8:20pm - Candle Lighting Sukkot I, Thursday (after)*
7:22pm - Candle Lighting Shabbat, Friday*
8:22pm - Havdalah, Saturday
(Melbourne Australia)
Good Shabbos!
Good Yomtov!
*From a pre-existing flame
Please click here to view the Yeshivah Shule Tzetel for Sukkos. Please click here to view the PDFs of Weekly Publications.
PARSHAH IN A NUTSHELL
Leviticus 22:26-23:44 Numbers 29:12-16
The reading begins with an injunction that a newborn calf, lamb, or kid must be left with its mother for seven days; one may not slaughter an animal and its offspring on the same day.
The reading then lists the annual Callings of Holiness — the festivals of the Jewish calendar: the weekly Shabbat; the bringing of the Passover offering on 14 Nissan; the seven-day Passover festival beginning on 15 Nissan; the bringing of the Omer offering from the first barley harvest on the 2nd day of Passover, and the commencement, on that day, of the 49-day Counting of the Omer, culminating in the festival of Shavuot on the 50th day; a "remembrance of shofar blowing" on 1 Tishrei; a solemn fast day on 10 Tishrei; the Sukkot festival — during which we are to dwell in huts for seven days and take the "Four Kinds" — beginning on 15 Tishrei; and the immediately following holiday of the "8th day" of Sukkot (Shemini Atzeret).
G‑d declares the fifteenth day (and the subsequent 6 days) of the seventh month to be a holy convocation, no work shall be done during that time. The reading then describes the Sukkot offerings which were brought in the Holy Temple.
Shabbat Chol Hamoed Torah Reading in a Nutshell
Exodus 33:12-34:26
G‑d agrees to Moses' request that His presence only dwell amongst the Jews. Moses requests to be shown G‑d's glory. G‑d agrees, but informs Moses that he will only be shown G‑d's "back," not G‑d's "face."
G‑d tells Moses to carve new tablets upon which G‑d will engrave the Ten Commandments. Moses takes the new tablets up to Mt. Sinai, where G‑d reveals His glory to Moses while proclaiming His Thirteen Attributes of Mercy.
G‑d seals a covenant with Moses, assuring him again that His presence will only dwell with the Jews. G‑d informs the Jewish people that He will drive the Canaanites from before them. He instructs them to destroy all vestiges of idolatry from the land, not to make molten gods, to refrain from making any covenants with its current inhabitants, to sanctify male firstborn humans and cattle, and not to cook meat together with milk.
The Jews are commanded to observe the three festivals — including the holiday of Sukkot, "the festival of the ingathering, at the turn of the year." All males are commanded to make pilgrimage to "be seen by G‑d" during these three festivals.
The maftir, from the Book of Numbers, discusses the public offerings brought in the Temple on this day of Sukkot.
HAFTORAH IN A NUTSHELL
Day One:
Zachariah 14:1-21
The prophet Zachariah prophesies about the world transformation that will occur in the end of days, when "the L-rd shall become King over all the earth; on that day shall the L-rd be one, and His name one."
But first he describes a great war that will center around Jerusalem immediately before the ultimate Redemption. G‑d will gather the nations for war, and He will do battle with them, by visiting various diseases and ailments upon them. Zachariah then notes that those of the nations who will survive this cataclysmic war will be required to go to Jerusalem every year on the holiday of Sukkot to pay homage to G‑d.
Day Two:
I Kings 8:2-21
Today's haftorah describes the dedication of Solomon's Temple, which occurred during the holiday of Sukkot. (The celebration of the completion of the Holy Temple began a few days earlier, on the 8th of Tishrei.)
The construction of the Holy Temple was completed. King Solomon assembled the leaders and elders of the tribes to Jerusalem, and amidst great fanfare the Levites transported the Ark from its temporary location in the City of David and installed it in the Holy of Holies chamber in the Holy Temple. Immediately, G‑d's presence appeared in the Temple, in the form of a smoky cloud.
King Solomon then blessed G‑d. He recalled the history of the sanctuary, how his father, King David, had wanted to build it—but was told by G‑d that it would be his son who would accomplish this feat. "And the L-rd has established His word that He spoke, and I have risen up in the place of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the L-rd spoke, and have built a house for the name of the L-rd, the G‑d of Israel. And I have set there a place for the ark, wherein (is) the covenant of the Lord, which He made with our fathers, when He brought them out of the land of Egypt."
Shabbat Chol Hamoed Sukkot Haftorah in a Nutshell
Ezekiel 38:18-39:16
The subject of the haftorah of this Shabbat is the war of Gog and Magog that will precede the Final Redemption. Its connection to the holiday of Sukkot is that according to tradition the war will take place during the month of Tishrei, the month when the holiday of Sukkot falls. In addition, this war is identical to the one described in the fourteenth chapter of Zachariah, the haftorah read on the first day of Sukkot, which concludes by saying that the gentile survivors of this war will be required to go to Jerusalem every year on the holiday of Sukkot to pay homage to G‑d.
The prophet describes Gog's war against Israel and G‑d's furious response. G‑d will send an earthquake, pestilence, great floods and hailstones and fire—utterly destroying Gog's armies.
"And I will reveal Myself in My greatness and in My holiness and will be recognized in the eyes of many nations, and they will know that I am the Lord. . . . I will make known My Holy Name in the midst of My people Israel, and I will no longer cause My Holy Name to be profaned, and the nations will know that I, the Lord, am holy in Israel."
The haftorah concludes by saying that the weaponry of the defeated armies of Gog will provide fuel for fire for seven years! The Jews "shall carry no wood from the fields nor cut down any from the forests, for they shall make fires from the weapons."
SAGES ON THE PARSHAH
These are the appointed times of G‑d, callings of holiness, which you shall call in their appointed time (23:2)
A king was traveling through the desert, and his son, the crown prince, thirsted for water. But instead of dispatching a horseman to fetch water from the nearest town, the king ordered a well to be dug at that very spot and to mark it with a signpost.
"At the present time," explained the king to his son, "we have the means to obtain water far more quickly and easily. But perhaps one day, many years in the future, you will again be traveling this way. Perhaps you will be alone, without the power and privilege you now enjoy. Then, the well we dug today will be here to quench your thirst. Even if the sands of time have filled it, you will be able to reopen it if you remember the spot and follow the signpost we have set."
This is what G‑d did for us by establishing the festivals at those points in time when He initially granted us the gift of freedom on Passover, joy on Sukkot, and so on.
(Mar'eh Yechezkel)
https://w2.chabad.org/media/pdf/36948.pdf
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