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Shabbat Chol Hamoed Succot Hallel Paragraph Five



“I love that God hears the voice of my prayers,
that I am listened to when I call!
Ropes of death strangled me and alleys of the grave found me;
I discovered trouble and sadness.
So, I called out in the Name of God:
Please God, rescue my soul!
God is proper and just.
Our Lord shows compassion.
God defends the simple.
I was lowered but then saved.”

There is special joy to experiencing salvation, to crying out and being answered, to being lowered and then rescued. Beyond the relief we can see that no matter what troubles us, we can have hope. This is the gift of Shabbat, the day on which we look at the world as being whole and complete, a world that has a taste of the World To Come.

This is also the sense that we have when, on Succot, we gather in our harvest, and see that our worries are over. We have more hope the next time we plant. We celebrate the accomplishments and growth of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. We rejoice in the feeling that our prayers have been heard. This holiday empowers us to face the future with hope and aspiration.

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