sukkot
There is an ancient Hebrew maxim: "Mitzvah haba’ah l’yadcha al tachamitzenah." This means "If the opportunity" to perform a mitzvah presents itself, you should not delay in performing it." For this reason, many pious Jews, after breaking the fast post-Yom Kippur, go immediately and begin preparing for the next holiday - Sukkot. Sukkot begins this evening and concludes with the holidays of Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah next weekend.
As with many Jewish holidays, Sukkot has a dual significance. In Vayikya (Leviticus) chapter 23 verses 42 and 43, it says, "You shall dwell in booths seven days . . . that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt." These verses set up a correlation between Sukkot and the other two "pilgrimage festivals," Pesach and Shavuot, both of which also deal with some phpect of the departure from Egypt or the journey in the desert. During the time of the Beit Hamikdash, Jews used to go up to Jerusalem on foot on each of these three holidays (hence the name, "pilgrimage festivals.")
Sukkot has an agricultural significance as well. Vayikra 23:39 says, "On the fifteenth day of the seventh month [Tishrei], when you have gathered in the fruit of your land, you shall observe a festival of the Lord seven days." Therefore, Sukkot coincides with the beginning of the fall harvest (which is why we decorate our Sukkot with fall fruits).
Sukkot, like other festivals, has many names. The first of these, Sukkot (how’d you guess?), means "Feast of Booths" or "Tabernacles." On Sukkot, each of us is obligated to build our own sukkah, or temporary outdoor dwelling place, to commemorate the temporary homes of the wandering Israelites. As I mentioned before, many pious Jews begin building their sukkot immediately following Yom Kippur. The second name, Chag Ha’asif, means "gathering festival," appropriate because Sukkot coincides with the harvest. The ì third name is Z’man Simchateynu, which means "time of our rejoicing." Unlike most holidays, Sukkot is purely joyful. We get to live in small huts in our backyards for a week celebrating the harvest, the departure from Egypt, and the fact that International Convention is coming up! What could be happier than that? Sukkot is also referred to as Chag, meaning simply "holiday." This suggests that Sukkot is the festival par excellence, the Joe Zeidner of holidays.
One seemingly strange Sukkot custom involves the "arba’ah minim," the Four Species: The etrog (citron), lulav (palm branch), hadasim (myrtle), and aravot (willow). Each of these has its own significance, but as a group they symbolize the festival’s agricultural theme.
As usual, I must give credit to Rabbi Isaac Klein’s "Guide to Jewish Religious Practice" for some of the inspiration for this drasha.
This page was originally created by John Davis and Michael Kay, and can be found at http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/jdd16/guide/.
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