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1. Mussaf Service, Rosh Hashanah

Today is the birthday of the World. Today all creatures
of the world stand in judgement whether as children of
God or as servants. If as children, be merciful with us as
the mercy of a father. If as servants, our eyes look
toward You and depend on You, until You are gracious
to us, and release our verdict, clear and pure as light
2. Mussaf Service, Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur
Let us now relate the power of this days holiness, for it
is awesome and frightening. On it Your Kingship will be
exalted; Your throne will be firmed with kindness and
You will sit upon it in truth. It is true that you alone are
the One Who Judges, proves, knows, and bears witness;
Who writes and seals, (counts and calculates); Who
remembers all that was forgottenAngels will hasten, a
trembling and terror will seize them, and they will say:
behold! It is the day of Judgement!
3. Neilah Service for Yom Kippur
Our Father, our King, be gracious with us and answer us,
though we have no worthy deeds; treat us with charity
and kindness and save us
Hear, O Israel: Hashem is our God, Hashem the one and
only
Blessed be the Name of his glorious kingdom for all
eternity
Hashem is the only God!
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From Rosh Hashana to Simchat Torah: What a Long, Strange Trip Its Been
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You are warmth/
and You are light/
but You are not me and this is unbearable/
I do not understand how we make a twosome/
I wish to become you/
but remain myself [alone]

- J. P. Sartre, le Diable et le Bon Dieu [The Devil and the Good Lord] (Paris, 1951)


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4 . R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik, The Lonely Man of Faith (Tradition, 1964 pp. 1,7)

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5. TB, Sukkah 27b
And the Sages say: Even though a person does not
fulfill his obligation on the first yom tov with his
friend's lulav; yet he fulfills his obligation in his
friend's sukka, as it says: "Every resident in Israel shall
sit in sukkot" - it teaches that all Israel is fit to sit in
one Sukkah.
6. R. Natan b. Naftali Steinhartz of Nemirov (1780-1844),
Likkutei Halakhot, Netilat Yadayim 6:99
This is the essence of Sukkotan aspect of Sukkat Shalom,
a manifestation of the Clouds of Glory under which all
600,000 root souls of the Jewish people coalesce. As is well
known, these Clouds were there in the merit of Aaron the
Kohein,who: loved peace, and pursued peace, loved
humanity and brought them close to Torah (Avot
1:12)This is one deeper meaning behind the verse which
states: all of Israel shall dwell in Sukkot, hinting to all
Jewish souls throughout history meeting within the peace of
the Sukkah
In brief, this is what our Sages meant when they taught: All
of Israel may fulfill their obligation with a single Sukkah:
an essential aspect of the ingathering and the unity of all of
Israel is represented by the Sukkah, as we have explained.
8. Sefer haHinnukh (anon., 13
th
century), Mitzvah #324
As such, the Mitzvah of Lulav and its three
accompanying species is based on the same priciple, which
is that the days of this Holiday [of Sukkot] are truly days of
great joy for our nationon it, one exudes a special degree
of happiness and joy, hence this Holiday is also known as
Chag heAssif (The Festival of Ingathering), and God
commanded us to celebrate it at this time of the year in
order to benefit us, as we focus our joy toward the spiritual.
However, the risk of losing this focus due to the largely
physical manifestations of that joy is why we have also been
commanded to take the Lulav, as this serves as an
educational tool to remind us, as Jews, that all of our hearts
contentment and joy must be channeled toward God and His
gloryfurthermore, there is no time on the Jewish calendar
as joyous as the Chag heAssif [Sukkot].
7. Mussaf Service for Three Festivals, Sukkot
And you, Lord our God, have given us in love festivals for
rejoicing, holy days, and seasons for joy, this day of the
festival of Sukkot/the festival of eighth day, Shemini
Atzeret, our time of rejoicing
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9. R. Aryeh Leib b. Asher Gunzberg (1695-1785), Resp.
Shaagat Aryeh #65 (trans. Yehudah Mirsky)
This Mitzvah is not well-defined, but it is an expansive joy.
One is commanded to rejoice on festivals with every manner
of joy one can. It is not like the other Mitzvot, which set an
equal standard for rich and poor alike, but rather in this joy,
each and every one is commanded to rejoice to their utmost
and according to their means, men & women as befits them..

11. R. Shimon Gershon Rosenberg (ShaGaR; 1949-2007), bTsel
haEmunah (I n the Shadow of Faith) pp.22-24
The depth of the matter is such that the differences between these
holidays is instructive: As we have mentioned, the central Mitzvot of
Rosh haShanah and Yom haKippurim are dedicated to the coronation
of God, and the declaration of His unity, as opposed to the joyous
focus Sukkot takes on the unity of Israel. The four species, and the
Sukkah are geared towards this Achdut
At first glance, it would seem that cleaving to God and declaring His
unity would be a private act of personal faith - the lonely man of
faith. However, the progression of the Tishri holidays educates us
that the truth of the matter is that the individuals connection with
God is utterly dependent on their connection with the Jewish people,
and the Achdut of the nation as a whole.
The deep solidarity of the faith community flows from the
recognition of the partnership in faith of the believers and
profoundly affects the faith of the individual. The unification of God
is indeed a byproduct of ones own personal conviction in his faith,
but it is only the individuals belief in the faith of others, which leads
to national unity and can succeed in extracting true spiritual faith
from the subjective realm of the individual to more expansive vistas,
and ultimately redeems the believer from his lonely, depressed
quietude to joy and happiness.
12. TB, Taanit 31a
R. Elazar said: in the future, Hashem will make a circle [dance]
for the righteous, and will be situated at the center. Everyone
will motion and point with their finger, as it is written (Isaiah
25): and you will say on that day, this is our God whom we
have waited for, and he is redeeming us; this is the God we have
waited for, let us rejoice in his redemption.
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11 . Slavoj Zizek, The Subject Supposed To Be [Hebrew] (Tel Aviv, 2004)
As we struggle to preserve our most intimate and private sense of individuality and authenticityIt is this very
individualism that is so beset by the ever-changing cultural context which is never objective, only subjective. The
phenomenon of the modern retreat into privacy and individualism, contains a thrust towards the adoption of notions
in the only way The way surrounding popular cultural milieau. of personal authenticity, usually informed by the
satisfactory level of intimacy, is not to merely gaze directly into which one might achieve a level of true intimacy, a
the eyes of the beloved and forget the rest of the world, but rather to join hands and together gaze outward to a
third point, the goal toward which the joined couple struggle.


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Additional Material and Sources:

1. See Kurt Vonnegut in Palm Sunday (its on WikiQuote) about what he expects for young people to do with their
lives nowadays: What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring
thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.
"Thoughts of a Free Thinker", commencement address, Hobart and William Smith Colleges (26 May 1974)

2.