Zman Simchateinu

Reconnecting to G-d from a place of love (teshuva mei'ahava) accomplishes what can not be done through a fear based repentance (teshuva miyirah).When you do teshuva mei'ahava your aveirot - negative actions become zechuyot - merits. Up to and including Yom Kippur is a time when most people focus on fear of G-d. Sukkot is referred to as yom rishon lecheshbon avonot - usually translated as - the opening day for the reckoning of sins.

Sukkot is zman simchateinu. Rav Nachman MiBreslov explains that on Sukkot we re-focus our teshuva and do it mei'ahava. The true meaning of yom rishon lecheshbon avonot, is that in the post Yom Kippur days we want to re-count our avonot and work -through continued teshuva mei'ahava - on recycling the avonot as zechuyot - to switch things around and turn things up.

On Rosh HaShana, at Tashlich, we throw our sins into the water. On Sukkot what do we do? We gather in the water in joy - u'she'avtem mayim besason - we collect back those aveirot with great joy!