SUKKOT – HARVESTING OUR HERITAGE

Sukkot (booths) is one of the three pilgrimage festivals when Jewish males walked to Jerusalem to present their sacrifice at the Temple. It occurs on 15 – 21 Tishri. It is Torah-based (Leviticus 23:42-43). In the Torah, it says that the Israelites lived in huts when they came out of Egypt and wandered in the desert. However, its agricultural basis is the final harvest or ingathering before winter (chag ha’asif). It is thought that the huts were based on harvester’s huts where farmers slept during the busy harvest time.

Its other names are Z’man simchateynu (season of our joy) and He’chag (THE festival). It was chosen as the time for the dedication of Solomon’s temple. It was also the time of the reading of the Torah before the people every 7 years. It is also the messianic holiday when all nations will come up to Jerusalem to celebrate. Hanukkah and the rededication of the Temple were probably at Sukkot. The length of the holiday probably influenced the length of Hanukkah.

There are three mitzvot associated with the holiday: spending time in the sukkah, the four species, and rejoicing. We also read from the book of Ecclesiastes and invite symbolic guests (ushpizin) into the sukkah.
The sukkah (booth) is a temporary structure representing the impermanence of life. It is as though we return from the dead at the end of Yom Kippur. In fact, the very first thing we must do after Yom Kippur is to start building the sukkah. It is a three-sided shelter with its roof the most important feature. The structure is topped with leaves that give protection from the sun but lets us see the stars at night. To embellish it, we decorate it with gourds, children’s artwork, carpets and comfortable chairs. It is a place of joy, not suffering.

Ushpizin (guests in Aramaic) remind us how Abraham welcomed the three strangers who tell him that Sarah will have a son. They are our link to the past. This part of the celebration was created by the mystics in the 16th century. We welcome Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Leah, Rachel, Sarah, David, Solomon, Moses and Aaron. We might also welcome modern Jews such as Theodore Herzl, Golda Meir, Yitzchak Rabin, and Albert Einstein. You might include members of your family about whom you can tell stories.

The four species (arba minim) are the lulav and etrog. The lulav is a palm frond in a holder along with the hadas (myrtle) and aravah (willow). The etrog is a citron. They represent the agricultural nature of the holiday. They are used to praise God’s bounty. They are shaken at festival services and in the sukkah in all directions. They remind us that God is everywhere. The sound of the shaking is a reminder of God’s spirit. Symbolically they represent a human being. The palm branch is the spine. The citron is the heart. The myrtle is the eye and the willow is a mouth.

Sukkot is the source of the Puritan’s Thanksgiving holiday. The Exodus tells of leaving behind oppression and slavery. They celebrated the harvest with joy and also their survival that first year under terrible conditions.
Sukkot is a time to welcome friends into the sukkah and share a meal. It is a time to create beautiful things to decorate our temporary home under the stars. It is a time to remember all our stories and share them.

© Marty Wertlieb

SUKKOT - BIBLICAL AND OTHER REFERENCES

You shall celebrate the festival of ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your labors out of the field. - Exodus 23:16

On the first day you shall take the product of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook. And you shall rejoice before Adonai your God seven days. -Leviticus 23:40

You shall live in huts seven days; all citizens of Israel shall live in huts, in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in huts when I brought them out of the land of Egypt; I am Adonai your God. - Leviticus 23:42-43

After the ingathering from your threshing floor and your vat, you shall hold the Feast of Booths for seven days. You shall rejoice in your festival, with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow in your communities. You shall hold a festival for Adonai your God seven days, in the place that Adonai shall choose, for Adonai your God will bless you in all your crops and all your undertakings, and you shall have nothing but joy. - Deuteronomy 16:13-15

Children should be given parched ears of corn, nuts and other dainties, women should have clothes and pretty jewelry bought for them according to one’s means, and men should eat meat and drink wine, for there can be no real rejoicing without meat to eat and wine to drink….One who locks the doors to his courtyard and eats and drinks with his wife and children, without giving anything…to the poor and bitter in soul – his meal is not “the joy of the commandment,” but the joy of the stomach…. Rejoicing of this kind is a disgrace. - Moses Maimonides, Mishneh Torah

You shall dwell in booths seven days.” This means that you should consider the sukkah as a fixed dwelling for these days. This statement led the Rabbis to say that one should consider the sukkah permanent and the home temporary for these seven days of Sukkot. How? One should transfer the finest furniture and beds to the sukkah, eat and drink in the sukkah and study in the sukkah. - Babylonian Talmud, Sukkot 28b

The sukkah is designed to teach a man to put his trust in heaven, for as he sees the universe which God created, he is inspired to trust in God. - Menorat Ha’Maor

Sukkot is about the kind of happiness that can only come from looking from a leafy roof at the starry night and thinking, “I am glad that I am alive.” - Rabbi Harold Kushner