The following presentation was recorded live by AishAudio.com.In order to start with the concept of Sukkot, we start specifically with the davening. How do we epitomize Sukkot? Zman Simchateinu, the season of our joy. Happiness, joy. Now let's take a look what that means. Does that mean that it is during this season that we enjoy ourselves? Is that what it means? Is that what Zman Cheiruteinu means, that it is in this season that we are free? Or is it that in this season we acquired our freedom? And having achieved it, in the seasonof our freedom, it becomes an acquisition that we use through the entirety of our lives all year, reinforced, reinvigorated, recreated on the season of Pesach, but something that we take and live with all year round? Zman matan torateinu means that this is the day that we have Torah, or this is the day that we acquired the Torah for its effect, and to keep, and to use, and to apply all the rest of the year. Yom Hazikaron has it for this, or that this concept of judgment, and what we derive from it, is for the rest of the year. In every one of the cases, of course, we weren't talking of what we're doing just today. We were talking of the significance of today, in terms of the kind of acquisitions we have to make. [And now [unknown]], for the rest of the year. Are they settings and the directions that it has to give us for the rest of the year as well. So Zman Simchateinu can't mean the season when we're joyous and happy. It means the season where we acquire the trait of joyousness, the ability to be happy, and accept it as a way of life. It is a thing that we establish in our life. Joyousness. Happiness becomes a factor in life. What does that mean? But that is clearly what Succos is saying to us.Sukkot is not saying to us, be happy today. Sukkot is saying that joyousness and happiness is an essential ingredient of our lives as Jews. And if we want to accomplish and to do, in the service of God and fulfillment of all that we are, and creating a proper Jewish peoplehood, we need to bring in the concept of freedom and use it as an ongoing thing. The concept of the Torah, and its acceptance, and subordinating ourselves to it, and establishing it as the direction-giver of our existence, the concept of reverence and fear of God, and using it with the realization and the awareness of judgment of what we're doing as being meaningful and as counting, the concept of atonement, of the fact that we are never lost by what we did, but that we have to be aware of it. All of these things tell us that Zman Simchateinualso means the season in which we acquire that power, that commitment, that can enable us to use the concept of joyousness as an essential ingredient of our lives as Jews, as the revealers of God's reality, and God's own world. [I can] remember, we pointed out that a holiday, to the Jew, is never a specific memorization, butrather a reaction to an event which changed the essence of our character. Like the Yetzias Mitzrayim changed us, and made us a whole different type of being. A being who is now a nation of God, who are prepared for a covenant. The acceptance of Torah obviously changed our whole concept and view of reality and of what existence is about. We are capable ofdifferent things. We are driven to different things. All that we are has been essentially affected inthe deepest, most intense way by the reality of what took place on that day. As we pointed out in [Pulyum], [Pulyum] made a change in the very nature and soul of the Jew, and his potential, and how he saw himself, and what he demands of himself, and what he is capable of. Therefore, Succos also is a change in the very essence of the Jew. It makes him capable and aware and able to do things that he is otherwise totally not capable of doing. It gives him insights that didn't exist before. It increases his potentialities. It increases the reach of his soul. Itincreases the talents that he possesses, the direction that he drives it. What is this event? [Hebrew] -- I have set you in Succos. What is that supposed to mean? Whatever it's supposed to mean, but it certainly says, you're sitting in my dwellings. That's what it is. It's not the nest, of being in a sukkah. We don't make a [Yom Tov] for the [Mon]. We don't have a [Yom Tov] for the [Mayim]. Why are we making a [Yom Tov] for the sukkahs that we sat in? The [Tal] says it's the sukkahs are in my dwelling, it's living with God. Living with God, in His presence, and the [yonon], and the [yomoresh], living in God, and His presence, has totally changed our very being. You can't live in God's actual presence without being a different kind of person, with a different potential, a different drive, a different direction of existence, and the ability to achieve. It's self-apparent. That's what Succos is about. How does it express itself? Our Chachamim say, in Simcha. They say it in Simcha because the Chumash says it. [Hebrew] -- The Chumash identifies that this character that has so changed usis expressed in joyousness. But the first implication is, the joyousness is a character trait. It's nota thing that happens to us. How do you do that? You say well, you gotta have joy. I mean, God send me joy, I'd love it! I wanna. But how do I achieve joyousness? It says here that joyousness is a character trait you can achieve. You can be joyous. And be joyous. If God sends me wonderful things, and I have good events, I'm gonna full of joy. He sends me another grandchild, [Bez HaShem], fantastic. I'm full of joy, [I suppose]. I hear news that one of my children is in financial difficulties, and having a trouble, and hopefully-- I'm gonna be joyous? What am I joyous about? Nobody sent me anything to be joyful about? We're being told that's not true. You create joy. It is a trait. It is something for you to use. To deal with, to be, to increase. How does one bring joyousness into life? I think that having phrased the question, it has become immediately clear that this is perhaps the most crucial of the [Yamim Tovim]. And certainly in terms of understanding and having insight into the nature of Man. It would be difficult to point to something more essential. We're being told that joyousness is something we can deal with. It is not a reaction to the events in theoutside world and how they affect us. It's how we deal with ourselves and the outside world. There is that portion of this that all of us know. Sometimes we know it in an articulate way. Sometimes we