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By: Menachem Posner
The seven days of Sukkot—celebrated by dwelling in the sukkah, taking the Four Kinds, and rejoicing—are followed by Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah (October 16-18).
Sukkot—when we expose ourselves to the elements in greenery-covered huts—commemorates G‑d sheltering our ancestors as they traveled from Egypt to the Promised Land. The Four Kinds express our unity and our belief in G‑d’s omnipresence. Coming after the solemn High Holidays, Sukkot is a time of joy and happiness
The first two days (or one day in Israel) are yom tov, when work is forbidden, candles are lit in the evening, and festive meals are preceded with Kiddush and contain challah dipped in honey. The remainder of the days are quasi holidays, known as chol hamoed. We dwell in the sukkah and take the Four Kinds every day (except for Shabbat, when we do not take the Four Kinds).
Sukkot is a weeklong Jewish holiday that comes five days after Yom Kippur. Sukkot celebrates the gathering of the harvest and commemorates the miraculous protection G‑d provided for the children of Israel when they left Egypt. We celebrate Sukkot by dwelling in a foliage-covered booth (known as a sukkah) and by taking the “Four Kinds” (arba minim), four special species of vegetation.
The first two days (sundown on October 9 until nightfall on October 11 in 2022) of the holiday (one day in Israel) are yom tov, when work is forbidden, candles are lit in the evening, and festive meals are preceded by Kiddush and include challah dipped in honey.
The intermediate days (nightfall on October 12 until sundown on October 16 in 2022) are quasi holidays, known as Chol Hamoed. We dwell in the sukkah and take the Four Kinds every day of Sukkot (except for Shabbat, when we do not take the Four Kinds).
The final two days (sundown on October 16 until nightfall on October 18 in 2022) are a separate holiday (one day in Israel): Shemini Atzeret / Simchat Torah.
The Significance of Sukkot
Of all the Jewish holidays, Sukkot is the only one whose date does not seem to commemorate a historic event. The Torah refers to it by two names: Chag HaAsif (“the Festival of Ingathering,” or “Harvest Festival”) and Chag HaSukkot (“Festival of Booths”), each expressing a reason for the holiday.
In Israel, crops grow in the winter and are ready for harvest in the late spring. Some of them remain out in the field to dry for a few months and are only ready for harvest in the early fall. Chag HaAsif is a time to express appreciation for this bounty.
The name Chag HaSukkot commemorates the temporary dwellings G‑d made to shelter our ancestors on their way out of Egypt (some say this refers to the miraculous clouds of glory that shielded us from the desert sun, while others say it refers to the tents in which they dwelled for their 40-year trek through the Sinai desert).
Dwelling in the Sukkah
For seven days and nights, we eat all our meals in the sukkah and otherwise regard it as our home. Located under the open sky, the sukkah is made up of at least three walls and a roof of unprocessed natural vegetation—typically bamboo, pine boughs or palm branches.
The goal is to spend as much time as possible in the sukkah, at the very minimum eating all meals in the sukkah—particularly the festive meals on the first two nights of the holiday, when we must eat at least an olive-sized piece of bread or mezonot (grain-based food) in the sukkah. The Chabad practice is to not eat or drink anything outside the sukkah. Some people even sleep in the sukkah (this is not the Chabad custom).
Taking the Four Kinds
Another Sukkot observance is the taking of the Four Kinds: an etrog (citron), a lulav (palm frond), three hadassim (myrtle twigs) and two aravot (willow twigs).
On each day of the festival (except Shabbat), we take the Four Kinds, recite a blessing over them, bring them together and wave them in all six directions: right, left, forward, up, down and backward. The sages of the Midrash tell us that the Four Kinds represent the various personalities that comprise the community of Israel, whose intrinsic unity we emphasize on Sukkot.
Hoshanot and Hoshanah Rabbah
Every day of Sukkot we say Hallel, a collection of psalms of praise (Psalms 113-118) as part of the morning prayer service. Every day aside for Shabbat, we recite Hallel while holding the Four Kinds, waving them in all directions at certain key points in the service, which are outlined in the siddur (prayerbook).
Afterward, we circle the bimah (the podium on which the Torah is read) holding the Four Kinds, reciting alphabetically arranged prayers for Divine assistance known as Hoshanot.
The seventh day of the holiday is known as Hoshanah Rabbah. This is the day when our fates for the coming year—which were signed on Rosh Hashanah and sealed on Yom Kippur—are finalized. On this day, we circle the bimah seven times. We also say a short prayer and strike the ground five times with bundles of five willows (also known as Hoshanot)
Sukkot in the Holy Temple
In the days of the holy Temple in Jerusalem, there was a special regimen of sacrifices that were to be brought on the altar. On the first day, no less than 13 bulls, two rams, and 14 lambs were to be sacrificed. Every day, the number of bulls was depleted by one. All in all, 70 bulls were brought, corresponding to the 70 nations of the world.
Along with Passover and Shavuot, Sukkot is one of the Shalosh Regalim, the three annual pilgrimages, when every male Jew was to be in Jerusalem. Every seven years, on Sukkot, the king would read aloud from the Torah to the entire nation—men, women and children. This special gathering was known as Hakhel.
Water and Joy
On Sukkot, G‑d determines how much rain will fall that winter (the primary rainy season in Israel). Thus, while every sacrifice in the Temple included wine libations poured over the altar, on Sukkot, water was also poured over the altar in a special ceremony. This ritual engendered such joy that it was celebrated with music, dancing and singing all night long. This celebration was called “Simchat Beit Hasho’evah.”
Even today, when there is no Temple, it is customary to hold nightly celebrations that include singing and dancing (and even live music during the intermediate days of the holiday).
This holiday is so joyous that in Talmudic times, when someone said the word chag (“holiday”) without specifying which one, you could know that they were referring to Sukkot.
Shemini Atzeret / Simchat Torah: Even More Joy
The Torah tells us that after the seven days of Sukkot, we should celebrate an eighth day. In the diaspora, this eighth day is doubled, making two days of yom tov. On the final day, it is customary to conclude and then immediately begin the annual cycle of Torah reading, making this day Simchat Torah (“Torah Celebration”).
Although the eighth day follows Sukkot, it is actually an independent holiday in many respects (we no longer take the Four Kinds or dwell in the sukkah). Diaspora Jews eat in the sukkah, but without saying the accompanying blessing (there are some who eat just some of their meals in the sukkah on the eighth day but not the ninth).
The highlight of this holiday is the boisterous singing and dancing in the synagogue, as the Torah scrolls are paraded in circles around the bimah.
By the time Simchat Torah is over, we have experienced a spiritual roller coaster, from the solemn introspection of the High Holidays to the giddy joy of Sukkot and Simchat Torah. Now it is time to convert the roller coaster into a locomotive, making sure that the inspiration of the holiday season propels us to greater growth, learning and devotion in the year ahead.
Our Sages state in the Midrash that the esrog, lulav, hadassim and aravos, employed during the festival of Sukkos for the commandment of taking the “four kinds,” are each symbolic of a particular category of Jew.
The esrog, or citron, which possesses both a tangy taste and fine fragrance, is symbolic of the Jew who possesses both Torah learning and good deeds. Since the study of Torah is an intellectual pursuit and is to be enjoyed and savored, it is likened to taste; the performance of commandments (“good deeds”) through the acceptance of the Divine yoke is likened to fragrance, as fragrance is much less tangible than taste.
The lulav, or palm branch, alludes to those Jews who excel in Torah study but not in their performance of mitzvos; like dates that grow on the palm tree, they possess good taste but lack fragrance.
Hadassim, or myrtles, possessing a pleasant aroma but lacking any taste, are symbolic of those Jews who possess good deeds but are lacking in Torah study.
Finally, aravos, or willow branches, lacking both taste and fragrance, are symbolic of those Jews lacking in both Torah and good deeds.
When the festival of Sukkos arrives — continues the Midrash — G‑d says, “Let all these four kinds be bound together and they will atone for one another.” The festival of Sukkos thus celebrates the unity of the entire Jewish people in a very real and revealed sense.
According to the commentary of the Midrash it would seem that the loftiest of the “four kinds” is the esrog, inasmuch as it alludes to the highest category among the Jewish people — those who excel both in Torah and good deeds.
Accordingly, we must understand why the blessing for taking the “four kinds” is “… for taking the lulav,” and not “… for taking the esrog.” Our Sages explain that we recite the blessing over the lulav because the lulav is taller than the other three kinds.
The shape of all physical things, especially those with which the various commandments are performed, relates directly to the spiritual sources from whence these objects derive. Consequently, the lulav’s imposing physical height results then from the fact that spiritually, as well, the lulav possesses a quality that makes it loftier than the other three kinds.
Now, how can the lulav possibly be loftier than the esrog when the esrog has both the pleasant taste of Torah and the fragrance of mitzvos, while the [fruit of the] lulav possesses only taste — Torah?
This will be understood when we contrast Torah to mitzvos. Our Sages state that mitzvos are the “limbs of the King,” while with regard to the Torah our Sages state that “Torah and G‑d are truly one.”
While the limbs of the body are nullified to the soul and its desires, they are, however, not the soul itself. The same is so with regard to mitzvos. Performance of mitzvos indicates a Jew’s subservience to G‑d — but he still remains a separate entity.
However, when a Jew comprehends Torah, which is to say that his intellect comprehends G‑d’s intellect, as it were, he is then wholly united with G‑d’s intellect, which is “one with G‑d Himself.” Understandably, the more the individual devotes himself to Torah study, the greater will be his attachment to G‑d.
Thus the “lulav Jew,” the Jew who is wholly devoted to Torah study, achieves a greater degree of attachment to G‑d than does the “esrog Jew,” the Jew who is equally devoted to the study of Torah and to the performance of its mitzvos.
It is this greater degree of unity symbolized by the lulav that is at the root of the blessing which is made specifically over it. For the “four kinds” are taken on Sukkos in order to achieve unity among the Jewish people, something resulting directly from the Jews’ unity with G‑d6 and best expressed by the lulav — total devotion to Torah.
Sukkos is referred to as Chag HoAssif, “the harvest festival.” This name also relates to the Jews’ gathering together with ahavas Yisrael. Such gatherings precipitate the ultimate gathering of the Jewish people which will take place at the time of the Redemption. For when division and strife, the cause for the exile, are nullified, the exile itself, the effect, will be nullified. We will proceed together “with our youth and our elders… our sons and our daughters” to our Holy Land, to Jerusalem, to the Beis HaMikdash, and to the Holy of Holies.
Within the Holy of Holies is the Foundation Stone, which serves as the basis for the existence of the entire earth. The fact that the foundation of the earth is in the Holy of Holies affects the nature of the world and elevates it. Although a foundation (and thus the effects of a foundation) is hidden and is not openly seen, it, nevertheless, affects the entire structure that is erected upon it, Surely, this applies in relation to the Foundation Stone, for it is openly revealed.
