I promise, I’m not Jewish, but I just have to mention that at sundown on October 8, 2014, is the beginning of Sukkot — the 15th day of Tishri. Sukkot continues to the 21st day of Tishri — about 7 days. Yes, another celebration for my Jewish friends in the House of Israel. For seven days and nights they eat their meals in a temporary shelter — kind of a hut-like thing — called a sukkah — in memory of the forty years that Moses and the Israelites traveled in the wilderness and lived in temporary shelters. It’s also called Feast of Booths or Feast of Tabernacles.
…On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the LORD for seven days, with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day. Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days. You shall thus celebrate it as a feast to the LORD for seven days in the year. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month.… (Leviticus 23: 39-41)
Encampment of Israelites, Mount Sinai, as in Numbers 33:15
Today, Jewish families build a temporary shelter, with a roof of palm leaves or similar vegetation. Here is the sort of thing from a blog belonging to Michael Medved‘s wife:
It is a time to remember that God provides for us. God protected the Israelites by day with a cloud, shielding them from the intense heat of the day, and by night with a pillar of fire. Moses and the Israelites “took their journey from Succoth…” And guess whose bones they took with them? From the twelve sons of Jacob (Israel) they took Joseph’s bones with them when they left Egypt. Joseph had requested on his death, not to be left there —
…for he had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, “God will surely take care of you, and you shall carry my bones from here with you.” Then they set out from Succoth and camped in Etham on the edge of the wilderness.… (Exodus 13:19-22)
Sukkot is a time to be thankful that God provides for us. We should rejoice during this festival:
You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns.For seven days you shall keep the feast to the Lord your God at the place that the Lord will choose, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful. (Deuteronomy 16:14-15)
Over the years, tradition includes the Four Kinds: an etrog (citron), alulav (palm frond), three hadassim (myrtle twigs) and two aravot (willow twigs).
On each day of the festival (excepting Shabbat), we take the Four Kinds, recite a blessing over them, bring them together in our hands and [standing east] wave them in all six directions: right, left, forward, up, down and backward. Our sages in the midrashtell us that the Four Kinds represent the various types and personalities that comprise the community of Israel, whose intrinsic unity we emphasize on Sukkot. ref
On the seventh day of Sukkot it is called Hoshanah Rabbah and the verdict from God for your next year is handed down. Remember I mentioned that Rosh Hashanah is the day your name is recorded in the Book of Life, then it is sealed on Yom Kippur (based on all your forgiving and repenting) and now on this day it is handed down by the Heavenly Court. Signed, sealed, and delivered.
I loved this movie called Ushpizin (available Amazon DVD or instant play). The faith of an Orthodox couple is tested after they pray for a child on Sukkot. Many miracles unfold in their life, which at first seem like disappointments. I loved this movie. (Rated PG) You can also watch the entire movie on Youtube. My review of the movie is here.
This is the trailer:
