Sukkot

What is Simcha? Is it merely the emotion of happiness and joy?

How can Hoshana Rabba be a day of such happiness if it is actually a day of judgement?

What makes the days between Yom Kippur and Sukkot so unique? The most important lesson for the following days.

Hoshana Rabba is one of the least understood days of the Jewish calendar. What is the source of her specialness, which isn't mentioned at all in the Torah? The class deals with the ancient sources for 3 different aspects of Hoshana Rabba which in fact, overlap and harmonize to give us a deeper understanding of this final day of Sukkot, as the "final appeal" sealing how our year is going to look!

The other-world Ushpizin guests are: Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Moshe, Aharon, David and Yosef HaTzaddik. Yosef is not mentioned specifically in the Zohar - as opposed to Miriam, the sister of Moshe and Aharon - and so we should ask: Why was Yosef, of all our many righteous forebears, chosen as one of the guests? (We will also relate below to why Miriam is not included in our Ushpizin.)

"Rabbi Alnekaveh told a story he heard once from an etrog-seller who used to bring Rav Eliyahu etrogim to check: "It is well-known that Rab Eliyahu could look at an etrog for mere seconds and immediately discern its advantages and defects..."

The Sukkot holiday is full of mitzvot (good deeds), including the mitzvah of the lulav, the four species. Our Sages say that the four species are similar to weapons - the lulav is similar to a sword, or perhaps a rifle, the etrog maybe to a grenade. In any event, the Sages intend to tell us that there are spiritual wars and there are physical wars, and Man in this world must confront various pests and ward them off.