Sukkot

With Hoshanah Rabbah today and the theme of repentance in mind, Jack Cohen explores the role that outsiders play in one's teshuva process through an enigmatic midrash instructing one to return a person to themselves.

YU President Ari Berman's opening address, comparing YU to a Sukkah! Shlomo Zuckier captures this historic moment in his notes.

Two new poems by Temima Weissmann address national calamities, both past and present.

Benjamin Barer traces the word Hevel through Jewish texts, showing how the use of the same word can teach us both about the wisdom of Kohelet we read this past Shabbat and the character of Hevel who we will read about in this week's Parashah.

Merri Ukraincik contemplates G-d's role in our lives.

Dan Margulies offers a rundown of the sukkah zip-tie construction, the next great halakhic frontier

Julian Alper analyzes two paintings which feature etrogim, Marc Chagall’s “Feast Day (Rabbi with Lemon)” and Paula Gans's “In Prayer at Sukkot,” through the lens of a commentary by Rabbi Norman Lamm.

Yaakov Jaffe traces the origins and evolution of the custom to shake the lulav in different directions.

Zev Eleff explains what Zionism has to do with Sukkot, at least in America.

Yosef Lindell recounts the controversy surrounding different attempts at translating the Tishrei prayers.