Sukkot, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles, is a Jewish holiday that celebrates the gathering of the harvest and commemorates the miraculous protection that God provided for the children of Israel when they left Egypt. It is one of the three major festivals in Judaism and is both an agricultural festival of thanksgiving and a commemoration of the forty-year period during which the children of Israel wandered in the desert after leaving slavery in Egypt, living in temporary shelters as they traveled. Sukkot is known as “the Time of our Happiness” and is one of the most joyful festivals in Judaism, meant to bring families, friends, and communities together.
Sukkot is celebrated on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Tishrei, which comes five days after Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism. During Sukkot, it is traditional to eat and, for some, to sleep in a sukkah, a temporary structure with at least three sides and a roof made out of thatch or branches, which provides some shade and protection from the sun, but also allows the stars to be seen at night. The sukkah typically has a temporary roof made from thatch or branches, allowing stars to be present at night, while also providing shade and protection from the sun during the day. Once the sukkah is built, many people decorate it with hanging fruit, art, and even mittens. The holiday also involves the Arba’at Haminim, or the Four Species, which are a collection of plants that some Jews carry during Sukkot.
Sukkot is a time for rejoicing and thanking God for the completed harvest, and many of the most popular rituals of Sukkot are practiced in the home. The enforced simplicity of eating and perhaps also living in a temporary shelter focuses our minds on the important things in life and divorces us from the material possessions of the modern world that dominate so many of our lives. Even so, Sukkot is a joyful holiday and justifiably referred to as zeman simchateynu, the “season of our joy” . At the conclusion of Sukkot, some Jews donate the items in their sukkah to those in need.
