"How lovely are your tents, O Jacob, your encampments, O Israel!"
Numbers 24.5
This lead famous verse confirms to us that the Israelites Jews traveled in tents, not booths is note worthy.
Numbers 24:3-5 -- He uttered his oracle and said: “This is the oracle of Balaam son of Beor, and the oracle of a strong man whose eye has been opened, the oracle of one hearing God’s speech, one seeing Shaddai’s vision, one fallen down, yet with open eyes: How lovely are your tents, O Jacob, and your dwellings, O Israel!
The holiday of Sukkot is upon us. This blog post examines this holiday, first for the Jew but also for the Gentiles.
Sukkot is one of the appointed times, the mo'adim, spelled out in chapter 23 of the Book of Leviticus of the Torah.
Leviticus 23:33-36 -- Adonai spoke to Moses saying: “Speak to Bnei-Yisrael, and say, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the Feast of Sukkot, for seven days to Adonai. On the first day there is to be a holy convocation—you are to do no laborious work. For seven days you are to bring an offering by fire to Adonai. The eighth day will be a holy convocation to you, and you are to bring an offering by fire to Adonai. It is a solemn assembly—you should do no laborious work.
The root of Sukkot traces back to Genesis 33:11 which describes Jacob's journey. Jacob, who is renamed Israel, built a house and shelters for his livestock, and named the place Succoth.
In Exodus 12:37 it tells us just after the Passover, "And the people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children."
After 430 years, the Israelites passed through the door painted with the blood of lamb to be born a nation. The Israelites arrived in Sukkot, free from slavery. They had no shelter and insufficient food and water to survive in the desert, but God provided. At this moment in the story of the Jewish people, a biblical milestone was realized and prophecy was fulfilled. The Israelites could look up at the stars knowing that the mighty hand of God brought them out of Egypt as God promised Abram.
Genesis 12:1-3 -- Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country[b] and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
In Succoth the Israelites realize the fulfillment of Genesis 15.
Genesis 15:1-6 -- After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue[a] childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
At the place named Succoth, the Israelites were living proof that God keeps His promises!
Genesis 15:12-14 -- As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.
After dwelling in Sukkot for a short time, the people moved on with God's protection as it says in Exodus 13.
Exodus 13:18-22 -- And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle. 19 Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph[a] had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.” 20 And they moved on from Succoth and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness. 21 And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. 22 The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.
As the scriptures read, the Shekinah's protection first appears for the Israelites in Succoth! It would guide them to the Promised Land, Eretz Yisrael.
Sukkot is also the Harvest Festival as it is written:
Exodus 23:14-17. Jews are commanded, “Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me. You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. None shall appear before me empty-handed. 16 You shall keep the Feast of Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor.
The entire chapter of Exodus 34 is a rich reminder of the fall Harvest Festival and so much more!
Finally in Deuteronomy 16:13-15 we are told a final time to keep the holiday of Sukkot.
“You shall keep the Feast of Booths seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your winepress. 14 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. 15 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.
Now let's look at how Jews kept the holiday in the times when the Temple in Jerusalem existed.
The Great Feast, as Sukkot was referred to, was a time for many animal sacrifices, 192 bulls, ram's and goats in all. That's a lot of blood. To wash away that much blood took a lot water, and the priests drew a tremendous volume of waters from the pool of Siloam in a water drawing ceremony.
During Sukkot, there was a Water Libation (nisukh hamayim) ceremony based on Isaiah’s promise “With joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation.” The epitome of celebration in Temple times took place surrounding this water ritual: the Rejoicing (Simchat) at the Place of (Beit) the Water Drawing (Hashoavah).
Each morning of Sukkot, the priests went to the pool of Siloam near Jerusalem to fill a golden flask. Shofar blasts greeted their arrival at the Temple’s Water Gate. They then ascended and poured the water so that it flowed over the altar simultaneously with wine from another bowl. When the priest was about to pour the water, the people shouted “Raise your hand!”
The Talmud recorded that “one who had never witnessed the Rejoicing at the Place of the Water Drawing had never seen true joy in his life.”
On the 7th day of Sukkot, which is the 21st day of the month of Tishrei, Jews say Hoshana Rabbah. “Hoshana” means “please save us,” and “rabbah” means “great,” so the holiday refers to “the great salvation.” This is also known as the "Great Supplication."
On Hosanah Rabbah, the seventh day of Sukkot a series of seven liturgical poems calling upon God to rescue and redeem the Jewish people, primarily by sending rain.
Technically, Sukkot is a seven days feast holiday, but an eighth day is added on (7+1). Some consider it part of Sukkot but Shemini Atzeret, (Hebrew: “Eighth Day of the Solemn Assembly”), is a Jewish religious festival on the 8th day of the 7 day holiday of Sukkot. Shemini Atzeret is celebrated on the 22nd day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei in Israel,
On personal tangent, I just blogged about 22 on Yom Kippur.
The 22nd day of Tishrei is the same day the Jews also celebrate the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah (Joy of Torah). It's celebrated to mark the end of the annual cycle of reading the Torah in synagogues, and the beginning of a new cycle. On Simchat Torah the Torah scrolls are rolled back to the beginning and the reading starts over.
Shemini Atzeret, the last day of the great feast, is considered the happiest day of the year in Judaism.
After the destruction of Herod's Temple, without a place to make the sacrifices and draw the water, the rabbis formulated new ways to remember and celebrate Sukkot.
This is how we got the tradition of building the temporary booth called a Sukkah. The rabbis specified the requirements for an official structure.
So in the Sukkah we bring those together: The Etrog (citron fruit), Lulav (frond of date palm) Hadass (myrtle bough) and Aravah (willow branch) and bind together and wave in the sukkah. There is fascinating connections in Judaism, and even archeology, about the spices that are associated with the Four spices of Sukkot!
The great rabbis debated what we are supposed to be celebrating on Sukkot. Some say it is God's provision and protection in the desert during the Exodus. Some say it is actually the booth itself that we traveled with in the desert.
I like to believe it is both and the same and that it all ties back that place Jacob build animal shelters, where Israelites traveled to when they left Rameses Egypt.
Sukkot reminds of the fulfillment of God's promise to Abram when the millions who were lead out, looked up in the sky as a free nation for the time when they dwelled in Sukkot. Sukkot is the place the Lord's Shekinah came down shade them from the scorching sun by day and light their way by night as it lead the people to the sea and ultimately the land God promised.
I will add this for the Christian wondering if the holiday of Sukkot, the great Feast of Tabernacles, the Water Libation ceremony, the 8th Day of the Assembly and Simchat Torah, when Jews finish the Torah, have any relevant meaning for Christianity. Read John Chapter Seven (7)
