(Hebrew. ‘Booths’) One of the *Pilgrim festivals. Sukkot begins on Tishri 15 and ends with *Shemini Atzeret and *Simhat Torah. During the eight days, the Jewish community is commanded to ‘dwell in booths’ to commemorate the *Israelites’ wandering in the wilderness before they reached the Promised Land. At the time of the Second Temple a ceremony of water libation was held during the festival.
On Tishri 15 (and Tishri 16 in the *diaspora), the *lulav is waved in every direction in the *synagogue and the congregation walks in procession round the *bimah. The seventh day is celebrated as *Hoshana Rabbah when harvest prayers are recited. In *Israel and in the *Progressive community, Shemini Atzeret and Simhat Torah are celebrated together on the eighth day, but in the *diaspora, the eighth day is Shemini Atzeret and the ninth day is Simhat Torah. In colder climates it is not considered necessary actually to live in the Sukkah. Sukkot is clearly a harvest festival; the Sukkah is decorated with fruits and the *four species are held during the *liturgical services. (See also *ETROG, *FOUR SPECIES, *LULAV, *SHEMINI ATZERET, *SIMHAT TORAH).
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