SHABBAT READING
The Multiple Metaphors for God in Shirat Haazinu: Prof. Rabbi Andrea M Weiss, TheTorah.com, Sept. 23, 2014 —Parashat Haazinu tells of a relationship gone awry. According to the poem at the heart of Deuteronomy 32 (referred to as “the Song of Moses” or, after its first word, “Shirat Haazinu”), God established a special relationship with the people Israel and lovingly watched over and cared for them; yet they rejected God and turned to other deities.
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WATCH: The Hidden Connection between the Festival of Sukkot and the Book of Ecclesiastes: Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Mosaic Magazine, Oct. 20, 2016 — Many Jewish communities customarily read the book of Ecclesiastes on the Sabbath that falls during the holiday of Sukkot, which began last Sunday night and lasts for seven days. But the link between Ecclesiastes and the harvest festival is by no means evident. Through a series of subtle scriptural readings, Jonathan Sacks demonstrates how each relates to the other, and in the process explores the meaning of both. (Video, 53 minutes.)
Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) Guide for the Perplexed, 2022: Yoram Ettinger, The Ettinger Report, Oct. 6, 2022 — Sukkot is a national Jewish liberation holiday, commemorating the transition of the Jewish people from bondage in Egypt to liberty and sovereignty in the Land of Israel, which inspired the US Abolitionist movement.
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Sukkot: A Different Kind of Festival: Jeremy Rosen, Algemeiner,Sept. 23, 2021
Why Sukkot Is the Holiday You Need Right Now: Dovid Bashevkin, Tablet, Sept. 1, 2021
The Etrog: Celebrating Sukkot with a Persian Apple: Dr. Dafna Langgut, TheTorah.com, Sept. 23, 2021
The Preacher’s Air: On Translating Kohelet: Atar Hadari, Mosaic Magazine, Sept. 16, 2013
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FOR FURTHER REFERENCE:
WATCH: Succot: So Many Festivals In Just A Few Weeks!: UK Chief Rabbi Efraim Mirmish, Office of the Chief Rabbi, October 2022 — This month is packed with major festivals, but we need them all. As I see it, in the same way as we need all three paragraphs of the shema, so too we need, in close sequence, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, then Succot, followed by Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah.
WATCH: Sacred Time Ep 4: Sukkot – The Eternal Lulav and Etrog: Rabbi Meir Soloveitchik, YouTube, Oct. 5, 2018 — Sukkot and its rituals speak to the meaning of Jewish history, and the moral and spiritual challenges of our day.
The Art of Sukkot: Saul Jay Singer, Jewish Press, Oct. 6, 2022 — Sukkot is a festival that lends itself to broad artistic expression, with particular focus on the special mitzvot so intimately associated with this great festive Yom Tov – beginning, of course, with the sukkah and the arba minim and ending with hoshanot and Simchat Torah.
The Etrog’s Storied Past: Jenna Weissman Joselit, Tablet, Oct. 6, 2022 – K’tonton, that stalwart sprite of American Jewish children’s literature, got into all sorts of scrapes by swinging on a lulav.
