Summary of the festival
Sukkot is celebrated from the fifteenth of Tishrei, five days after Yom Kippur, for seven days. After taking stock on Yom Kippur, we leave the house for a sukkah, a temporary dwelling with a roof of branches, and rejoice: “You shall keep it as a festival to the Lord for seven days… and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days” (Leviticus 23:41, 40). It is called “the season of our rejoicing”. It is followed by Shemini Atzeret.
The mitzvot of the festival
- Dwelling in the sukkah for seven days: we eat in it (obligatory on the first night, and on the other days at least for a proper meal), and in many communities we also sleep in it (Leviticus 23:42).
- The four species: etrog, lulav, myrtle and willow, taken and waved every day except Shabbat (Leviticus 23:40). The Midrash (Vayikra Rabbah 30:12) reads them as four types of Jews, bound together: the etrog is one with Torah and good deeds (taste and fragrance), the lulav has Torah only (taste without fragrance), the myrtle has deeds (fragrance without taste), and the willow has neither, yet all are tied together.
- Full Hallel on every day of the festival, Hoshanot around the bimah, and “Simchat Beit HaShoeva” in memory of the water libation.
- Ushpizin: according to the Zohar (Emor 103b), seven spiritual guests visit the sukkah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph and David, one on each day.
- No work on the first day (and outside Israel also on the second), with Chol HaMoed in between, when work needed for the festival is permitted.
Origin in history
The Torah gives the reason: “so that your generations may know that I made the Israelites dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 23:43). The Sages disagreed on whether this means the clouds of glory that accompanied Israel in the desert (Rabbi Eliezer) or actual booths (Rabbi Akiva; Sukkah 11b). It is also the festival of the ingathering (Exodus 23:16), at the end of the harvest season. In biblical times it was celebrated in Jerusalem: Solomon dedicated the Temple at this festival (I Kings 8), and the returnees in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah built booths and read the Torah (Nehemiah 8:14-18). In the Second Temple period the “Simchat Beit HaShoeva” took place, of which it was said: “Whoever has not seen the rejoicing of the Beit HaShoeva has never seen rejoicing in his life” (Mishnah Sukkah 5:1).
The message for today
The sukkah is a temporary dwelling, and it teaches trust: after a month in which we returned in repentance, we leave the permanent house to live under the “shade of faith” (as the Zohar calls it). The permanent house feels safe, but the sukkah reminds us who really protects us. In North African communities the sukkah is traditionally decorated with fruit and fabrics and becomes a place where the whole festival is lived, by people of all ages. And the four species teach unity without uniformity: there is no need to be alike to be together.
Torah and haftara readings
The passages read in synagogue, with their start and end.
Day 1 (15 Tishrei)
- Torah · Morning
Leviticus 22:26–23:44
The chapter of the festivals, with the mitzvot of the sukkah and the four species
- Maftir · Morning
Numbers 29:12–16
The offerings of the first day
- Haftara · Morning
Zechariah 14:1–21
The end of days: all nations come up to keep the festival of Sukkot
Why this reading? We read Leviticus 23 because it is where the Torah sets the festival: "On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the festival of Sukkot, seven days to the Lord" (v. 34), with the mitzvah of the sukkah (vv. 42-43) and of the four species (v. 40). The haftara from Zechariah (14:16) announces that in the future all the nations will go up to Jerusalem to keep Sukkot: it is the one festival with a universal calling, and so it fits the prophecy about the end of days.
Day 2 (16 Tishrei, outside Israel only)
- Torah · Morning
Leviticus 22:26–23:44
The same reading
- Maftir · Morning
Numbers 29:12–16
The offerings of the day
- Haftara · Morning
1 Kings 8:2–21
Solomon dedicates the Temple, at the festival
Why this reading? King Solomon dedicated the Temple "at the festival, in the seventh month" (I Kings 8:2), that is at Sukkot. The haftara reminds us that the sukkah and the Temple are two kinds of house: one temporary, one permanent, and both a place where God dwells.
Chol HaMoed
- Torah · Morning
Numbers 29:17–25
Chol HaMoed, first day
- Torah · Morning
Numbers 29:20–28
Second day
- Torah · Morning
Numbers 29:23–31
Third day
- Torah · Morning
Numbers 29:26–34
Fourth day
- Torah · Morning
Numbers 29:29–34
Fifth day (Israel only, before Hoshana Rabbah)
Why this reading? On each day of Chol HaMoed we read the offerings of that day from Parashat Pinchas (Numbers 29). In total seventy bulls were offered on Sukkot, which the Sages say correspond to the seventy nations of the world (Sukkah 55b), so Sukkot is also a prayer for the whole world.
Shabbat Chol HaMoed
- Torah · Morning
Exodus 33:12–34:26
"See, You say to me" and the thirteen attributes of mercy
- Haftara · Morning
Ezekiel 38:18–39:16
The war of Gog and Magog
Why this reading? The reading from Exodus describes the renewal of the covenant after the Calf, and includes the mitzvah of the three pilgrim festivals (34:18, 22). The haftara from Ezekiel is tied by tradition to the end of days and to victory over enemies, which suits Sukkot, a festival of security and shade. On this Shabbat we also read the scroll of Ecclesiastes, to teach that true joy is the kind that does not ignore death and transience.