After finishing Rosh Hashana and the Yom Kippur which are days of Judgement on a personal and national level, we begin preparing for the days of Sukkos. These days seem diametrically opposed as Sukkos is defined as the holiday which is the epitome of Happiness and Joy seemingly different than the days of awe and trepidation of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.

This entire period though is in fact one unit which moves from a time of judgement to a time of intense love between Hashem and the Jewish Nation culminating on Shimini Atzeret. The days of awe are a necessary precursor for us to develop the relationship of love. This is symbolized by sitting in the sukkah which according to Jewish Law needs to have three walls at the minimum with the third only needing to be a a hand breadth wide. The Arizal says that the two full walls and hand breadth  represent the two parts of a person's arm, the bicep and forearm, and the hand breadth represents the hand. This symbolizes that we are sitting so to speak in the embrace of "Hashem's Arm".

It is a time to reflect on all the wonderful blessings that G-d has bestowed upon us. I realized recently that it is difficult for us to be thankful and appreciative for the simple things in life, because most of the time we compare ourselves to others. If we are richer or happier than all of our friends then we can hopefully see reason to be thankful, but what if we are not? What if we have the same more or less that everyone else has?. Everyone has two eyes, ears, legs they can talk, walk, think and speak so even if we realize that these gifts are from G-d and we know that there are some people who don't have these abilities, how can we really come to appreciate what we have? I think one way to start is by stopping to compare ourselves to others. Look at ourselves as a lone creation which Hashem could have been made in any way,  nothing says we have to have been created with all the abilities that we have and nonetheless we do have these Thank G-d.

We should reflect on the tremendous Love Hashem has for us and hopefully it will help us turn to Him in love as well.

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach,

Heath