The Sukkah

During the holiday of Sukkot, Torah commands us to live in a Sukkah:

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

Thus, the most important ritual of Sukkot is living in a sukkah. The sukkah, however, is a temporary structure, with four walls and a roof that is open to the elements. Sukkot begins a few days after Yom Kippur, so the sukkah is constructed during the period between these two holidays.

The sukkah is a temporary structure to remind us of the impermanence of our lives and to remind us of the Israelites who wandered in the desert for 40 years following the Exodus from Egypt. The roof of the sukkah must be made of organic materials, such as reeds or branches. It must also be open to the sky, so that we can see the moon and the stars from the inside, but it should provide enough shelter to shade us from the sun.

During the holiday of Sukkot, we are to live in the sukkah and treat it as our home. We decorate the sukkah with the fall harvest fruit. In addition, beautiful items we hold dear are brought into the sukkah to brighten our lives. In the community sukkah (the one built at the synagogue) is often decorated by the artwork of the children.

During the Sukkot holiday, many Jews study Torah in the sukkah.

Sukkot is a joyous holiday and one that all people look forward to participating in.

Sukkot

Sukkot celebrates the autumn harvest. In Temple times, Sukkot was one of the three pilgrimages mandated in Torah. (Pesach and Shavuot are the other two pilgrimage festivals.) During the pilgrimages, harvest offerings were brought to the Temple.

Sukkot also commemorates the Israelites' wandering in the desert for 40 years following the Exodus from Egypt. We are commanded to dwell in a sukkah (sukkah is Hebrew for "booth") "so that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in sukkots when I brought them out of Egypt." Leviticus 23:43. Sukkot is the plural of sukkah.

Sukkot reminds us that despite our attempts to be secure, a certain instability is a part of our lives. On this holiday, we build temporary structures to remind ourselves of the impermanence of our lives and security. It is a mitzvah to eat in the sukkah and in many people also sleep in their sukkot.

Another custom of Sukkot is the waving of the lulav. Four species symbolize the holiday of Sukkot ~ the Etrog, or citron, and the lulav, which is comprised of three types of branches bound together. The three branches are the date-palm, myrtle branches and willow branches. All together, the Lulav and Etrog are known as the four species, or arba minim.

Sukkot is an eight (8) day holiday. During the first six days of Sukkot, (with the exception of Shabbat), during synagogue services, the congregation takes up the lulav and etrog and forms a procession around the sanctuary as songs are sung. The megillah of Kohelet (the Book of Ecclesiastes) is read during Sukkot. This reading contains the famous verse: "To everything there is a season."

The seventh day of Sukkot is called Hoshanah Rabbah. According to rabbinic tradition, Hoshanah Rabbah is an extension of Yom Kippur because it is on this day that the Book of Life is finally sealed.

Jewish Months and Their Holidays

Although the Jewish New Year begins at Rosh HaShanah, this is actually the seventh month of Tishri in the Jewish year. The first month of the Jewish calendar is Nisan, which is in the spring. The Jewish calendar actually has several different “new years” depending on its specific purpose.

The names of the months are of Babylonian origin and were named during the time of the Israelite exile in Babylon. Biblical Hebrew refers to months by number and not by name.

The Jewish months and their holidays are as follows:

1. Nisan
a. Pesach / Passover: 15 Nisan. This is an 8-day holiday
b. Yom HaShoah: 27 Nisan

2. Iyar
a. Yom HaZikaron: 5 Iyar
b. Yom Ha’Atzama’ut: 6 Iyar
c. Lag B’Omer: 18 Iyar
d. Yom Yerushalayim

3. Sivan
a. Shavout: 6 Sivan

4. Tammuz

5. Av
a. Tisha B’Av: 9 Av

6. Elul

7. Tishri
a. Rosh HaShanah: 1 Tishri. This is a 2-day holiday
b. Fast of Gedaliah: 3 Tishri
c. Kol Nidre: 9 Tishri
d. Yom Kippur: 10 Tishri
e. Sukkot: 15 Tishri. This is an 8-day holiday
f. Shemini Atzeret: 22 Tishri
g. Simchat Torah: 23 Tishri

8. Cheshvan

9. Kislev
a. Chanukkah: 25 Kislev. This is an 8-day holiday

10. Tevet

11. Shevat
a. Tu B’Shevat: 15 Shevat

12. Adar I / Adar II
a. Fast of Esther: 11 Adar
b. Purim: 14 Adar