Come On In! - CHRONICLE Online/The WORD 10/08/25

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah

October 9, 2025

17 Tishri 5786

Intermediate Day

There’s a beautiful tradition of welcoming special guests into our Sukkah during this festival of Sukkot called Ushpizin. Ushpizin started off with symbolically welcoming seven of our patriarchs into our Sukkah—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, and David. Of course, eventually, we developed a tradition of inviting our matriarchs into our Sukkah as well, called Ushpizot—Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Hulda, and Esther. (Hulda was a prophetess in the time of King Josiah who is mentioned in II Kings 22 and II Chronicles 34.)

Obviously, we can’t really have these long-deceased individuals in our Sukkah, but we CAN preserve our history and our values through our celebration of the holiday of Sukkot.

So, in the spirit of Ushpizin and Ushpizot, here are SEVEN events in the coming days that you can attend to celebrate Sukkot in our community (you can find more details for all of them in this very email):

• Tot Shabbat – Friday at 4:45 p.m.

• Happy Holy Hour – Friday at 5:15 p.m.

• 6^th Grade Shabbat – Friday at 5:45 p.m.

• Family Promise Shabbat -  Saturday at 9:30 a.m.

• Morning Minyan – Sunday at 9:30 a.m. and Monday at 7:00 a.m.

• Mimosas & Muffins – Sunday at 10:30 a.m.

• Sushi & Simchat Torah – Monday at 5:45 p.m.

• Shemini Atzeret with Yizkor – Tuesday at 9:30 a.m.

And, of course, it is our fervent wish that we will get to celebrate the return of the hostages from Gaza at some point during these coming days as well. Whatever day that ends up being, we will transform our event into a celebration of their entering the “Sukkat Shalom— the Shelter of Peace” in the Land of Israel.

Chag Same’ach!

Shalom,

RAF