Non-Orthodox Jews shown under a Sukkah. See comment below. ()
The term Sukkot (סוכות / סכות) refers to an 8-day Biblical pilgrimage festival, also known as "The Feast of Booths" (Tabernacles). In Judaism it is one of the most important Jewish holidays. The term also refers to a location referred to in the Hebrew Bible.
Sukkot commemorates the life of the Israelites in the desert during their journey to the Land of Israel. During their wandering in the desert the Bible records that they lived in sukkot (booths).
In the Hebrew calendar, Erev Sukkot, the first night of the holiday, is on Tishri 14, so the first day of Sukkot is on the 15th day of Tishri.
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2 The Sukkah 3 A seven or eight day festival 4 Practices 5 Jewish observance after the exile 6 As a name for a location 7 External links |
Sukkot is the third of the pilgrimmage festivals on which all israelite males were required to make pilgrimages to the Temple in Jerusalem. The celebration of this festival begins on the fifteenth day of the seventh month (Tishri). Originally it lasted seven days; but in the course of time its duration was extended to nine days. In the Bible it is called:
It was agricultural in origin; this is evident from the name the "Feast of Ingathering," from the ceremonies accompanying it, and from the season and occasion of its celebration: "At the end of the year when thou gatherest in thy labors out of the field" (Ex. xxiii. 16); "after that you have gathered in from your thrashing-floor and from your wine-press" (Deut. xvi). It was a thanksgiving for the fruit harvest (comp. Judges ix. 27). Coming as it did at the completion of the entire harvest, it was regarded as a general thanksgiving for the bounty of nature in the year that had passed.
According to Jewish law a sukkah requires that the top covering of branches, called schach, must ensure that the top lets in very little sun-light, creating near-total shade.
The dwelling in booths implied in Deuteronomy is in Leviticus expressly commanded. The booths are given a symbolic meaning, and are brought into relation with the wandering in the wilderness: "that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt." Significant in this new interpretation attached to the feast is the conversion of the harvest festival into a historical festival.
According to Jewish law, the first two days of the festival are celebrated as full holidays. The following five days are known as Hol Hamoed - weekdays that retain some aspects of the festival. The seventh day (fifth of the intermediate days) is called Hoshanah Rabbah and has a special observance of its own. The last day (the eighth) is celebrated as a separate holiday, with its own special prayers and customs.
In Israel, Sukkot is eight days long, including Shemini Atzeret. Outside Israel (the Diaspora), Sukkot is nine days long. Thus the eighth day is Shemini Atzeret, and the extra (ninth) day is Simchat Torah (rejoicing with the Torah). In Israel, the festivities and customs associated with Simchat Torah are celebrated on Shemini Atzeret.
The seventh day of Sukkot is known as Hoshanah rabbah. While the name arose comparatively late, the idea of this day as distinct from the rest of Sukkot may date back to the days of the Temple in Jerusalem.
The joyousness of the Feast of Booths, as it gathered around the "drawing of water" and developed in music and torchlight processions (Suk. iv. 5), attained its height on the seventh day. Many of the exercises were in conflict with the Sabbath or even with a feast-day (Suk. v. 1, "the flute-playing lasts five or six days"); but although with the destruction of the Temple nearly all these exercises had fallen into disuse, yet in framing the new Calendar, about 361, the patriarch Hillel and his advisers deemed Hosha'na Rabbah so important and so much in conflict with the Sabbath that, to prevent Hosha'na Rabbah falling on a Sabbath, they would not allow the New-Moon of Tishri to occur on a Sunday. All the ceremonies or services of praise or prayer which belonged to the other middle days of the feast while the Temple stood, or which belong to them now, such as Hallel and the swinging of the "lulab," or the sitting in the booth, belong also to Hosha'na Rabbah. The bunch of five willow-twigs in no way supersedes the two willow-twigs in the lulab.
Abudarham speaks of the custom of reading the Pentateuch on the night of Hosha'na Rabbah, out of which has grown the modern custom of meeting socially on that night and reading Deuteronomy, Psalms, and passages from the Zohar, of reciting some Kabbalistic prayers, and of eating refreshments.
Before the regular morning service the Sephardim have now prayers known as "selihot." In Amsterdam and in a few places in England, America, and elsewhere they also sound the shofar in connection with the processions.
In both rituals, in the early part of the morning service, the Sabbath psalms are inserted, and the fuller "Ḳedushah" is recited in the "Additional," just as on true festival days. After this prayer all the scrolls are taken out of the Ark (on the six preceding days only one or two; none on the Sabbath); the reader, in making the circuit round the platform, is followed by men bearing scrolls; after them come others carrying the lulab. On this and the preceding days they begin: "Hosha'na! for Thy sake, our God! Hosha'na! for Thy sake, our Creator!" etc. Then come the seven processions. The compositions chanted in these are quite different in the two rituals, and much changed from those given in the Mahzor Vitry (dated 4968 = 1208); the Sephardim refer successively to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Phinehas, and David. Later on the lulab is laid aside, every worshiper takes up a small bunch of willows, and all join in the hymn, "Ḳol mebasser, mebasser we-omer" (A voice brings news, brings news and says), expressing thus their Messianic hopes.
The compositions recited during or after the processions generally consist of twenty-two versicles each, alphabetically arranged, "Hosha'na" being repeated or implied after each.
The last portion of the Torah is read on this day. The following Shabbat (Sabbath), Torah readings start again at the beginning of Genesis. Prayer services are unconventionally joyous, and humorous deviations from the standard service are allowed, and even expected.
The Torah (five books of Moses) directs Jews to use four species of plants to celebrate the holiday: The Etrog (citron, a large yellow citrus fruit), Lulav (palm branch myrtle branch and a branch of willow) . The etrog is handled separately, while the other three species are bound together, and are collectively referred to as the lulav.
A commandment in the book of Leviticus states "And you shall take you on the first day the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm-trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook" (Lev. xxiii. 40). The use to which these branches are to be put is not indicated; this gave rise to divergent interpretations at a later time. The Sadducees and Karaites maintained that they were meant for building the booth, as would appear from Neh. viii. 14-18, while their opponents contended that they were to be carried in the procession. Originally these branches may have been used in the festal dances, when it would be natural for those taking part in them to adorn themselves with sprigs and garlands); and here also their purpose was probably to be carried in the hand as was later the lulav.
After the Jews returned to Israel from exile in Babylon, they resumed the observance of Sukkot. Mention of its observance is made in Ezra iii. 4; and a description is presented in Neh. viii. 14-18. Here it is said that the feast was observed in obedience to the command to dwell in booths. The people gathered "olive-branches, and branches of wild olive, and myrtle-branches, and palm-branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written," and they "made themselves booths, every one upon the roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the broad place of the water gate, and in the broad place of the gate of Ephraim".
While no mention is here made of the sacrifices, the dwelling in booths is given special prominence, the writer adding that "since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so" (Neh. viii. 17). The inference is that with the transfer of the festival to the Temple, the ancient practise had lost all significance, until revived with the historical meaning, and referred to the tents in which Israel had dwelt in the wilderness. According to Nehemiah's account of the celebration, the Law was read every day; the eighth day was duly celebrated as a solemn assembly.
According to Zech. xiv. 16-19, Sukkot in the messianic era will become a universal festival, and all the surrounding nations will make pilgrimages annually to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast there. Sukkot is here associated with the granting of rain, an idea further developed in later Jewish literature.
The name sukkot appears in a number of places in the Hebrew Bible as a location.
The holiday in the Bible
In later Hebrew literature it called dhag ("the festival")The Sukkah
A seven or eight day festival
Hoshanah rabbah
Practices
Jewish observance after the exile
As a name for a location
See also: Jewish holidays
