One of Judaism’s three pilgrimage festivals (alongside PASSOVER and SHABU‘OT), celebrated on the first full moon after the autumnal equinox. Called in English “Tabernacles,” Sukkot is celebrated as “The Season of Our Rejoicing.” It forms the climax of the autumnal holy day season, which begins with ROSH HASHANAH and YOM KIPPUR and concerns sin, forgiveness, and rejoicing.
Lasting for three weeks, the autumnal festival cycle commences with the first day of the lunar month in which the autumnal equinox takes place. That is the first of Tishrei, which is Rosh Hashanah, the New Year of Judaism. It commemorates the creation of the world and is the day on which God recalls the deeds of the year past and judges Israel. Ten days later, on the tenth of Tishrei, comes Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which completes the judgment. Five days later, the fifteenth of Tishre, the full moon after the autumnal equinox, is Sukkot, celebrated for seven days, like Passover. (In the diaspora, Passover and Sukkot last for eight days, in the State of Israel, as Scripture requires, seven.) Sukkot depicts the people of Israel as pilgrims, wandering in the wilderness, expiating the sin of a generation that rebelled against God through the sin of the Golden Calf (Exodus 32).
Sukkot places Israel after the Exodus from Egypt, beyond the Sea and Sinai, wandering about in the wilderness, where, by reason of rebellion against God, they wandered for forty years. Israel then is reminded that it is a people that has sinned, but that God can and does forgive. There they remained until the entire generation of the wilderness had died out, and Israel was ready to enter the Promised Land. Passover places Israel’s freedom into the context of the affirmation of life beyond sin; Sukkot returns Israel to the fragility of abiding in the wilderness. Leviticus 23:33–43 defines the festival:
And the Lord said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month and for seven days is the feast of huts to the Lord.… You shall dwell in huts for seven days; all that are native in Israel shall dwell in huts, that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in huts when I brought them out of the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.”
Sukkah The Sukkah used on the festival of Sukkot.
The principal observance of the festival is the construction of a frail hut or booth, for temporary use. In it, Israel lives once more in the condition of that sinful generation, eating meals and (where the climate permits) sleeping out-of-doors. What defines the hut is the roofing, which must cast more shade than light, but not be fully covered over. Roofing of branches, leaves, fruit, and flowers allows light to show through, and, at night, the stars. At this time of harvest bounty it is good to be reminded of our travail and dependence upon heavenly succor. The hut is an abode that cannot serve in the rainy season that is coming, announced by the new moon that occasions the festival. Israel is to take shelter, in reverting to the wilderness, in any random, ramshackle hut, covered with what nature has provided but in form and in purpose what people otherwise do not value.
The temporary abode of the Israelite, the Sukkah in its transience matches Israel’s condition in the wilderness, wandering between Egypt and the Land, death and eternal life. Just as Passover marks the differentiation of Israel from Egypt, so Sukkot addresses the condition of Israel. The story concerns the generation that must die out before Israel can enter the Land. So entering the Sukkah reminds Israel not only of the fragility of its condition but also—in the aftermath of the penitential season—of its actuality: yet sinful, yet awaiting death, so that a new generation will be ready for the Land.
The festival of Sukkot registers the fragility and culpability of liberated, covenanted Israel. The present tense takes over, for the people of Israel is required to make its residence a temporary hut. Jews see themselves as liberated from Egypt and as present at Sinai, and, now, Sukkot continues the pattern of living in the presence of the past. See ETROG, LULAB.
This is the complete article, containing 717 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
