Sukkot
Sukkot is a Torah-commanded holiday celebrated for seven days, beginning on the 15th day of the month of Tishrei. It is one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals on which those Israelites who could were commanded to make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem. In addition to its harvest roots, the holiday also holds spiritual importance with regard to its abandonment of materialism to focus on nationhood, spirituality, and hospitality, this principle underlying the construction of a temporary, almost nomadic, structure of a sukkah.
| Sukkot | |
|---|---|
A sukkah (plural: sukkot) in Israel | |
| Official name | Hebrew: סוכות or סֻכּוֹת ("Booths, Tabernacles") |
| Observed by | Jews, Samaritans, Semitic Neopagans |
| Type | Jewish, Samaritan |
| Significance | One of the three pilgrimage festivals |
| Observances | Dwelling in sukkah, taking the Four Species, hakafot and Hallel in Synagogue |
| Begins | 15th day of Tishrei |
| Ends | 21st day of Tishrei |
| Date | 15 Tishrei, 16 Tishrei, 17 Tishrei, 18 Tishrei, 19 Tishrei, 20 Tishrei, 21 Tishrei |
| 2023 date | Sunset, 29 September – nightfall, 6 October (7 October outside of Israel) |
| 2024 date | Sunset, 16 October – nightfall, 23 October (24 October outside of Israel) |
| 2025 date | Sunset, 6 October – nightfall, 13 October (14 October outside of Israel) |
| 2026 date | Sunset, 25 September – nightfall, 2 October (3 October outside of Israel) |
| Related to | Shemini Atzeret, Simchat Torah |
The names used in the Torah are "Festival of Ingathering" (or "Harvest Festival", Hebrew: חַג הָאָסִיף, romanized: haġ hāʾāsif) and "Festival of Booths" (Hebrew: חג הסכות, romanized: ḥaġ hasSukkoṯ). This corresponds to the double significance of Sukkot. The one mentioned in the Book of Exodus is agricultural in nature—"Festival of Ingathering at the year's end" (Exodus 34:22)—and marks the end of the harvest time and thus of the agricultural year in the Land of Israel. The more elaborate religious significance from the Book of Leviticus is that of commemorating the Exodus and the dependence of the Israelites on the will of God (Leviticus 23:42–43).
The holiday lasts seven days in the Land of Israel and eight in the diaspora. The first day (and second day in the diaspora) is a Shabbat-like holiday when work is forbidden. This is followed by intermediate days called Chol HaMoed, during which certain work is permitted. The festival is closed with another Shabbat-like holiday called Shemini Atzeret (one day in the Land of Israel, two days in the diaspora, where the second day is called Simchat Torah). Shemini Atzeret coincides with the eighth day of Sukkot outside the Land of Israel.
The Hebrew word sukkoṯ is the plural of sukkah ('booth' or 'tabernacle') which is a walled structure covered with s'chach (plant material, such as overgrowth or palm leaves). A sukkah is the name of the temporary dwelling in which farmers would live during harvesting, reinforcing agricultural significance of the holiday introduced in the Book of Exodus. As stated in Leviticus, it is also reminiscent of the type of fragile dwellings in which the Israelites dwelled during their 40 years of travel in the desert after the Exodus from slavery in Egypt. Throughout the holiday, meals are eaten inside the sukkah and many people sleep there as well.
On each day of the holiday it is a mitzvah, or commandment, to perform a waving ceremony with the four species, as well as to sit in the sukkah during the holiday.