Sukkot At
A Glance

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
AppleTree Editor

The Holiday: Sukkot.
As with a number of other Jewish holidays,
Sukkot has many names in the Tanach. The
most familiar is probably "Feast of
Tabernacles," (in Leviticus and Deuteronomy),
but these also include "Feast of the
Ingathering" (Exodus) "The Feast" (I Kings)
and "Feast of the Lord" (Leviticus and Judges).

When It Is: The first day of Sukkot is the 15th
of Tishrei, this year.Tuesday, Oct. 2 (remem-
ber, the holiday begins the evening before).

What It Celebrates: Sukkot recalls the sukkot,
or booths, where the Israelites lived after the
Exodus. Leviticus 23:39-43 tells how God
commanded the Jews to live in sukkot, as well
as to take "the fruit of goodly trees, branches
of palm trees and boughs of thick trees and
willows of the brook" to use to "rejoice before
the Lord."

How We Celebrate: The sukkah is our home
for seven days — and nights, too, for those
who actually want to sleep there. (See related

story "Home For The Holidays" for specific infor-
mation about what is required for a kosher
sukkah.)
On Sukkot, we use the lulav and etrog, also
known as the arba minim or four species. The
lulav consists of a date palm frond to which
are tied branches from the willow and myrtle
trees. The Israelites, wandering in the desert,
used these to make the first sukkot. The etrog,
which looks something like a fat lemon, is the
"fruit of goodly trees" mentioned in Leviticus.
Holding the lulav and etrog together, fami-
lies stand in the sukkah and, according to
Ashkenazic custom, gently shake first to the
east, then the south, the west, the north, and

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finally up and down.
This also is done
during the Hallel
prayer at synagogue
or temple services.
In the days of the
Temple, Sukkot was
a pilgrimage holiday,
and Jewish families
from everywhere
would come to
Jerusalem. Sukkot
back then also
included Simchat Beit
HaShoeva the Water-
Drawing Festival,
when holiday cele-
brations featured musical and dance presenta-
tions, often with torches, in God's honor. So
joyous were these events, which lasted until
dawn, that tradition says that whoever did not
experience one had never really seen a festival.
Today, once the sukkah has been built the
major activity that takes places within it is eat
ing. All meals should be eaten in the sukkah,
except when it's raining.

Hoshanah Rabbah and Shemini Atzeret: The
seventh day of Sukkot is Hoshanah Rabbah
(Monday, Oct. 8), both a festival and a day of
judgment. According to tradition, on Rosh
Hashanah, God made his decision regarding
our futures. He sealed it on Yom Kippur. Yet
we have until Hoshanah Rabbah to mend our
ways before God makes His judgment final.
The synagogue services on Hoshanah
Rabbah include the custom of worshippers
holding an etrog and lulav and making seven
circuits around the sanctuary, during which
time special prayers, Hashanas, are said.
This last day of Sukkot is Shemini Atzeret
(Tuesday, Oct. 9). Known as "the festival of
conclusion," it is mentioned in the Tanach

(Leviticus 23:36,
Top: In Israel, children wear
Deuteronomy
or carry flowers for the har-
16:8, and Isaiah
vest festival.
1:13) as "a holy
convocation."
Above: A member of Jerusalems
Shemini Atzeret mobile police unit pelforms the
has the distinc-
mitzvah of waving the four
tion of being both species during Sukkot
part of Sukkot
and a separate
holiday. Observant families do not drive, work,
write or draw on Shemini Atzeret (and follow
all other rules associated with any major Jewish
observance). But there are no real rituals for
Shemini Atzeret.
The one exception comes during davening,
when congregations recite Hallel and Yizkor,
and say a prayer for rain called Tefillat Geshem.
This is rainfall season in Israel, and we wish
for farmers all that they will need.
Reciting Tefillat Geshem is a practice that
began in Talmudic times. Then, a priest would
fill a golden pitcher with water. When he
returned from this task, he was greeted by a
crowd that would watch as the priest poured
the water and wine into a container on the
Temple alter. ❑