These are the days when, having been blessed on Yom Kippur with a good and sweet year, we are preparing for the Festival of Succos-"the Season of Our Rejoicing." At this time some reflection is in order:

True, we are living in exile, a time when G-dly revelation is not as prevalent. This diminished light of Torah has its effect in the world in its relations with the Jewish people and, in some Jews, in their relationship to Judaism.

(It should be stated that these two are interconnected. It is only when Jews, individually or collectively, proudly and openly adhere to their Jewishness that they earn the respect of the world around them.

Furthermore, by adhering to a Torah life-style, which means actually learning Torah and doing Mitzvos, we not only diminish but eventually completely eliminate the only cause of the Exile (as we clearly say in our prayer-"Because of our sins we were exiled from our land") and the Exile is shortened and eventually ended by the true and complete Redemption through Moshiach.)

Nevertheless, the fact that we are still in Exile must not, and does not, dampen the joyful preparations for Succos, much less the actual joy of Yom Tov, particularly the Festival of Succos (including Chol HaMo'ed, Shemini Atzeres, and Simchas Torah) which has been singled out and designated as "The Season of Our Rejoicing."

An additional factor, which is also one of our fundamental beliefs and basic principles of our Torah, is Bitochon (trust) in G-d. This means true and absolute trust in the Master of all the universe, whose Divine Providence extends to each and everyone individually, and specifically, and in detail.

This trust includes, first of all, that He surely granted that everyone be favorably sealed in everything and in every detail, including and especially the fulfillment in our own very days of the hope, heartfelt yearning, and most fervent daily expectation of Moshiach "for whose coming I wait every day."

The basis of this trust is the simple belief of every single Jew. For Jews are "believers the sons of believers," this intrinsic belief having been inherited from our Father Abraham. This belief unites and unifies all Jews and, furthermore, it is perfectly equal in all Jews though they be unlike each other in many other aspects.

It is this trust that makes a spiritual uniting of the Jewish people a reality, unifying all Jews into one entity. For their common simple belief also pervades and encompasses everything in which they differ, including their understanding, and level of study and observance of the Torah.

This unity is also reflected in Yom Kippur, the unique and only day in the year, which of all the festivals ordained in the Torah, is celebrated for one day only, both in and outside of the Holy Land.

Yom Kippur is the day on which all Jews conclude on the same culminating "resume" and proclaim with profound inspiration and in a loud voice: Shema Yisroel-Hear, O Israel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One; Blessed be the name of His glorious Kingdom forever and ever; Hashem He is G-d!"

This same unifying principle is reflected also in the Festival of Succos, in combining together the "Four Kinds" (Esrog, Lulav, Myrtle, and Willow), symbolizing all different types of Jews, into one Mitzvah, which is created by virtue of a Jew unifying them.

And also in the Succah itself, concerning which the Torah says: "It is possible for all Jews to sit in one Succah."

May G-d grant that just as on Yom Kippur, after the many prayers and the culminating resume, one long shofar blast is sounded-a Tekiah Gedolah, according to custom, followed by the loud proclamation: Next year in Jerusalem!

So may every Jew in the midst of the entire Jewish people, may every Jewish man and woman, very soon indeed hear the sound of G-d's Great Shofar announcing our liberation, followed immediately by-"Bring us... to Jerusalem Your Holy House with everlasting joy."

Translated and excerpted from a letter dated "Between Yom Kippur and Succos, 5741 [1980]"