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Shalom friends,
The Jewish holiday season is upon us, and following the high holidays - Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur - we will now discuss the Festival of Booths, which will be celebrated this year between October 14th and October 20th. At the end of this festival, there is an additional holiday, celebrated on October 21st (and in the Diaspora on October 22nd as well). However, in this newsletter we will only be discussing the actual Festival of Booths.
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In the Bible, the festival has two names: the Festival of
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, Xag HaSukkot, and the Festival of |
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, Xag HaAsif. This is because |
the festival has two purposes: one is the religious - cultic goal of remembering the Exodus and how the Israelites sat in booths in the desert, and the other is the agricultural festival that takes place when the fruits are gathered from the field in the fall.
The laws regarding the Festival of Booths appear in a number of different places in the Pentateuch, and each appearance is concerned with a different aspect of the holiday.
While the Book of Exodus is concerned with the agricultural aspect (Exodus 23:16, 34:22), the Book of
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Numbers elaborates on the many sacrifices which are to be brought during the holiday (29:12-39). The festival is also one of the three times a year that the Israelites are commanded to come to the Temple and celebrate there before God (Deuteronomy 16:15-17).
The law that appears in the Leviticus 23 is the most comprehensive, and includes all the different commandments concerning the holiday. It describes how, in addition to the agricultural aspect of the holiday, the first day of the holiday is to be celebrated in a similar manner to the Sabbath. Then, six more days of festival are to be observed, while an additional day of festival is appended to the end of the holiday.
The reason for the Festival of Booths is given explicitly:
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"You shall sit in booths for seven days, all the Israelite citizens shall dwell in booths: In order that your generations will know that I inhabited the people of Israel in booths when I brought them out of the Land of Egypt, I am YHWH your God" (Leviticus 23:42-43).
In addition to dwelling in booths, a commandment to take four species of plants and celebrate with them before God is given in Leviticus 23:40:
"And you shall take on the first day the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of thick
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trees and willows of the brook, and rejoice before YHWH your God for seven days".
This commandment is especially interesting because of its interpretation: while Rabbinic Judaism understood the four species as being a citrus fruit called an Etrog, a palm leaf which is called a Lulav, leaves of myrtle and willows, which are used as part of the ritual holiday prayers, we have evidence that in biblical times the commandment was interpreted differently. In the book of Nehemiah, after the exiles return from Babylon, they wish to renew the cultic practices. They prepare for the celebration of the Festival of Booths in the following manner:
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"And that they should proclaim in all their towns and in Jerusalem, saying: Go out to the hills and bring olive leaves and branches of oil (olive) trees and myrtle and palm leaves and branches of this trees in order to make booths as it is written: And the people went out and brought and made themselves booths, each person on the roof of his house and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God and in the square at the Water Gate and in the square of the Gate of Ephraim" (Nehemiah 8:15-16)
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There are two clear differences between the Rabbinic interpretation and that of the Judeans in the Book of Nehemiah. First, the species are slightly different, and in Nehemiah, they include olive leaves and branches, and do not include the citrus fruit included in the Rabbinic list, as well as some other small differences. Secondly, while in Rabbinic Judaism the command of the Book of Leviticus to use the species as part of the celebration in kept, and they are used in the ritual prayers of the holiday and danced with and sung with, in Nehemiah the species are used for the actual building of the booths. However, many people like to decorate their booths with the four species, perhaps as a reminder of the ancient interpretation found in the Book of Nehemiah.
The Festival of Booths and the Gentiles
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While most Israelite festivals are for the Israelites only, the Festival of Booths is unique - it will be celebrated with the gentiles in apocalyptic times. The prophet Zechariah (chapter 14) describes how after the punishment of the sinning gentiles, all those remaining will come to Jerusalem every year in order to prostrate before God on the Festival of Booths. This is his way of describing how God will be recognized as the Lord by all the inhabitants of the Earth, and the Festival of Booths will become a festival for all believers and not only for the Israelites.
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Have a good year!
The Biblical Hebrew Online Team.
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Transcription: Sukkar
Literal Meaning: Booth
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Sukka is the specific name of the booths built in honor of the festival of booths, but is also a general name for any kind of booth, usually one which is used by workers of the land in the field or vineyard. Booths are considered a shelter from the sun. However, they are not sturdy, and one dwelling in a Sukka faces many dangers.
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Transcription: Hadas
Literal Meaning: Myrtle
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The myrtle, other than being one of the four species used on the Festival of Booths, is also a symbol in the writings of the prophet Isaiah for a fruitful tree, one which symbolizes renewal; twice, Isaiah mentions the Hadas as a tree which will grow in the wilderness thanks to God's reversal of fate, just as he will rescue his people (Isaiah 41:8-20; 55 1-13).
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Transcription: Arava
Literal Meaning: Willow, as well as a desert plain
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The willow, usually described as a "river willow" - one growing on the banks of the river, is not often mentioned in the Bible aside from its ritual use for the Festival of Booths. However, the word Arava, meaning a desert plain, is also the name of the desert plain in south-eastern Israel.
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