(Click HERE to view photos taken by Yehuda Boltshauser.)

Cornucopia. While it typically used in reference to edible food, out of all of the words in the English language, I think that it is the best word to describe what I experienced today (well, at least in my opinion.) Shefa – Abundance – be it the piles of schach, boxes of esrogim, tins of hadasim, or simply the jovial atmosphere that accompanied the hub-hub of pre-succos shopping this year in Yerushalyim. Walking through town, succahs in various degrees of completion lined balconies on both sides of the street, while people shlepped schach, decorations, wooden planks, and the such… Passing through Geula on the way to one of the arba minim shukim was again a experience: If you have ever been there on erev shabbos, think erev shabbos times five – and we are still a few days away from succos. While in technicality the arba minim shuk is not much different from machne yehuda, it is the ruach that prevailed there that made it so special. Thousands of people – spending hours – on what? Simply because they want to be mehader a mitzvah. Kulo Mitzvahs. To see so many Yidden of all walks of life together under one roof was amazing. Throw in the sweet smell of the esrogim there and the fragrance of the hadasim (not to forget the random minyanim in the middle of the shuk), all I can say is Baruch HaShem that we have such a shefa of tools to do mitzvahs with in such a beautiful way!