On Wednesday, September 30, Flydubai flight FZ1073 left Dubai for Tel Aviv with 174 passengers on board, 166 of them Israeli. About two and a half hours after takeoff, with the Boeing 737 MAX cruising at around 34,000 feet, the co-pilot attacked the captain, Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, with a knife. The co-pilot is a terrorist of Omani origin and is now under investigation in Saudi Arabia. Some speculate that he meant to crash the plane, 9/11 style, into an Israeli city. Israeli journalist Guy Bechor says the target was an American air base in Saudi Arabia, home to US military personnel and several F-35s, considered the most advanced fighter jets in the world. That would have served two goals at once: killing Israelis (the Little Satan) and Americans (the Great Satan).

There is little doubt the plan came from Iran (see here). President Trump has said as much, but the connection has not yet been officially confirmed. What is not in doubt is that this was a terror attack in midair. But up there, in the sky, miracles happened too.

THIS IS THE STORY

Here is the sequence of events as we know it so far, based mostly on the accounts of the Israelis who were on the plane.

First, the terrorist, whose name has not yet been officially released and who, according to Prime Minister Netanyahu, “received Islamist indoctrination,” locked the cockpit door so no one could get in and he could take over the plane. He stabbed the pilot, Smit Machchhar, took the controls and turned the plane toward a high-value target to crash it. But Smit survived. Miraculously, while the terrorist was flying the plane, he found the strength and the presence of mind to open the cockpit door.

At that moment a passenger, Tzvika Manes (or his wife), was taking their little daughter to the bathroom and noticed that the cockpit door was half open and the pilot’s seat was empty. He alerted the other passengers. One of them, Yaniv Hayun, an Israeli plumber, went to see what was going on. Yaniv got into the cockpit and saw the wounded pilot. When the terrorist co-pilot saw Yaniv and realized the door was open, he began trying to wreck the controls so the plane would go down wherever it fell and, at the very least, kill everyone on board.

Hayun put him in a chokehold and, with the help of two other passengers, Tzvika and Assaf Arjuan, pulled him away from the controls. The fight was violent and the terrorist kept resisting, so they had to improvise. They tied his hands and legs with the plane’s headphone cords. There was nothing else at hand.

Meanwhile, with no one at the controls and the autopilot off, the plane went into a nosedive. The danger was not only that it would hit the ground. The enormous G-forces and the speed of the fall could have torn the fuselage apart or ripped off a wing in midair. In fact, that is what should have happened. The plane was dropping at about 30,000 feet per minute. According to a US military pilot who flies C-17s, aircraft far sturdier than any airliner, the breakup limit is 20,000 feet per minute.

During the fall the plane reached a ground speed of around 600 knots, close to the speed of sound. The Boeing 737’s maximum is 340. In every known case where a commercial plane came near those speeds, the tail broke off, the rear of the aircraft was destroyed, and everyone on board died. This may have been the greatest miracle of all.

As the plane plunged, Yaniv Hayun sat down at the controls. He was not a pilot. But not long before, miraculously, he had watched a documentary series, Air Crash Investigation (in Hebrew, Te’ufa BeChakira), and that bit of familiarity told him what to do: pull back on the yoke to level the plane and regain altitude. He did it just seconds before the plane would have gone into an unrecoverable dive.

One problem remained. Who would fly the plane and land it? The heroic pilot was badly wounded. A dentist on board, Dr. Shota Musaev, was treating him and managed to stop the bleeding, but the captain was in no condition to fly.

Miraculously, two off-duty Flydubai pilots were on the same flight as passengers, on their way to operate another flight. Thank God, one of them took the controls and steered the Boeing to the nearest airport, Tabuk, in Saudi Arabia, where it landed.

B”H no passenger and no crew member died. All 174 people on board, 166 of them Israeli, came out alive.

SEPTEMBER 30 AND OCTOBER 7

There is one more thing I think we need to stress. That instinct, the refusal to sit and wait for the problem to solve itself, the urge to run toward danger when lives are at stake instead of waiting for someone else to act, is one of the main reasons our people, Am Israel, survives, and thrives, in the State of Israel. Most people in the modern West behave like bystanders. The Israeli Jew is trained to step in when the stakes are high. The Israelis on that plane did not wait for the crew to come save them. They walked straight into the lion’s den. It is impossible not to compare what happened on this plane with what happened on October 7. When, for reasons that are still hard to understand, the army failed, the air force failed, and the security systems failed, thousands of Israelis risked their lives, and many lost them, to stop the Hamas invasion. Without them, without those who acted on the Jewish instinct for survival, the invasion would likely have spread much further and the death toll could have been even higher. When lives are in danger, the Israeli, who in most cases has gone through excellent army training, is ready, mentally and physically, to act and save lives. Today I heard that several people have posted something on social media that struck me as very telling: “On every flight I take, I’ll make sure there are at least one or two Israelis on board. That way I’ll feel safer.”

HEROES IN THE SKY

We tend to think of miracles as events in which the laws of nature stop working. But many biblical miracles are not like that. Human beings act in a completely natural way, and then the Creator performs the miracle. Nachshon walks into the sea, and God splits it. Shimshon fights the Philistines, and God helps him. Elisha tries to save a child’s life, and God brings the boy back from certain death.

Every miracle that happened on this flight began with a human act. God’s intervention shows itself in full when we look at the whole sequence. Then we realize that on the Flydubai flight, human forces and the Forces of Heaven worked together perfectly.

ושמחת בחגך אתה ובנך ובתך ועבדך ואמתך והגר והיתום והאלמנה אשר בשעריך

(Debarim 16:13-15)

“You shall rejoice [= enjoy] in your festival, you, your children, your servants, the stranger, the orphan and the widow who live in your city.”

SHEMINI ATSERET

During Sukkot we live in the Sukka and take the four species (etrog, lulav, hadas and arava) for seven days. Sukkot also has a third mitzvah, called simcha, which means “to celebrate” or “to be joyful.” It is the only one of the three mitzvot of Sukkot that carries over into the holiday that begins tonight, Friday, October 2: Shemini Atseret, followed by Simchat Torah, which begins Saturday night, October 3, and ends Sunday night.

Because Shemini Atseret is a separate holiday from Sukkot, the mitzvah of lulav and etrog no longer applies. In Israel, the Sukka is no longer used on Shemini Atseret. In the Diaspora, because the rules of the ancient rabbinic calendar are still in force, we keep using the Sukka on the first day of Shemini Atseret, but without a berakha.

ENJOYING THE TORAH

Outside the Land of Israel, as with every other Yom Tov, the holiday lasts two days in a row (Shabbat and Sunday). The second day of Shemini Atseret is called Simchat Torah. On that day we celebrate finishing the yearly cycle of Torah reading and, without a pause, start the new cycle from Bereshit. We sing and dance with the Torah, rejoicing that we are part of the people God chose to study and keep His Torah.

ENJOYING YOM TOV

The Torah tells us to be joyful and to show our happiness on these holidays. Physical enjoyment is part of the celebration too. During Yom Tov we share several festive meals with the people we love. The meals are prepared with care, and there is plenty of food. We eat, we drink, we honor the day, and we make it as pleasant as Shabbat (Shulchan Arukh OC 529:1).

We also dress up in honor of Yom Tov, the way we would for a wedding. According to the Shulchan Arukh, on Yom Tov we should dress even “better” than on Shabbat (ibid.).

ENJOYING, WITHIN YOUR BUDGET

The Chakhamim also explained that each person enjoys things differently. Before Yom Tov, they said, parents should give their children “roasted grains [to eat] and nuts [to play with].” Today that would be candy and small toys (not electronics!). A husband should buy his wife clothes or jewelry (“Happy wife, happy life”), always within his means. The woman of the house, for her part, makes sure her husband and family eat and drink well, within what each family can afford. Wine and meat are standard on the Yom Tov menu.

ENJOYING AND SHARING

Consumer society has taught us that happiness comes from success, and that success means having more, earning more and showing off more. The Jewish view of happiness is a little different. On Yom Tov we learn to be happy with what we have, however much or little that is. The materialistic world defines success as having what you want. We need to learn that happiness is not having everything you want, but wanting what you have, and above all sharing what Boreh Olam has given us with others: inviting people to our meals, especially orphans and widows (SH”A 529:2), and anyone who needs company, whether for material or “emotional” reasons.

Maimonides had this to say on this very important point: “One who locks the doors of his home [to the needy] and eats and drinks with his wife and children, and does not share with the poor, is not fulfilling the joy of this mitzvah. He is enjoying his own stomach…” (MT Yom Tov 6:18).

SIMCHAT TORAH AND ALCOHOL: ENJOYMENT WITHOUT EXCESS

Finally, physical enjoyment calls for moderation: “On Yom Tov [and this includes Simchat Torah, Y.B.] a person should not drink too much [alcohol]… because drunkenness and frivolity are not part of the mitzvah of rejoicing. They are vulgarity and foolishness… and [the Torah commanded us] to reach a level of joy that expresses our service of HaShem… A person cannot serve God through frivolity, light-headedness or drunkenness” (ibid., 6:19). “The highest way to serve HaShem is to be happy that one can fulfill [His will by keeping] His commandments…” (Maimonides, MT Hilkhot Sukka veLulav 8:15).

As Maimonides explained, a Jew does not need to get drunk to be happy. A person who needs to get drunk to feel happy does it to “forget” his misery. He shuts off his reason and his awareness to escape his present, a life without meaning. We, Am Israel, are the chosen people. On Simchat Torah we do NOT drink too much, because we should embrace and celebrate the privilege of belonging to God’s people sober and fully aware.

Some moments in the Halel of Sukkot seem made for a moment like the one we just lived through with the Flydubai plane.

There are four points in Halel where we wave the lulav (na’anu’im): once at Hodu at the beginning, twice at Ana, and once more at Hodu at the end. With them we thank God for our prosperity and ask Him to protect it from the enemies who want to snatch it away.

GRATITUDE FIRST

The first is when we say the famous verse HODU LAHASHEM KI TOV, KI LE’OLAM CHASDO (Tehilim 118:1): “Let us thank HaShem for His blessings [when we are well and prosperous].” “His favor is always with us [the Jewish people].”

Then we wave the Arba’at HaMinim twice on another very special verse: ANA HASHEM HOSHI’A NA (Tehilim 118:25), “Please, HaShem, save us, deliver us [from our enemies, who envy us and try to take our blessings away].”

At the end we say HODU LAHASHEM KI TOV once more (Tehilim 118:29).

These are two very short verses, but very powerful, and their meaning is very clear. We start by giving thanks. Hodu LaHashem ki tov is the classic verse of thanksgiving. It is the biblical, more solemn way of saying BARUKH HASHEM, or “Thank God.” It is the Jewish formula of gratitude par excellence, and it appears several times in Tehilim.

ASKING FOR HELP

The other verse, ANA HASHEM HOSHI’A NA, is one of the shortest. It is a plea to God: the cry of a people that knows that, as the chosen people, it is always exposed to the jealousy of nations that try to destroy it because it enjoys God’s blessing, prosperity and security.

Throughout our history, Am Israel has said these words when facing enemies who seemed stronger than us, or were, or in situations where, humanly speaking, there seemed to be no way out. To be clear, hoshi’a na does not mean we ask God to act while we sit and wait for a miracle. Judaism teaches that a person must act, fight, run, rescue, and do everything in his power, while knowing that the outcome is in the hands of Heaven.

ANY RESEMBLANCE TO REALITY…

I think these two pesukim describe exactly what happened on Wednesday on Flydubai flight FZ1073. The Israeli passengers, with God’s help, foiled their enemies’ sinister plan, regained control of the situation and, miraculously, were saved. It was as if HaShem were listening to the prayer of the entire Jewish people, who were saying that very day: Ana HaShem, hoshi’a na. HaShem, save us.

And then comes the second phrase:

הוֹד֣וּ לַה׳ כִּי־ט֑וֹב כִּ֖י לְעוֹלָ֣ם חַסְדּֽוֹ

Hodu LaHashem ki tov, ki le’olam chasdo, “Give thanks to HaShem, for He is good; His kindness endures forever” (Tehilim 118:1).

Thank You, HaShem, for being with us once again. Because when the danger passes, when the plane lands, when the operation goes well, when the soldier comes home, or when what we feared never happens, we have to know how to say “THANK YOU” with the same intensity and passion with which we so often say “PLEASE” to God.

Tonight, Friday, October 2, we begin Shemini Atseret, the holiday that marks the arrival of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere and, of course, in Israel. From this day on we add to our Tefila a special line praising God for creating rain. In the modern world most of us no longer live on farms and ranches but in cities and suburbs, and it’s hard to appreciate how vital rain is. For most of us, rain is more of a nuisance than a blessing. So I would like to share a few facts about rain that will help us understand a little better the beautiful Tefila mashib haruach umorid hageshem (= You are the One who makes the wind blow and makes the rain fall on the earth).

LIFE

What makes our planet unique in the universe? One might say: life. As far as we know, there is no other planet with life in the solar system or in the Milky Way. But there is another essential element, a prerequisite for life, which HaShem created before He created life. It is what scientists look for when they search other places in the universe, like Mars, for traces of life. You will probably think of water, and you will be partly right. Water is life, and life as we know it on our planet is impossible without water.

LIQUID WATER

To be more precise, a planet can only be habitable if it has liquid water. Traces of water (H2O) have been found on other planets, but frozen, as ice. On a planet like Jupiter, or on its moons, temperatures are extremely low, and water cannot stay liquid there. Our planet is privileged to be the only celestial body with liquid water. This is thanks to the Intelligent (Divine) Design of the Earth’s mass, the sun’s mass and, above all, the precisely calculated distance between our planet and the sun. All of this keeps the Earth neither too hot, where water would evaporate, as on Venus, nor too cold, where water would freeze, as on Mars.

FRESH WATER

But liquid water alone is not what sustains life on our planet. “Ordinary water,” meaning sea water, or the water some speculate once existed on Mars (this has not been confirmed), is salt water. It cannot support life as we know it for the creatures of dry land. The vast majority of plants, insects, amphibians, birds, reptiles and mammals, ourselves included, need water without salt to survive.

That precious liquid is called fresh water. Fresh water is what makes life on our planet possible. And where does fresh water, that life-giving elixir, come from? The only source of fresh water on our planet is rain, or precipitation, which includes snow and hail.

According to Maimonides (Guide for the Perplexed 2:30), the Creator set up the water cycle, the mechanism that produces rain, on the second day of Creation, when He separated the upper waters (the clouds) from the lower waters (the oceans). Rabbi Moshe Chefets, in his book Melekhet Machashevet (pp. 10-11, Vienna edition), and Rabbi Menashe ben Israel, in his book The Conciliator, among others, explain it the same way.

THE SECOND DAY OF CREATION

John Lynch, author of the BBC book The Weather (p. 84, 1996), describes clouds in his own words very much the way the Torah does: “We live on a water planet. The seas dominate the world… there is an ocean around us [sea water] and an ocean above us [the clouds].”

The Creator devoted the Second Day of Creation to setting up the miraculous mechanism that turns ocean water into the most precious liquid in the universe: rain.

HOW UNLIKELY WATER IS

Rainwater is water with very little salt. Of all the water on planet Earth, only 2.75% is fresh. Of that, 2.05% is frozen in glaciers. Another 0.69% is groundwater, which, like the glaciers, was originally produced by rain. Only 0.0101% of all the water on Earth is fresh surface water, spread across all the lakes and rivers. That incredibly small share, 0.0101% of all the water in our world, is what human beings and every other creature on dry land use to survive. And its only source is rain!

The second day of Creation was devoted to setting up the process that turns ocean water into the scarcest, most exotic and most precious liquid in the universe. That is why our Chakhamim considered rain one of God’s greatest blessings to mankind.

THE ELIXIR OF LIFE

The only source of fresh water in the entire universe is the rain that forms in the atmosphere of planet Earth.

“Imagine an entire planet where the universe’s finest liqueur is boiled out of fermenting seas by a brilliant yellow star, distilled in the skies, and rained back down on the land, forming lakes and rivers of the inebriating brew. The planet, of course, is Earth, and the liqueur is fresh water.” (L. O’Hanlon, Discovery)

By Guy Bechor, www.gplanet.co.il

What lies behind the attempt to crash an entire Emirati plane full of Israelis? Behind the scenes of a regime […] there are precise Iranian messages. What are they? Did the Iranians want a “mafia-style” hit? How to read the messages: did they mean to crash the plane? Careful! A war that topples the regime? And what did the philosopher Seneca say?

Behind an Omani pilot’s attempt to bring down the Flydubai passenger plane over Saudi territory there are clear Iranian messages. They are aimed mainly at Israel […] and at the United States. And they are messages of dangerous desperation.

“If there are no flights to Iran, then no one flies.” That is the line Iranian spokesmen have been repeating for several days. The near-total air boycott of passengers flying to and from Iran has paralyzed […]. It hurts a lot, and it is dangerous for the regime.

This month the United States imposed sweeping sanctions on Iran’s entire aviation sector, a true “economic isolation.” All Iranian airlines were added to the list of terrorist organizations. Foreign companies were barred from selling them fuel, landing services or tickets, on pain of being cut off from the dollar system.

The result is severe isolation in the air. The Emirates, Oman, Iraq and other countries [have joined the boycott], and Iran has responded by threatening the airports that comply. Russia, Turkey and Pakistan still operate Iranian flights, but the global isolation is closing in.

Oddly, the economic sanctions hurt less than people say. In videos from Tehran posted on YouTube in recent days, there is no sign of special pressure on the streets.

In response, Iran is already striking Saudi airports through its proxy groups, including the main airports in Riyadh and Jeddah. But it does not dare attack Ben Gurion Airport, because it fears Israel would use that as a pretext for a war of annihilation that brings down the regime. So it found another solution: [an attack on] Israelis, with no signature. Something that falls short of opening a war against the regime.

The dramatic meeting in the Emirates

The Emirates’ public announcement about […] hit Tehran hard. The official visit included […] of Israel and his wife, along with an Israeli wartime security team. Senior officials from other Arab countries were reportedly there too, and an agreement was reached […] against Iran when the war resumes.

And that is not all. The Tehran regime sees this as [an alliance under] Israeli [leadership], instead of the Gulf states surrendering to Tehran. The Americans are leaving, and today they evacuated all […] Iraq. The Kurds, as always, […]. Iran, Turkey and Israel are competing over who will lead the Arabs. This mysterious visit showed Iran that Israel is in the picture, and in a big way.

So this is a warning to the Emirates: if they keep up their military coordination with Israel, they will be hit […] three times over. Today it was an attempt to bring down an Emirati plane, with Israelis on board, over Saudi territory. And everyone in the Middle East understands who sent this message.

Above: the terror flight of the Israelis over Saudi territory, who had to endure this Iranian horror.

More broadly, the Abraham Accords created a reality Iran cannot tolerate. Israelis fly to Dubai and are welcomed warmly. There is tourism, business, open normalization and public agreements, including cooperation on joint defensive fortification (against suicide boats, for example).

Every tourist flight like this one, to Israel, shows Iran that the Shiite axis has failed to stop [normalization]. The central aim of October 7 was to stop normalization with Israel. So today’s attack was meant to bring fear back to the skies, shake passengers’ confidence and pressure the Emirates to back off.

There is a straight line from the October 7 mega-attack to today’s attempted air attack. In both cases Iran wanted to stop normalization.

Iran has attacked Gulf airspace before. But this time it used […] an insider. That lets it say, “We can reach anywhere,” in a softer way, [without paying] the price of a direct clash with Israel or the United States.

Did they want to destroy the plane?

Did the Tehran regime want to destroy the plane, or only to stage a major attack without […] fatal? There are two possibilities. Either the pilot was an amateur, which does not seem likely in an Iranian operation that needed to be precise, or he was told not to go all the way.

The big [question] is the cockpit. Since 9/11, the modern cockpit door locks automatically and is armored. [It cannot be opened] from outside, except with an emergency code that starts a 30-to-60-second timer. Had the terrorist pilot locked it and pressed the “Deny” switch, blocking entry completely, the passengers probably would not have gotten in in time, and the plane [would have crashed].

[There are other explanations:] the door may not have been fully locked during the struggle between the pilots, the captain may have managed to keep it accessible, or the attacker may have been too busy stabbing and putting the plane into a dive to block the entrance. The passengers heard screams, or the door opened; they went in, subdued the terrorist and pulled him out. Then they locked the door themselves.

In an attack like this, locking the cockpit is the first and essential task. That it was not done is strange. To be clear, we are not trying to defend the Tehran regime, only to understand the reasons behind the message it sent with this attack.

Does the regime want war?

Iran does not want an all-out war right now, because it knows that this time the regime could fall. A direct war would expose its weaknesses: [lack of] internal calm and the earlier blows to its military facilities. It prefers warning shots, deterrence, attrition and limited […] intimidation, which sow doubt about air safety and make the Gulf states ask whether [the alliance with Israel] is worth the risk. The same goes for Saudi Arabia.

The goal is not to bring down a plane. The goal is to make Israelis, Israel and its partners think twice before boarding a flight, attacking Iran or normalizing relations. The question is not how many people died, but how many panicked or changed [their plans].

This is the classic Iranian style: a bloody warning. An attack like this shows nervousness and worry in the Tehran regime, to the point of being willing to take dangerous action, [close to] crossing the big red line.

The question now is how Jerusalem and Washington will respond to these bloody messages. Before the midterm elections, going back to an intense war is not convenient right now, and the Iranians know it. That is the timing, the reason they chose this exact moment. The more serious the threat of toppling the regime becomes, the stronger and more dangerous [their messages] will be, and we need to be ready for that.

And Seneca, the Roman philosopher, said: Nullus perniciosior hostis est quam quem audacem angustiae faciunt. That is: “No enemy is more dangerous than one whom desperation has made bold.”

ARBA’AT HAMINIM

This year Sukkot begins on Friday night, September 25. The first day is Shabbat, and the second day of Yom Tob is Sunday the 27th.

The essential difference from an ordinary year is that on the first day of Sukkot we will not take the lulab and the etrog. The first day we say the berakha will be Sunday morning.

COOKING

Another important point to keep in mind is that we do not cook on Shabbat for Sunday. On Yom Tob cooking is permitted, but only for that same day. On Shabbat we do not cook for later.

So before Shabbat begins we need the basics ready for Sunday’s Yom Tob meal. There are two options: leave the food prepared from before Shabbat, or cook on Sunday itself, once Shabbat has ended.

ERUB TABSHILIN

This year we do not make erub tabshilin. That procedure only applies when Yom Tob falls immediately before Shabbat, and in 5787 that does not happen at any point during Sukkot.

SATURDAY NIGHT CANDLES

The Yom Tob candles are lit on Saturday night, after Shabbat has ended, and they are lit from a flame that was already burning since before Shabbat.

This is why it is a good idea to leave a long candle burning from Friday, one of 48 or 72 hours.

וּלְקַחְתֶּ֨ם לָכֶ֜ם בַּיּ֣וֹם הָרִאשׁ֗וֹן פְּרִ֨י עֵ֤ץ הָדָר֙ כַּפֹּ֣ת תְּמָרִ֔ים וַעֲנַ֥ף עֵץ־עָבֹ֖ת וְעַרְבֵי־נָ֑חַל וּשְׂמַחְתֶּ֗ם לִפְנֵ֛י ה׳ אֱלֹ-הֵיכֶ֖ם שִׁבְעַ֥ת יָמִֽים׃

“And you shall take on the first day [of Sukkot] the fruit of a citron tree (etrog), branches of palm trees (lulab), a branch of myrtle (hadas) and willows of the brook (‘araba), and you shall rejoice before HaShem, your God, for seven days” (Leviticus 23:40).

THE MITSVA. The Torah tells us to take four plants during the festival of Sukkot, three branches and one fruit: one lulab (a young branch of a date palm), two ‘arabot (willow branches), three hadasim (myrtle branches) and one etrog (a citron, a fruit that looks like a lemon). The Mitsva is known as the four species (ארבעת המינים) or the Mitsva of lulab.

Performing it is called netilat lulab, “lifting” the lulab. The four species are taken in both hands, the lulab, the hadasim and the ‘arabot in the right hand and the etrog in the left, held in the direction in which they grew.

THIS YEAR. The Mitsva is performed every day of Sukkot except Shabbat. Since the first day of Sukkot falls on Shabbat this year, the lulab is not taken on Saturday the 26th. The first time we take it will be Sunday, September 27, and that is the day for both blessings. One practical detail: have the lulab tied and assembled before sunset on Friday, because it cannot be tied on Shabbat or on Yom Tob.

THE BLESSING. On the first day we take the four species, this year a Sunday, we recite two blessings: ‘al netilat lulab and shehecheyanu, thanking God for bringing us to this moment. On the other days of Sukkot only ‘al netilat lulab is recited.

Every Mitsva has to be performed after the blessing is said. That is why some people hold the etrog with its stem (the pitam) facing up before the blessing, and turn it into its proper position only afterwards. This way the berakha is not said over a Mitsva already fulfilled, which would make it a berakha lebatala, a blessing said in vain. Others prefer not to hold the etrog at all until the blessing is said.

WOMEN. Women are formally exempt from the Mitsva of lulab. Even so, in most communities it is customary for them to perform it as well, and that is considered meritorious. The traditions differ about the blessing: in the Sephardic tradition women do not recite it, in the Ashkenazic tradition they do.

THE NA’ANU’IM. After the blessing come the na’anu’im, the movements of the lulab in six directions. The Sephardic custom today is to move it without shaking it (holakha vehaba’a) toward the south, the north, the east, up, down and west. This order was established by the sages of the Kabbala and differs from the one Maimonides describes, which Ashkenazic Jews follow closely.

WHAT DO THE MOVEMENTS MEAN?

אמר רבי יוחנן: מוליך ומביא – למי שהארבע רוחות שלו, מעלה ומוריד – למי שהשמים והארץ שלו. במערבא מתנו הכי, אמר רבי חמא בר עוקבא אמר רבי יוסי ברבי חנינא: מוליך ומביא – כדי לעצור רוחות רעות, מעלה ומוריד – כדי לעצור טללים רעים.

Ribbi Yochanan explains that we move the lulab back and forth and then up and down to thank HaShem, “the One who owns the four winds,” for the winds that brought the rain in its season during the harvest just ended. Why thank God for good winds on Sukkot? Because by Sukkot the Jewish farmer has already gathered in everything the year produced. Rabbi Abohab explains that we give thanks precisely then, so as not to forget God at the moment when we have everything we need.

Ribbi Yose bar Ribbi Chanina reads the same movements differently. The lulab stands for the winds, and moving it is a prayer asking HaShem to protect the coming year’s harvest: to spare us the destructive winds that bring drought and locusts, and the harmful rains that ruin the produce of the land.

Which opinion do we follow? Do we thank God for the past or ask Him for the year ahead? We do both, in the Hallel. To thank Him we wave and lift the lulab, as one would bring an offering, while saying HODU LASHEM KI TOB, KI LE’OLAM CHASDO. To ask Him for the year ahead we wave it while saying ANNA HASHEM HOSHIA NA, “Please, HaShem, save us,” meaning: save us from the winds and the weather that could leave us with nothing to eat.

If prayers about wind and rain do not move us much, it is because we are lucky enough to live in an age of abundance. We have so much food, barukh HaShem, that it is hard to picture the hunger a single year without rain once brought to the people who worked the land.

Four plants that resemble each other in nothing, that grow in different places and need completely different amounts of water, are taken together and in one hand. If one of them is missing, there is no Mitsva.

לְמַ֨עַן֮ יֵדְע֣וּ דֹרֹֽתֵיכֶם֒ כִּ֣י בַסֻּכּ֗וֹת הוֹשַׁ֙בְתִּי֙ אֶת־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל בְּהוֹצִיאִ֥י אוֹתָ֖ם מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרָ֑יִם אֲנִ֖י ה׳ אֱלֹ-הֵיכֶֽם׃

“…so that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in sukkot when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am HaShem, your God” (Leviticus 23:43).

This coming Friday night, September 25, we begin the celebration of Sukkot, the festival that recalls our forty-year crossing of the desert, from Egypt to the Promised Land: Israel. This year the first day falls on Shabbat.

The Torah says plainly that we celebrate Sukkot in order to remember “that God settled us in sukkot” when He took us out of Egypt.

But what were those sukkot? What were they made of?

HUTS

According to Ribbi Akiba, the sukkot were simply huts, cabins with a roof of branches. They did not keep out the weather the way a real roof does, but they gave shade, which in the desert is no small thing. On this reading, when we build the Sukka and live in it, we relive the journey through the desert.

There are at least two objections to this literal reading.

When the Torah describes where the Jews lived in the desert, it uses the Hebrew word ohel, tents, probably made of animal skins. It never mentions huts or cabins.

The second objection is sharper. Why does the Torah say that God settled the Israelites in huts? The huts Ribbi Akiba has in mind would have been built by the people themselves, not by God.

CLOUDS OF GLORY

Ribbi Eliezer disagrees with Ribbi Akiba and holds that in this verse “sukkot” does not mean huts at all. Whatever the dwellings in the desert were made of, wood or skins, what we are meant to remember is that during those forty years the Jewish people were protected by God. Ribbi Eliezer called that Divine Protection “clouds of glory.” Seven clouds with which HaShem protected Israel: four around the camp, one above, one below, and a seventh out in front, three days ahead, showing them the way.

Why were protective clouds necessary? Because crossing a desert is dangerous. Water and food are not enough.

There are at least four serious challenges in crossing a desert:

Weather: Scorching heat by day, cold at night, unpredictable winds and sandstorms. Remember what happened to the army of Cambyses in Egypt. In 525 BCE, Cambyses sent fifty thousand soldiers to destroy the Temple of Amon at Siwa. After seven days in the desert they vanished, most likely buried under a sandstorm. Is it not remarkable that in forty years in the desert not one weather event touched the Jews?

Attacks: Deserts have bandits and thieves. In the case of the Jewish people, after the war with Amalek no further attack was recorded.

Animals: Deserts are full of poisonous snakes and scorpions. It is easy to step on one and be bitten.

Direction: Moshe asked his father in law Yitro to come along, since he knew the desert well. Yitro refused. The seventh cloud, the amud esh ve’anan, the pillar of fire and cloud, guided the people like a modern GPS.

INVISIBLE CLOUDS

Now we can understand Ribbi Eliezer better. The Hebrew word for cloud, ‘anan, is not to be taken here as the white clouds of the sky. “Cloud” is used metaphorically, for a Divine mechanism that protected the Jewish people. Those invisible clouds, shielding them from every side, can be compared today to firewalls that block an attack before it lands. The cloud above protected from the weather, the one below from the venomous animals. And the seventh, the pillar, led the people and showed them the way.

Our Sages weighed the two opinions and ruled in favor of Ribbi Eliezer.

When we walk into the Sukka we should remember that HaShem protected our ancestors from every danger of the desert.

SEVEN CLOUDS, SEVERAL LAYERS

In our own day the Clouds of Glory are easier to picture than ever. Medinat Israel lives under several layers of protection, and each one covers what the previous one cannot reach: Iron Dome for short range rockets, David’s Sling for medium range, Arrow for long range ballistic missiles. Seven clouds, each with its own job.

On December 28, 2025, a new layer was added. The Ministry of Defense delivered to the army the first laser interception system, Iron Beam, or as I prefer to call it, the Laser Sukka. Its Hebrew name is Or Eitan, after Captain Eitan Oster z”l, a commander in the Egoz unit, twenty two years old, killed in Lebanon in October 2024. It is a laser of roughly a hundred kilowatts that brings down drones, rockets and mortar shells, and every shot costs a tiny fraction of an interceptor missile.

It is not yet fully operational. Eight months after delivery, the final adjustments and the integration with Iron Dome were still under way. But it is no longer a distant promise. It exists, it was delivered, and it carries the name of a twenty two year old soldier who died defending his people. In Israel, divine protection works alongside human ingenuity and human sacrifice.

A NEW CLOUD OF PROTECTION

This past July Israel presented a system that resembles none of the others. It is called HYPNOSIS, it was developed by Israel Aerospace Industries, and what sets it apart is that it fires nothing.

Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Arrow shoot things down. They intercept the incoming projectile and destroy it in the air. HYPNOSIS does not destroy. It confuses.

Mobile stations are placed around whatever needs protecting, all linked to a single command center. Together they generate an invisible electromagnetic cloud. Inside that cloud the enemy drone stops receiving the satellite signal that guides it. Or something subtler happens: it receives a false signal and comes to believe it is flying somewhere it is not. It loses its bearings and falls. Hence the name.

There is no interceptor, no explosion, no cost per shot. Until now, bringing down a thousand dollar drone took a hundred thousand dollar missile. One HYPNOSIS station can disorient dozens of drones at once, all at the same price. In testing it neutralized, on its own and with no human operator, several aircraft converging on a single target from different directions.

The image is worth sitting with. The clouds in the desert were not clouds of water. They were, according to Ribbi Eliezer, an invisible protective mechanism that surrounded the people on every side. Today Israel has an invisible cloud that surrounds on every side whatever it wants to protect.

And there is one more thing. When the Egyptians chased Israel to the sea, the Torah does not say that HaShem destroyed them on the spot. It says the cloud came between the two camps, and that HaShem confused the camp of Egypt:

וַיָּ֕הׇם אֵ֖ת מַחֲנֵ֥ה מִצְרָֽיִם׃

“And He confused the camp of Egypt” (Shemot 14:24). He took the wheels off their chariots and made them drive heavily. The first weapon of the exodus from Egypt was not a weapon. It was a cloud that made the enemy lose its way.

Three thousand three hundred years later, the same principle is back on the battlefield.

May HaShem go on protecting Israel from our many enemies, as He protected our ancestors in the desert.

לְמַ֨עַן֮ יֵדְע֣וּ דֹרֹֽתֵיכֶם֒ כִּ֣י בַסֻּכּ֗וֹת הוֹשַׁ֙בְתִּי֙ אֶת־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל בְּהוֹצִיאִ֥י אוֹתָ֖ם מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרָ֑יִם אֲנִ֖י ה׳ אֱלֹ-הֵיכֶֽם׃

“You shall dwell in sukkot for seven days. Every native in Israel shall dwell in sukkot, so that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in sukkot when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am HaShem, your God” (Leviticus 23:42-43).

This Friday night, September 25, we begin the celebration of Sukkot. This year the first day falls on Shabbat. Sukkot, followed by Shemini Atseret and Simchat Torah, runs until Sunday night, October 4.

For seven days we leave our homes and settle in the Sukka. We eat there, we study there, and if the weather and our health allow it, we sleep there. Sukkot commemorates the forty-year journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, when God provided everything we needed and protected us from the dangers of the desert. By dwelling in the Sukka we relive that gratitude and that trust in Divine Protection, which has not stopped since.

The Sages explained that to fulfill this Mitsva we have to turn the Sukka into our main residence for the seven days of Sukkot, and our house into the temporary one. That means doing in the Sukka the ordinary things we normally do at home. Some examples:

MEALS: Except when it rains, we eat in the Sukka, above all the formal meals that include bread (hamotsi and birkat hamazon), reciting the blessing: “…asher kiddeshanu bemitsvotav vetsivanu liysheb basukka.”

MEZONOT: Cakes, cookies and other mezonot foods are also eaten in the Sukka. If they are eaten as a snack between meals, the blessing for the Sukka is not recited. Some families in our community follow the old Sephardic custom, based on Maimonides, of reciting liysheb basukka every time they enter the Sukka to eat or drink something.

SNACKS: Light foods such as fruit or coffee may be taken outside the Sukka, although it is praiseworthy to eat and drink nothing outside it during Sukkot.

SLEEPING: Sleeping in the Sukka is part of the Mitsva, but it depends on the weather, on one’s health, and on other factors such as safety or the presence of animals.

Seven days in a house without a roof teach something unexpected: almost nothing we thought we could not live without at home turned out to be necessary. That is exactly what the Sukka came to teach.