SUKKOT – FEAST OF TABERNACLES OR BOOTHS

7th October 2025

Jewish

This is an eight day long harvest festival which commemorates the 40 years the Jews spent in the wilderness on the way from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land. A temporary hut or a frail booth – called a sukkah – is built outside the house each year at this time for eating meals and for visits and socialising. In hot countries families may live in their sukkah during the festival. The roof has to be open in part to the elements, so that the stars may be visible through the gaps, and is covered with branches and leaves and decorated with fruit.

Spending time in the family’s temporary sukkah recalls their newfound liberty in days gone by, an element that underlies many of the festivals Jews celebrate, constantly reiterating and revisiting the central narrative of the Jewish story, the Exodus from Egypt and the journey to the Promised Land. It also recalls the fragility of life – both during the Exodus and in the present day – and the fact that all creation is dependent on the goodness of the Almighty for its life and comfort. Extending hospitality to others, and especially to the needy, is a particular Sukkot custom.

Many synagogues build sukkot that are used for communal meals and celebration, since many homes have no room for a personal sukkah. In Israel, blocks of flats are frequently built with their balconies not directly above one another so that the balcony can be used to build a small sukkah which it will be properly open to the sky as required. On each day of the festival special sections of the Torah and the Prophets are read, including the instruction to dwell in booths. The book of Ecclesiastes is also read.

Four species of plant, the lulav (palm branch), the etrog (a yellow citrus fruit), three branches of the hadas (myrtle) and two of the aravah (willow) are used each day of the festival, the etrog in the left hand and the other branches, bound together, in the right. They are waved side by side in all four directions of the compass and up and down to demonstrate the universality of the Almighty, while reciting appropriate blessings. This follows the teaching of the Torah in Leviticus (23:40) ‘On the first day, you will take for yourselves a fruit of a beautiful tree, palm branches, twigs of a braided tree and brook willows, and you will rejoice before the L-rd your G-d for seven days.’ Above all else, this is a festival of rejoicing at the bounty enjoyed at harvest time as a gift from G-d by the people of Israel.

Leviticus 23:33-43.

NB The first two days and the last two days are full festival days when, for Orthodox Jews, work is not permitted.