Sukkot, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles or Feast of Booths, is a Torah-commanded Jewish holiday celebrated for seven days, beginning on the 15th day of the month of Tishrei. It is one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals on which Israelites were commanded to make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem. Biblically an autumn harvest festival and a commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt, Sukkot's observance is characterised by festive meals in a sukkah, a temporary wood-covered hut, and the taking of the four species.
The names used in the Torah are "Festival of Ingathering" (or "Harvest Festival", ) and "Festival of Booths" (). This corresponds to the double significance of Sukkot. The one mentioned in the Book of Exodus is agricultural in nature—"Festival of Ingathering at the year's end" ()—and marks the end of the harvest time and thus of the agricultural year in the Land of Israel. The more elaborate religious significance from the Book of Leviticus is that of commemorating the Exodus and the dependence of the Israelites on the will of God ().
The Hebrew word is the plural of ('booth' or 'tabernacle') which is a walled structure covered with (plant material, such as overgrowth or palm leaves). A sukkah is the name of the temporary dwelling in which farmers would live during harvesting, reinforcing agricultural significance of the holiday introduced in the Book of Exodus. As stated in Leviticus, it is also reminiscent of the type of fragile dwellings in which the Israelites dwelled during their 40 years of travel in the desert after the Exodus from slavery in Egypt. Throughout the holiday, meals are eaten inside the sukkah and many people sleep there as well.
On each day of the holiday it is a mitzvah, or commandment, to 'dwell' in the sukkah and to perform a shaking ceremony with a lulav (a palm frond) bound with myrtle and willow, and an etrog (the fruit of a citron tree), collectively known as the four species. The fragile shelter, the four species, the revived Simchat Beit HaShoeivah celebration's focus on water and rainfall, and the holiday's harvest festival roots, draw attention to people's dependence on the natural environment.
In the description of the holiday by rabbinical sources, the idea of welcoming all guests and extending hospitality is intrinsic to the celebration. Actual and symbolic "guests" (Aramaic: ushpizin) are invited to participate by visiting the sukkah. Specifically, according to the Zohar, seven "forefathers" of the Jewish people are to be welcomed during the seven days of the festival, each day highlighting a different guest, usually in this order: Abraham; Isaac; Jacob; Moses; Aaron; Joseph; David.
The holiday lasts seven days. The first day (and second day in the diaspora) is a Shabbat-like holiday when work is forbidden. This is followed by intermediate days called Chol HaMoed, during which certain work is permitted. The festival is closed with another Shabbat-like holiday called Shemini Atzeret (one day in the Land of Israel, two days in the diaspora, where the second day is called Simchat Torah).
Origins
The traditional origins of the holiday date back to the Israelites' time in the desert, where they were told to commemorate God's protection and the harvest season that would happen when they would arrive in the land of Israel by building huts and taking the Four Species.
Additionally, Sukkot shares similarities with older Canaanite new-year/harvest festivals, which included a seven-day celebration with sacrifices reminiscent of those in and "dwellings of branches", as well as processions with branches. The earliest references in the Bible ( and ) make no mention of Sukkot, instead referring to it as "the festival of ingathering (hag ha'asif) at the end of the year, when you gather in the results of your work from the field," suggesting an agricultural origin. (The Hebrew term asif is also mentioned in the Gezer calendar as a two-month period in the autumn.)
The booths aspect of the festival may come from the shelters that were built in the fields by those involved in the harvesting process. Alternatively, it may come from the booths which pilgrims would stay in when they came in for the festivities at the cultic sanctuaries. Finally, talks about the taking of various branches (and a fruit), this too is characteristic of ancient agricultural festivals, which frequently included processions with branches.
Later, the festival was historicised by symbolic connection with the desert sojourn of exodus (). The narratives of the exodus trek do not describe the Israelites building booths, but they indicate that most of the trek was spent encamped at oases rather than travelling, and "sukkot" roofed with palm branches were a popular and convenient form of housing at such Sinai desert oases.Yoel Bin Nun, Zachor Veshamor p.168; Noga Hareuveni, Teva Venof Bemoreshet Yisrael, p.68-70
Laws and customs
Sukkot is a seven-day festival. Inside the Land of Israel, the first day is celebrated as a full festival with special prayer services and holiday meals. Outside the Land of Israel, the first two days are celebrated as full festivals. The seventh day of Sukkot is called ("Great Hoshana", referring to the tradition that worshippers in the synagogue walk around the perimeter of the sanctuary during morning services) and has a special observance of its own. The intermediate days are known as Chol HaMoed ("festival weekdays"). According to Halakha, some types of work are forbidden during Chol HaMoed. In Israel many businesses are closed during this time.
Throughout the week of Sukkot, meals are eaten in the sukkah. If a brit milah (circumcision ceremony) or Bar Mitzvah rises during Sukkot, the seudat mitzvah (obligatory festive meal) is served in the sukkah. Similarly, the father of a newborn boy greets guests to his Friday-night Shalom Zachar in the sukkah. Males sleep in the sukkah, provided the weather is tolerable. If it rains, the requirement of eating and sleeping in the sukkah is waived, except for eating there on the first night where every effort needs to be made to at least say kiddush (the sanctification prayer on wine) and eat an egg-sized piece of bread before going inside the house to finish the meal if the rain does not stop. Every day except the Sabbath, a blessing is recited over the Lulav and the Etrog. Keeping of Sukkot is detailed in the Hebrew Bible (, and ); the Mishnah (Sukkah 1:1–5:8); the Tosefta (Sukkah 1:1–4:28); and the Jerusalem Talmud (Sukkah 1a–) and Babylonian Talmud (Sukkah 2a–56b).
Sukkah
The sukkah walls can be constructed of any material that blocks wind (wood, canvas, aluminium siding, sheets). The walls can be free-standing or include the sides of a building or porch. There must be at least three walls, with one permitted to be a partial wall. The roof must be of organic material, known as s'chach, such as leafy tree overgrowth, schach mats or palm fronds – plant material that is no longer connected with the earth. It is customary to decorate the interior of the sukkah with hanging decorations of the four species as well as with attractive artwork.
The Four Species
In Leviticus 23:40, the Torah says to take four species and celebrate before God for seven days. Although the Torah only describes the species but does not identify all of them, the Talmud in Tractate Sukkah derives the identity of the four species as a citron, a palm branch, two willow branches, and three myrtle branches. These are referred to in Hebrew as the lulav (palm branch) and etrog (Citron) or just lulav. The palm branch, myrtle, and willows are tied together, usually with palm leaves, and the citron is held next to the others.
These are taken all seven days of Sukkot except for Shabbat. The blessing is recited and the lulav and etrog are held together, and shaken in the four directions and up and down. They are also held during the Hallel prayer and during Hoshanot.
In 1953 the Lubavitcher Rebbe instituted the public lulav campaign to encourage observance of this mitzvah amongst all Jews, regardless of religious affiliation. It soon spread into an international phenomenon, the Jewish person holding their lulav and etrog, approaching complete strangers to offer to help them with the mitzvah becoming an iconic sight in many large cities.
Temple Offerings
Every day of Sukkot, a special regimen of animals were sacrificed in honour of the holiday as prescribed in the TorahNumbers 29:12ff. One of the iconic parts of these sacrifices, known as the Mussaf offerings, was the daily offering of bulls. Starting at thirteen on the first day and subtracting by one daily until reaching seven on the seventh day, the total amount of bulls offered over the holiday was 70. The symbolism was that each bull was offered in honour of one of the nations listed in Genesis Chapter 10see Talmud Sukkah 55b and Rashi on Numbers 29:18.
Prayers Prayers during Sukkot include the reading of the Torah every day, reciting the Mussaf (additional) service after morning prayers, reciting Hallel, and adding special additions to the Amidah and Grace after Meals. In addition, the service includes rituals involving the Four Species. The lulav and etrog are not used on the Sabbath.
On the Festival days, as well as the Sabbath of Chol Hamoed, some communities recite piyyutim.As they appear in Machzorim of the Ashkenazic and Italian rites.
Hoshanot On each day of the festival, worshippers walk around the synagogue carrying the Four Species while reciting special prayers known as Hoshanot. This takes place either between Hallel and the morning's Torah reading or at the end of Mussaf. This ceremony commemorates the willow ceremony at the Temple in Jerusalem, in which willow branches were piled beside the altar with worshippers parading around the altar reciting prayers.
Ushpizin and ushpizata
A custom originating with Lurianic Kabbalah is to recite the ushpizin prayer to "invite" one of seven "exalted guests" into the sukkah. These ushpizin ( "guests", a loanword from Middle Persian špinza "lodging"), represent the "seven shepherds of Israel": Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph and David, each of whom correlates with one of the seven lower sefirot (this is why Joseph, associated with Yesod, follows Moses and Aaron, associated with Netzach and Hod respectively, even though he precedes them in the narrative). According to tradition, a different guest enters the sukkah each night, followed by the other six. Each ushpiz has a lesson to teach that parallels the spiritual focus of the day on which they visit based on the sefira associated with that character.
Some streams of Reconstructionist Judaism also recognise a set of seven female shepherds of Israel, called variously (using the Modern Hebrew feminine plural), or (using the Aramaic feminine plural). Several lists of seven have been proposed. The Ushpizata are sometimes coidentified with the seven prophetesses of Judaism: Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Hulda, and Esther. Some lists seek to relate each female leader to one of the sefirot to parallel their male counterparts. One such list in the order they would be invoked each evening is Ruth, Sarah, Rebecca, Miriam, Deborah, Tamar, and Rachel.
Chol HaMoed intermediate days