"You shall rejoice in your festival!" (Deuteronomy 16:14) Erev Sukkot, Tishrei 14, 5781/October 2, 2020

 

Like  Tweet  Pin  +1  "You shall rejoice in your festival!" (Deuteronomy 16:14) Erev Sukkot, Tishrei 14, 5781/October 2, 2020 The seven day festival of Sukkot, like the other Torah mandated pilgrimage festivals of Passover and Shavuot, is a celebration of family, community and people. It is a time for sitting together in our sukkot (booths), for praying together in our synagogues, for gathering together in Jerusalem, for ascending together in large numbers to the Temple Mount, for joining together for Birkat Kohanim - the Priestly Blessing - at the Temple Mount's western wall, for the magnificent annual march through the streets of Jerusalem by Israel's many friends overseas who have come to join us in celebrating G-d's presence in our lives. This year will be different. The unchecked spread of Corona in Israel has compelled the nation to shut down these activities. This year many of us will be sitting only with immediate family in our sukkot throughout the holiday. Mass gatherings like the Priestly Blessing or Simchat Beit HaShoeva get-togethers, are out of the question. And, of course, the shuttered skies preclude the welcoming of our usual guests from overseas. But the very essence of the holiday remains intact, even if muted by the currently necessary health precautions. Sukkot is primarily about dwelling in our temporary booths for seven days. We leave the comforts of our homes and of our well worn routines, and move all our activities into fragile huts with thin walls which sway in the wind, and a foliage covered roof through whose branches we can see the sun by day and the moon and the stars by night. Outside of the imagined security of our usual four strong walls and protective roofs which seal us off from all that is on the outside, we find ourselves squarely placed in the protective and loving embrace of G-d, and of G-d alone. The illusion of our self made fortresses melts away. The wind, the sun, even the rain, are part of our lives again, as we sit in the shade of G-d's protecting presence. All that exists beyond the frail walls of our sukkot is the world that G-d created, and all that dwells within our sukkot are ourselves and the irrepressible, irresistible, indescribable nearness of G-d's Presence. We require no more than this and we ask for no more than this. Our sukkot are a mini experience of the very same reality which filled and overpowered the pilgrims who journeyed to Jerusalem and the Holy Temple, to join a people fervently celebrating their love affair with G-d. We have stood before G-d on Rosh HaShana and have passed the perilous test of Yom Kippur. We now gather together in G-d's Holy Temple, united in joy - the joy of being alive and in love with G-d. "You shall make yourself the Festival of Sukkot for seven days, when you gather in the produce from your threshing floor and your vat. And you shall rejoice in your Festival - you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite, and the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow, who are within your cities. Seven days you shall celebrate the Festival to HaShem, your G-d, in the place which HaShem shall choose, because the HaShem, your G-d, will bless you in all your produce, and in all the work of your hands, and you will only be happy." (Deuteronomy 16:13-15) Within our sukkot we grasp the four species commanded us, "the fruit of the hadar tree, date palm fronds, a branch of a braided tree, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before HaShem your G-d for a seven day period." (Leviticus 23:40) These four species, each possessing unique qualities, represent the totality of our own individuality, and G-d's desire that we hold fast in our hands this expression of our own singularity and by doing so create a unity of peoplehood, a oneness of humanity. This brings G-d pleasure and creates for us the unity of purpose required to move forward into the new year. This year we will be experiencing all these holiday joys only in small groups, physically separated from one another. But there is no reason to celebrate alone. Only the thin walls of our sukkot will stand between us, and they are no match for G-d's mighty embrace which binds us all together. When we peer through our leafy roofs and see the stars at night, we will be seeing one another, together in G-d's majestic world. Chag Sameach - Have a truly joyful Sukkot! Tune in to this week's Temple Talk, as Yitzchak Reuven talks about transitioning from the Yom Kippur high to the Sukkot joy, now that our slates are wiped clean and we find ourselves way beyond time, and finally, about the universal appeal of Sukkot and the imperative to be happy! The days between the purifying experience of Yom Kippur and the joyful ecstasy of Sukkot are like no other days throughout the year. Our bodies are weightless and time is standing still. This Friday evening Sukkot begins with a blast of energizing gratitude and joy. This year, so many of the joyful events of Sukkot here in the land of Israel will be cancelled, due to Covid 19. But Torah commands us to be joyful on Sukkot, so we will find a way. Chag Sukkot Sameach - A Joyful Sukkot to All! Temple Talk! Positivity & the Holy Temple: Be Happy - It's a Mitzva! Simchah - happiness - is a positive commandment! To strive for happiness is a must and never more so than when celebrating the pilgrimage festival of Sukkot: "And you shall rejoice in your Festival" (Deut. 16:14) Torah tells us, specifically referring to Sukkot. The greatest simchah imaginable was the simchah generated by the Water Libation Ceremony which took place in the Holy Temple throughout the intermediate days of Sukkot. Simchah was an essential prerequisite for receiving prophecy and simchah is the surest way to connect to G-d. Being happy is not necessarily the easiest of commandments to fulfill, but its rewards are manifold, and its power is contagious. Chag Sameach, be happy! Be Happy - It's a Mitzva! The festival of Sukkot is all about a return to the man - G-d - creation paradigm, recaptured in its purity by dwelling in temporary sukkot - booths - throughout the seven day holiday. Our sukkot booths with their frail walls and organic roofs replicate the booths our ancestors dwelled in during their forty year desert journey from slavery to freedom, from exile to return. What was essential for our fathers' well-being - closeness to G-d and freedom from want, is likewise what's best for us. As the classic song states, "The fundamental things apply, As time goes by." Chag Sameach - Have a joy-filled Sukkot! View the Festival of Sukkot now! Sukkot In The Holy Temple! The pilgrimage festival of Sukkot was a unique event in the Holy Temple. Following just five days after Yom Kippur, Sukkot was a special time of joy and thanks for all of Israel. Nowhere was the joy more intense and more beautifully expressed than in the Holy Temple over the seven days of Sukkot, and the Eighth Day Assembly, Shemini Atzeret, that followed. Learn how Sukkot was celebrated in the Holy Temple. In-depth descriptions and tens of beautiful pictures! Sukkot in the Holy Temple! Red Heifer Born in Colombia An avrech (Jewish Torah scholar/teacher) in the country of Colombia reported that he was called upon by a local farmer to check a recently born perfectly red calf. The avrech inspected the calf, declared it to be a perfectly fit red heifer and purchased it. The auspicious timing of the calf's appearance on the days between Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur, has been noted. In the meantime, the Temple Institute continues its efforts to raise a red heifer here in the land of Israel. View video! Rabbinic Debate Settled? Study Takes Measure Of Biblical ‘Handbreadth’ Unit Pottery production was man’s work back in Iron Age Israel. A new Israeli study comparing the dimensions of hundreds of ceramic storage jars over 350 years of production discovered that the inner-rim diameter measure remained consistent with the width of a man’s hand, an elusive unit known from biblical times as a tefah. Learn more & see photos! All Eyes Might Be On The Temple Mount After The UAE-Israel Deal When he dedicated the Temple he built on Mount Moriah, King Solomon prayed that God’s house would be a center of prayer for all the peoples of the world. Now, in the wake of the recent Abraham Accords – the normalization agreement entered into by Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain – the possibility exists that Solomon’s aspiration could be recreated. Learn more! 2,000-Year-Old Mikveh Transported To Permanent Site A 2,000-year-old mikveh weighing 57 tons, which was exposed north of Hamovil Junction, was hoisted by crane and transported on a heavy equipment carrier, on its way to a new permanent site in Kibbutz Hanaton. View video! Yom Kippur On The Temple Mount Yesterday, Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Hebrew calendar, 61 Jews merited ascending and praying on the Temple Mount. These photos were taken and posted by the Muslim Waqf. See photos! Shavua Tov & Gmar Chatima Tova From The Temple Mount! The current anti-Corona lockdown in Israel makes it impossible for any Jews who live further than one kilometer from the Temple Mount to ascend the Mount. Thankfully, dedicated Jews who do live within proximity of the Mount are going up every day. Tonight the holy day of Yom Kippur begins. We wish everyone a Gmar Chatima Tova - may we al be inscribed in the Book of Life! See photos! Help To Build The Holy Temple In Our Time: Donate Generously To Help The Sacred Work Of The Temple Institute! Every contribution helps to rebuild the Holy Temple in our Time! Donate now! Interested in Ascending the Temple Mount? Contact us via our website, email us at infotempleinstitute@gmail.com or via our Facebook page. Click below for more information on ascending the Temple Mount in purity. More info! Chag Sameach from the holy city of Jerusalem! Yitzchak Reuven The Temple Institute ©2020 Temple Institute | Misgav Ladach 40, Jerusalem, 97500 Israel Web Version  Preferences  Forward

The Place of Humiliation If You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. MARK 9:22

 October 2 Daily Devotional

The Place of Humiliation If You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.  MARK 9:22 After every time of exaltation, we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they really are, where it is neither beautiful, poetic, nor thrilling. The height of the mountaintop is measured by the dismal drudgery of the valley, but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mountain, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the place of humiliation that we find our true worth to God— that is where our faithfulness is revealed. Most of us can do things if we are always at some heroic level of intensity, simply because of the natural selfishness of our own hearts. But God wants us to be at the drab everyday level, where we live in the valley according to our personal relationship with Him. Peter thought it would be a wonderful thing for them to remain on the mountain, but Jesus Christ took the disciples down from the mountain and into the valley, where the true meaning of the vision was explained (see Mark 9:5-6, Mark 9:14-23). “If you can do anything….” It takes the valley of humiliation to remove the skepticism from us. Look back at your own experience and you will find that until you learned who Jesus really was, you were a skillful skeptic about His power. When you were on the mountaintop you could believe anything, but what about when you were faced with the facts of the valley? You may be able to give a testimony regarding your sanctification, but what about the thing that is a humiliation to you right now? The last time you were on the mountain with God, you saw that all the power in heaven and on earth belonged to Jesus— will you be skeptical now, simply because you are in the valley of humiliation? From My Utmost for His Highest Updated Edition Bible in One Year: Isaiah 14-16; Ephesians 5:1-16

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS We must keep ourselves in touch, not with theories, but with people, and never get out of touch with human beings, if we are going to use the word of God skilfully amongst them. from Workmen of God, 1341 L

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MSNBC Claims Trump Wants to Kill People: He “Has a Death Wish,” Will “Take Americans Down With Him”

 

MSNBC Claims Trump Wants to Kill People: He “Has a Death Wish,” Will “Take Americans Down With Him” 

(Morning Joe, you really are basically a self centered, self righteous, son of a self serving know it all. who has brought the IQ of all your watching audience down by 25 points according to he last national IQ tests done by the Democratic Party on 9/ 6/2021) 

 NATIONAL   MARK FINKELSTEIN   OCT 1, 2020   |   10:52AM    WASHINGTON, DC

Is President Trump planning a murder-suicide with the American people? As hyperbolic, as literally insane, as that sounds, it’s what Morning Joe was suggesting today.

Morning Joe regular Ed Luce of the Financial Times kicked off the crazed assessment:

“He’s saying, ‘If I’m going to go down, I’m going to take you down with me.’ I think there’s a death wish in his approach to this election that is the mark of somebody who’s got a very dark mind.”

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Joe Scarborough ran with Luce’s “dark mind” warning, saying:

“It’s always been a fear about Donald Trump that if he was going to go down, he was going to try to take as many Americans with him as he could . . . As we move forward and it becomes more obvious, if it does become more obvious, that Donald Trump cannot win this election, it is going to be responsible for Republicans to do everything they can to limit the damage to this democracy and save the lives of as many Americans as they can.”

Scarborough didn’t back away from the apocalyptic scenario he was painting. To the contrary, he acknowledged:

“Does that sound dark? It does. Is that man’s mind dark? It is. Are you going to prepare for it? We pray you will.”

This is terminal-stage Trump Derangement Syndrome. Trump as Jim Jones of the mass Jonestown murder-suicide, but on a grotesque, nationwide scale. Dark minds? Look in the mirror, Ed and Joe.

Morning Joe’s suggestion of a Trump murder-suicide plan for America was sponsored by Allstate, Applebee’s, and Ninja Foodi. Contact them via the Conservatives Fight Back links to let them know what you think of their sponsorship of this sort of apocalyptic garbage.

LifeNews.com Note: Mark Finkelstein has a B.S. from Cornell University, an Ed.M. and a J.D. magna cum laude from SUNY Buffalo, and an LL.M. from Harvard. He lives in Ithaca, NY where he hosts “Right Angle,” a local political talk show. Finkelstein is a Contributing Editor at MRC’s NewsBusters blog, where this article originally appeared.

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