Most Gentiles (non-Jews) don’t know what “Sukot” is so I’ll
try to explain. “Sukot” is what Gentile Christians
commonly call “The Feast of Booths” or “The Feast of Tabernacles. It was ordained by God through Moses, in
Leviticus 23:39-44, and like the other festivals outlined in that chapter of
the Torah (Pentateuch) it was to be observed annually during the seventh month of
Tishre on the Hebrew calendar. Because the
Hebrew Calendar is Lunar, Sukot falls roughly between late September and early
October on the Gregorian solar calendar.
Although Sukot is mentioned frequently in the Bible,
including Deuteronomy 16:13-15, the way that Sukot is supposed to be observed from
a Biblical standpoint is most thoroughly discussed in the Leviticus reference
to it. There, it explains that it was to
begin on the 15th day of the month, 5 days after the Day of
Atonement (Yom HaKippurim) and after the completion of the summer harvest. The
first and eighth day of the festival were to be days of complete rest from entrepreneurial
labor.
On the first day, the fruit of beautiful trees, date palm branches, boughs of thick trees,
and willows of the brook were to be gathered and there was to be rejoicing
before the Lord for seven days. The
rabbis took the “fruit of beautiful trees” to be an “esrog”, a lemon shaped and
fragrant citrusy species of fruit, and they took “the boughs of thick trees” to
be branches of myrtle.
Traditionally, the myrtle and
willow species are attached to the lulav, or palm branch. The esrog is held in the left hand while the
three-leafy species are held in the right.
They are brought together and waved before the Lord in a manner
indicating the omnipresence of God.
According to Ari Greenspan and
Ari Z. Zivotofsky all four of these species require copious amounts of regular irrigation
in order to thrive and survive and yet each of them is found in a different
ecological habitat… (the palm – desert; willow – river beds; myrtle –
mountains; esrog – plains). The need of
these species for water coincides interestingly with other rituals associated
with this feast, including thanksgiving and prayer for rain and the pouring out
of water libations.1
This emphasis on water finds
its way into the New Testament where Jesus, at the Temple during Sukot,
launching off the ritual of the water libation, cries out…
“If anyone is thirsty, let
him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture
said, ‘From ihis innermost being will flow rivers of living
water.’” 2
John, in this account, goes on
to point out that Jesus’ reference to water, a much-needed commodity, was an
allusion to His Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit) whose necessity for true life,
eternal life… salvation as it were, dwarfs even that of water.
Isaiah reinforces this
association of water being linked as a type to salvation when, pointing to the
future he writes…
Thus says the Lord who
made you
And formed you from the womb, who will help you,
‘Do not fear, O Jacob My servant;
And you Jeshurun whom I have chosen.
3 ‘For I will pour out water on [a]the thirsty land
And streams on the dry ground;
I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring
And My blessing on your descendants;3
And formed you from the womb, who will help you,
‘Do not fear, O Jacob My servant;
And you Jeshurun whom I have chosen.
3 ‘For I will pour out water on [a]the thirsty land
And streams on the dry ground;
I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring
And My blessing on your descendants;3
During the seven days of this
feast, the Children of Israel were commanded to live in Sukot or “booths” which
were essentially huts made from sticks.
The apparent reason for this was, in God’s own Words,
“so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live
in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’” (Lev. 23:43)
I believe that there are other
reasons for this feast which, to me at least, are even far more exciting.
The Prophet, Zechariah writes
of a time after the last war has been fought and there’s finally peace on earth
that
…it will come about that any who are left of all the
nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to
worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths. And it will
be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to
worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them.4
What I find striking about
this passage is that in that day, there will be a universal consensus
concerning the nature of God.
Furthermore, former enemies of Jerusalem and consequently of one another
(seeing that they’re from different nations) will be required to come to
Jerusalem to celebrate Sukot. And,
again, how is Sukot supposed to be celebrated?
It is supposed to be celebrated by living for seven days in huts made of
sticks! Now, if my next-door neighbor
were my enemy I would want a nice solid brick wall
between us. But how are these former
enemies supposed to spend their time in Jerusalem? They’re supposed to be “camping out” in huts
made of sticks, vulnerable to one another and most certainly vulnerable to the
one true God of the universe whom they’d been called upon to worship.
And what happens when nations
don’t comply with this demand? The one
who controls the weather will give them no rain! Again, water and salvation are intrinsically tied
to Sukot.
In this end-time to which Sukot
points and which Sukot will be ultimately celebrated in its fullest, there will
also be a great feast of choice wine and meat.
Spiritual blindness will be removed from the eyes of people, death will
be swallowed up and God will remove tears from the eyes of all people.
The Lord of hosts
will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain (Jerusalem);
A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow,
And refined, aged wine.
And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples,
Even the veil which is stretched over all nations.
He will swallow up death for all time,
And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces,
And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth;
For the Lord has spoken.
And it will be said in that day,
“Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”5
A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow,
And refined, aged wine.
And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples,
Even the veil which is stretched over all nations.
He will swallow up death for all time,
And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces,
And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth;
For the Lord has spoken.
And it will be said in that day,
“Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”5
1 Greenspan, Ari and Zivotofsky, Ari Z. “The
Extraordinary History of the Etrog” The Jerusalem Post http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-Features/The-extraordinary-history-of-the-etrog-2179
October, 2015
2John 7:37-38 New American Standard Translation.
3Isaiah 44:2-3 New American Standard Translation.
4Zechariah 14:16-17 New American Standard
Translation.
5Isaiah 25:6-9 New American Standard Translation.
2 comments:
Amazing! Thank you for this. Helped me to understand Sukot and it's relevance.
Thank you! I am struggling to understand all the feasts and how to practice them since my anti-Semitic heritage didn’t follow these ways but thankfully I am learning ever so slowly.
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