The Festival of Booths
After the intensity of judgment and self-scrutiny of Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, Sukkot offers a surprising response: joy born of vulnerability. Leaving the security of our homes, we dwell in fragile huts exposed to wind, rain, and uncertainty. Sukkot teaches that faith is not found in control, but in trust; not in permanence, but in openness to life’s instability. True joy can arise, not despite fragility, but because of it—when we accept that meaning emerges precisely where certainty ends.
15 Tishrei 5787 – 21 Tishrei 5787
Begins at Sundown on Friday, September 25, 2026
Ends at Nightfall on Friday, October 2, 2026
In Sukkot by Yael Shahar
While other holidays are said to be times of joy as well, Sukkot is singled out in particular by the Torah (D'varim 16:15): "You shall be altogether/only joyful." But can we ever be "only" joyful? Is there ever a time when we are completely without other emotional states? Is the Torah asking of us the impossible?
In Jewish Thought and Philosophy and Sukkot by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Winter - bleak, dreary and cold - often has a negative effect on our moods and even outlooks. The message of Sukkot, The Festival of Tabernacles, must be continued into this period of darkness and, indeed, into our lives. The Sukkah is a structure that is quite plain and feeble by definition and requirement, and yet it interior and significance are tremendously beautiful and solid. Our lives can be greatly enriched and understood and even assigned deep purpose when we understand the Sukkah.
In Jewish Thought and Philosophy and Sukkot by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Traveling through a desert is journeying through a lonely place, completely forsaken. There is neither food nor water, nor any other form of sustaining substance. There is only the unbearable sun and its heat. There is no grass and there are no trees. The only signs of life are deadly snakes and scorpions. In a […]
No matter how powerfully the outside walls and the leaking roof reveal our vulnerability and uncertainty, inside these walls we need to make our life as attractive as possible and enjoy its great benefits and blessings.
Leadel.NET Interview
Rabbi Cardozo shows us how the tradition of Sukkot teaches us the wisdom of paradox. Among the many insights of Rabbi Cardozo, this time he touches upon the paradox of two classic philosophers by embracing opposite perceptions of this world. Arthur Schopenhauer, a German philosopher known for his ultimate pessimism and Greek philosopher Epicurus, who’s […]