrog from Israel?
October 15, 2019An answer of the Rebbe (written in 5730) to someone who asked why it is the Chabad custom to use Esrogim from Calabria and not from Eretz Yisrael, which would support the Yishuv in Israel?
Entries in Sukkos (28)
Tuesday
Oct152019
G-D, MY BESTIE
If the Sukka represents G-d’s love for the Jewish people, wouldn’t the Baal Shem Tov, the great champion of Ahavas Yisroel, want to beautify his Sukka in every way possible? Why then did he rely on leniencies?
Tuesday
Oct152019
Succos in the ussr
I sat with Rabbi Abba Dovid Gurevitch for a fascinating talk about the different Succos holidays he celebrated at various stages in his life. R’ Gurevitch is in his late eighties and is brimming with riveting accounts interwoven with Chassidic history as well as kiruvim from the Rebbe. Talking with him took me back twenty-five years to when I was a young bachur when I sat in a spacious succa in the backyard of the Gurevitch family in Tashkent and heard fascinating stories from him about the harsh conditions under communist oppression.
Tuesday
Oct152019
Hoshana Raba in the Australian Outback
There are Chabad Houses that seem to churn out moving stories that sound like they were taken from stories of the holy Baal Shem Tov recounted on motzoei Shabbos. The following story comes to us from far away, from the Chabad House for Hebrew-speakers in Melbourne, led by the shliach, Rabbi Dudu Lider.
Tuesday
Oct152019
Should a child shake a lulav the first day of Sukkos?
A collection of relevant halachos regarding Sukkos from AskTheRav.com & Halacha2Go.com By Horav Yosef Yeshaya Braun, Mara D’asra and member of the Crown Heights Beis Din
Tuesday
Oct152019
HOW WILL THE MUSLIMS REACT TO THE MOBILE SUCCA?
I was on shlichus in Tashkent in 5753. My friends and I used military trucks for Mivtza Succa. At the time, I wrote the following journal entries:
Tuesday
Oct152019
Hakafos in Liozna
The winter of that year—5547 (1786–7)—was most severe, the first snow falling in Liozna during the festival of Sukkot. Sitting in the sukkah required a fur coat and fur-lined boots, and on several occasions the snow had to be removed from the sukkah.
Tuesday
Oct152019
Build the (fourth) wall & pay for it
The Festival of Sukkos is so called because of its central Mitzvah: to dwell in a Sukka for seven days.
Tuesday
Oct152019
THE NAME OF MELECH HA’MOSHIACH
During the Sukkos holiday, the village residents saw Itzik, a Jew overburdened with financial debt, concentrating with extra kavana as he shook his lulav and esrog. He closed his eyes and shook the Dalet Minim to the right, to the left, in the middle, up and down with amazing fervor. “Itzik,” they asked him, “what exactly do you think about so intensely when you shake your lulav?”
Monday
Oct142019
THE ESROG TRICK
The dalet minim market in Warsaw was busy. Many stalls with lulavim were scattered about the large market. Next to them were piles of haddassim and aravos, but esrogim? Where were the esrogim? There wasn’t a single esrogim stand!
Saturday
Sep152018
WHERE’S THE TABLE?
The central Mitzvah of the upcoming festival of Sukkos is to dwell in a Sukka – a temporary hut for seven days. This Mitzvah requires of us to move our meals, among other functions, into the Sukka for one entire week.
Saturday
Sep152018
THE ESROGIM THAT NO BORDERS COULD HOLD BACK
Chabad custom is to use an esrog from Calabria (Genoa). Chassidim faced many a challenge over the years in obtaining these esrogim, that went beyond high prices. * Even when Europe was on fire, these esrogim continued to break down iron walls and to reach Chassidim who pined for them with love. * Stories from our Rebbeim and Chabad Chassidim who made supreme efforts to obtain an esrog from Calabria.
Saturday
Sep152018
TIME OF OUR REJOICING
Tidbits from Z’man Simchaseinu at Beis Chayeinu: Why did the Rebbe stop the amazing farbrengens in the sukka? When did the Rebbe make a unique exception to farbreng in the sukka with the children of the Released Time program? When and how did the Rebbe launch the dancing in the streets as we know it today