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Jewish Life & Celebrations

Sukkot

Sukkot: A History of the Holiday

Prepared by Laura Miller and Rabbi Peter Schweitzer for The City Congregation for Humanistic Judaism, New York City, 1998 based on Celebrations, by Sherwin Wine, and various Sukkot services.

Jews celebrate three harvest festivals: Pesach and Shavuot in the spring, and Sukkot in the fall. Sukkot - or, as many of us were raised to say, Sukkos - was originally called the "Feast of Ingathering." Later, it was called the "Feast of Booths," or simply "The Festival." The holiday begins at the full moon of the first month of the year, which is the Fifteenth of Tishri, and it lasts a week.

Sukkot is a very old holiday that was probably celebrated by farmers in Canaan long before the Hebrews arrived. We think that at first the High Holidays and Sukkot were one holiday. Later they were split into two: first, the High Holidays, to remove the "evil" of the old year, and then, by itself, Sukkot, to welcome in the new crops and the successful start of the new year.

The Festival was a joyous, even naughty occasion in ancient Palestine. That's because the people were celebrating not just the ingathering of all their crops from the fields and orchards, but especially the grapes from the vineyards. They drank, they sang, they were very happy!

At harvest time, farmers worked very long hours often far from home and so they stayed in temporary dwellings rather than return to their homes at night. The hut, or booth, they stayed in was called a sukkah, and it was very flimsy. It had a roof made of loosely interlaced twigs and branches to provide some shade and shelter. Rain could easily get in and one could see the stars from below at night.

As years went by and Jews lived further and further from the soil and from the agricultural seasons, they wanted to downplay the connection to nature. So they assigned the holiday a historical and national aspect: they said that Sukkot really commemorated the wandering of the Hebrew people in the desert following the Exodus and that the booths remind us of the dwellings during that journey. However, the bond between Sukkot and nature could not be severed and that is what we still celebrate today.

Nature, we observe, has two faces. It can give warmth and light, or it can disrupt our lives with hurricanes and earthquakes. Human survival is a perpetual struggle with a universe which is often less than friendly.

The production of food, which depends on nature, is a hard profession. We are indebted to those who work so hard to overcome the challenges that nature puts in their way. As the frail sukkah booth stands firm against the winds of autumn, so do creative people, who provide our food, resist nature's hostility and, by their wits, the rest of us survive.

Our ancestors gathered in their crops and gave thanks. They also enacted rituals to guarantee that the next year would bring a new and abundant crop as well. They took water and spilled it on the ground thinking, magically, that heavenly deities would follow this example and spill needed rain on the earth below.

They took in their hand the lulav and etrog - the palm branch and citrus fruit - symbols together of fertility and the fall harvest - and they waved them together in four directions - north, south, east, and west. They believed that this would encourage the winds to blow forth rain from every direction.

Today, we have a clearer picture of where rain comes from and we don't believe that sympathetic magic can bring it on. However, we can still wave the lulav and etrog to show that nature is everywhere, that we are part of it, and that it is our responsibility to protect and preserve it for all generations to come.


What the Holiday Teaches Us Today

Sukkot teaches us about the wish to survive. Whether we live in the barley fields of ancient Israel or the glass and concrete of Manhattan, the human determination to live remains the same.

Sukkot teaches us about an appreciation for food, which we often take for granted. The quality and quantity of food that we have depends on the hard work of others.

Sukkot teaches us about community. Like the Amish who raise barns together, the community works together to build and decorate the sukkah.

Sukkot teaches us about hospitality. Our ancestors invited the spirits of the ancient patriarchs to celebrate the holiday with them. We, instead, invite our neighbors and friends to enjoy our bounty with us.

Sukkot teaches us about hope. We plant seeds and hope that they will grow. Hope for a better future keeps a society alive.

Sukkot teaches us about the changing seasons. Let us join with our ancestors in recognizing these changes and affirming our bonds with them.


SEASONS

Lyrics by Peter Schweitzer / Music by M & A Mandel

A time for winter, a time for spring

A time to celebrate, a time to sing

A time for summer, a time for fall

A time to enjoy life one and all. (2x)

Over and over, round and round

Seasons fade into seasons found

Over and over, round and round

The cycles of nature safe and sound (2x)

Again and again, it is nature‚s way

A time for planting brings time to play

A time to sow and a time to reap

A time to awaken, a time to sleep (2x)

It started long before we were here

On and on it goes, year by year

It matters not the reason why

We treasure each gift of earth and sky (2x)

A time for winter, etc.

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