Happy Sukkoth

The ancient feast of Sukkoth or Booths was originally a harvest feast celebrated throughout Canaan and Lebanon and perhaps much further away. It predates Judaism and Abraham by at least a thousand years. It is the one eternal feast as it has always been a feast in Judaism and will be a universal feast during the Messianic Era. See Zechariah 14:16.

Sukkoth or Temporary Structures are built of wood and branches so that we learn the dependence on G-d. When we were traversing the wilderness of Sin, we had to leave in tents and temporary structures and during that time we learned that G-d would provide us with food and water as well as a place to stay. The feasts of Judaism always help us to contemplate the important things in life and this feast powerfully demonstrates the need to be dependent on the Divine. During the feast in Israel, the people live in temporary structures for seven days and eat better than usual food. The first two days are Shabbot and no work is done, but much prayer and joy is manifested. The remainder of the days while not full Shabbot are still more important than regular days and the activity is limited. This is a time for many families to go on vacation.

The feast is also called the Feast of the Ingathering. Now, the normal meaning is harvest and farmers throughout the world are harvesting food at that time, whether from winter or summer. The spiritual ingathering is of the believers as this is the prime feast of the Lord. It is believed that the Meshiach will return on this day to regather Israel together.

The feast is also called the Feast of Gentiles because Scripture tells us to offer 13 bulls in the Temple on the first day, 12 on the second, and so on, 11, 10, 9, 8, and 7. When the numbers are added together, we find that there are a total of 70 which is the number of the nations in the world - 69 from Genesis 10 and 1 being Israel, the latest in time. So this feast was to ingather the believing Gentiles, the G-d-fearers as well. And Zechariah says that in the Messianic Age, all nations will come to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast.

This feast is ended by Shemini Atzeret, a feast uniquely Jewish and in thanksgiving for the blessings of the Jewish people. It is followed by Simchat Torah, which means, rejoicing in the Torah. The Jewish People rejoice that G-d in his infinite Mercy wrote down the 613 Mitzvoth or Laws on the Tablets of Stone with his Own Finger and gave us the Law that would direct us in this world. It is the covenant that G-d made with us, that we would keep these Mitzvot and He would be Our God, that makes us Chosen, makes us special, makes us the latest nation, a nation set apart, a royal priesthood.

It is appropriate at the end of this small sermonette to say Happy Thanksgiving, because the feast is all about Thanks.