The Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) Holiday

If you live in a big city, last October you may have seen makeshift huts in the yards of your Jewish neighbors. Let me give a little context to why they did this.

Sukkot (also spelled Succoth, and called feast of tabernacles) was October 16-23, 2024. This holiday celebrates gathering in the harvest, and commemorates the miraculous protection of the children of Israel when they left Egypt. Jews celebrate Sukkot by dwelling in a foliage-covered booth, known as a sukkah. During this holiday meals are eaten in the Sukkah and men and boys sleep there, weather permitting.

Sukkot is named after the first place where the Israelites camped on their exodus out of Egypt:

“And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children. And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle.” Exodus 12:37-38.

In the Jewish doctrinal commentary called the Talmud, Rabbi Akiva says the sukkahs (booths) refer to the dwellings that the Israelites lived in during their 40-year journey in the desert.

In the King James Bible, Sukkot is called the feast of tabernacles:

“Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord. On the first day shall be an holy convocation [congregational service]: ye shall do no servile work therein. Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: it is a solemn assembly; and ye shall do no servile work therein. These are the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, … Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath. And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. And ye shall keep it a feast unto the Lord seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations. … Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths: 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: I am the Lord your God.” Leviticus 23:34-43.