Feast of Tabernacles

Feast of Booths; Sukkot in Hebrew

Theme

Commemoration of the temporary buildings the Israelites lived in during the 40-years in the dessert.

Old Testament Command

The LORD said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites: ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the LORD’s Feast of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days… Live in booths for seven days… so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.’ ” (Leviticus 23:33-43)

Celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. Be joyful at your Feast — you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. For seven days celebrate the Feast to the LORD your God at the place the LORD will choose. For the LORD your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete. (Deuteronomy 16:13-15)

Prophsied Hope

A day of the LORD is coming when your plunder will be divided among you. I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it… Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle… Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. (Zechariah 14:1-16)

Background and Tradition

This holiday is the third in the month of TISHREY. The holiday season begins at the first of the Jewish month with ROSH HASHANAH, the start of the Jewish year, followed by YOM KIPPUR – The Day of Atonement – the old covenant provision for the covering over men’s sins. This holiday season ends with the joyful holiday of SUKKOT – the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Booths, the seven-day feast closes the holiday season. Traditionally, you begin building the SUKKAH (booth or tabernacle) immediately after YOM KIPPUR, and are completed before the beginning of SUKKOT. The SUKKAH takes the leafy branch covering and the tarp or blanket walls as a symbolism for the temporality. Families get their kids highly involved in the decoration of the SUKKAH. Many will dine in the SUKKAH for the eve of the holiday and daily during the feast, some will sleep in it. As typical in other Jewish holidays, the feast has a connection to the harvest of the fields. The traditional four species are taken from Leviticus 23:40. The “fruit of goodly trees” is the ETROG which is a citron; The “branches of palm trees” are the LULAV which is a closed center palm leaf; The “boughs of leafy trees” are the HADASS which is type of myrtle, and; The “willows of the brook” are the ARAVAH which is a… willow.