Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
FAQ: What is Sukkot, the ‘Feast of Tabernacles’?
FAQ: What is Sukkot, the ‘Feast of Tabernacles’?
Jul 5, 2025 7:45 PM

The Jewish feast of Sukkot lasts seven (or eight) days – in 2020, from sundown on Friday, October 2, to sundown on Friday, October 9. Here are the facts you need to know.

When is Sukkot?

Sukkot – also known as the Feast of Tabernacles, Feast of Booths, Feast of Ingathering, or simply “The Feast” – always begins on the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the Jewish calendar (Tishrei). Thus, it begins five days after Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and 15 days after Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. This usually falls in late September or October.

The festival lasts seven days inside the nation of Israel, or eight outside Israel.

What does Sukkot celebrate?

Sukkot celebrates two things. It likely began as a time to give thanks for the fall harvest, and some historical sources believe this aspect grew out of a Canaanite predecessor. However, the feast memorates the Israelites’ divine protection as they traveled through the desert on their way to the holy land.

How is Sukkot celebrated today?

Every year, each Jewish family builds a small outdoor building known as a sukkah. The structure must have between two-and-a-half and four walls, and the roof must be made of natural material (s’chach) – often palm, willow, bamboo, or pine branches. The roof has to block most of the sun but also allow rain in. At a minimum, observant Jews will eat their meals in this structure; some even sleep in it overnight.

The first two days and last two days are festival days, outside Israel, when all work would cease. The four days in-between, known as Chol HaMoed, do not rise to the level of festivals: Servile or creative work is barred, but observant Jews may do all they need to do to keep Sukkot. In Israel, businesses often close for the full week.

On each of the days except the Sabbath (Shabbot), Jews bring to synagogue the Four Kinds (arba minim): a citron fruit (an etrog), a palm branch, a myrtle branch, and a willow branch. Sometimes called the lulav, the branches are wrapped together, and the etrog held in the left hand, and they are shaken in all six directions: north, south, east, up, down, and west.

Special prayers are added to the synagogue services, including the recitation of the Hallel Psalmsof praise (Psalms 113-118).

On the days of Sukkot, Jews walk around the synagogue, circling the Torah and reciting prayers known as Hoshanot. The seventh day of Sukkot is the Great Salvation (Hoshanah Rabbah). Multiple scrolls of the Torah are taken out of the Ark and held at the bimah by members of the synagogue, as Jews circle seven times and strike the ground with five willow branches.

During the time of Temple Judaism, the priests would make a drink offering of three logs of water gathered from the Pool of Siloam (Sukkah 48a). This Celebration of the Place of Water-Drawing (Simchat Beit Hashoeivah) was panied by singing and dancing. Today, the water is no longer offered, but Jews often sing and dance joyously.

These days are followed by one (or two) days of celebration closely associated with Sukkot: Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah.

The overall sense makes Sukkot one of the most joyous Jewish festivities, a stark contrast with the solemnity of Yom Kippur.

Is this feast mentioned in the Bible?

The Bible mentions the feast in numerous places, perhaps most clearly in Leviticus: “You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booths, thatyour generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am theLordyour God” (Leviticus 23:42-43; see also Deuteronomy 16:13-15).

During the time of Temple Judaism, priests would sacrifice 70 bulls (as well as making ram, lamb, grain, and drink offerings – see Numbers 29:12-34). mentary holds that these offerings are made for the 70 nations, so that rain will fall all over the world.

The Prophet Zechariah prophesied that, after a battle of all nations against Jerusalem, all the survivors of all nations will keep the Feast of Tabernacles (Zechariah 14:16-19).

Jesus kept the Feast of Tabernacles, as recorded in the seventh chapter of the Gospel of St. John (vs. 2, 10-14, 37).

What does the sukkah symbolize?

The roof, said Rabbi Eliezer, “evokes the clouds of glory with which God enveloped the Israelites in the desert” as they fled Pharaoh’s Egypt, according to some mentaries. (as mentioned in Exodus 13:21-22). But others disputed this. Modern Jews live in sukkot because Jews did so in the desert – or, as “Rabbi Akiva says: They established for themselves actual sukkot” (Sukkah 11b).

Is there an inner meaning for those who celebrate today?

“If I were to summarise the message of Sukkot I’d say it’s a tutorial in how to live with insecurity and still celebrate life,” explained Rabbi LordJonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi of the UK and a member of the House of Lords, in 2001. “The meaning of Tabernacles and its message for our time,” he wrote, is that:

Life can be full of risk and yet still be a blessing.

Faith doesn’t mean living with certainty. Faith is the courage to live with uncertainty, knowing that God is with us on that tough but necessary journey to a world that honours life and treasures peace.

The message seems to be: As God watched over us in the past, so He will today.

Why does the feast last an extra day outside Israel?

The extra day came about out of an abundance of caution over the Jewish lunar calendar. In the ancient world, the Sanhedrin would certify the appearance of the new moon and send word to Jews in diaspora. Feasts that began later in the month would then be calculated based on this date. However, munities began to celebrate an extra day (yom tov sheni shel galuyot) to assure that, in the case of confusion or delay, at least one day of the festivities fell on the appropriate day.

What are Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah?

Shemini Atzeret, which literally means “the eighth day assembly,” falls on the 22nd day of Tishrei. The Bible calls it a “solemn rest” (Lev. 23:36-39). Jews often eat in the sukkah, without saying the blessings of Sukkot, but the holiday is technically a separate holiday. The eleventh-century mentator Rashi explained the day by saying, “This is analogous to a king who invited his sons to feast with him for a certain number of days, and when the time came for them to leave, he said: ‘My sons! Please, stay with me just one more day, [for] it is difficult for me to part with you!’”

Simchat Torah, which means “Rejoicing in the Torah,” marks the day when Jews read the final portion (parsha) of the Torah, the final verses of Deuteronomy chapter 34. After this reading concludes, they immediately begin reading Genesis 1, showing that the study of the Torah never ends. During the evening and morning services, all members of the synagogue also perform the hakafot, by carrying the scrolls of the Torah in a circle the bimah seven times.

In Israel, these two days bined into one day.

What is an appropriate greeting for Sukkot?

It is appropriate to wish someone Chag Sameach (“joyous festival”).

Further resources from the Acton Institute on Judaism and economics:

FAQ: What is Rosh Hashanah?

A Jewish perspective on justice, for Rosh Hashanah

FAQ: What is Yom Kippur?

FAQ: What is Hanukkah?

FAQ: What is Purim?

FAQ: What is the Jewish holiday of Passover?

Further resources from the Acton Institute on Judaism and economics:

Judaism, Law & the Free Market: An Analysisby Joseph Isaac Lifshitz

Judaism, Markets, and Capitalism: Separating Myth from Realityby Corinne Sauer and Robert M. Sauer

Embassy Jerusalem. CC BY 2.0.)

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
R.R. Reno, masks, and the vacuity of social media
First Things magazine is no stranger to controversy. In recent years, it has been increasingly critical­ of the market economy, made bizarre defenses of kidnapping in the guise of a book review, and e a clearing house of contrarian and moralistic perspectives on the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier this week, First Things editor R.R. Reno took to Twitter to accuse those who try to avoid the spread of the coronavirus by wearing masks of cowardice. The tweets, since deleted, were widely...
Rev. Robert Sirico: COVID-19 lockdown orders are the state-mandated ‘marginalization of religion’
Perhaps nowhere is the disconnect between private citizens’ views and those of the government clearer than when es to the role of religion in society. Acton Institute President and Co-founder Rev. Robert A. Sirico told a nationally syndicated radio program that state orders that effectively ban clergy from caring for sick patients represent “the marginalization of religion as a non-essential service,” and this “flies in the face of our entire history as an American republic.” “Who knows best what is...
What’s behind COVID-19 racial health disparities?
Soon after COVID-19 infection rates began to skyrocket in New York City and other densely populated urban areas, progressives and Democrats demanded data on the racial disparities of testing, treatments, and deaths. The data showed that blacks and Latinos were much more likely to die from the virus than whites and Asians. As expected, progressives moved to explain these disparities in terms of structural, systemic injustice in America’s health care system: Such injustice follows the country’s material and economic inequality....
Acton Line podcast: What is Christian humanism? A conversation with Bradley J. Birzer
Bradley J. Birzer, professor of history and the Russell Amos Kirk Chair in American Studies at Hillsdale College, joins this episode of Acton Line to speak about his newest book, “Beyond Tenebrae: Christian Humanism in the Twilight of the West.” What is Christian humanism and what role does it play in the Republic of Letters? What does it mean to live as a Christian humanist? Birzer helps lay down some of the foundational ideas in his book and explains the...
How John Paul II reminded us that liberty and truth are inseparable
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the late John Paul II’s birth, it’s worth underscoring that one theme which permeated his pontificate from its beginning to the end was that of truth. Many remember Pope John Paul II as playing a crucial role in Eastern Europe’s liberation from Marxist tyranny. But he also insisted that liberty needed to be grounded in and guided by the truth knowable via reason and faith. If freedom and truth e separated—as they...
The making and unmaking of European democracy
If there is anything that we have learned over the past five years of political turmoil in Western countries, it is that large numbers of people across the political spectrum are increasingly dissatisfied with the workings of modern democracy. These trends reflect, as numerous surveys illustrate, deep distrust of established political parties and, more particularly, those individuals whose careers amount to a series of revolving doors between elected office, government service, the academy, and politically-connected businesses. What’s often missing from...
We must cure the global pandemic of loneliness
Millions of people within our country are experiencing extreme social isolation and loneliness. In a time defined by a pandemic and lockdowns, one would naturally expect people to feel this way, being cut off from family, friends, and neighbors. In actuality, the coronavirus has just exacerbated an existing pandemic that had been plaguing the United States for many years: a broad cultural trend of increased social isolation and alienation. Long before the coronavirus started, large segments of our society were...
For St. John Paul II’s 100th birthday, Italy gets gift of religious freedom
Today, May 18, is a very good day, indeed. It is a heroic day for the Italian Catholic Church on the 100th anniversary of Pope St. John Paul II’s birth. There could not be a better birthday gift from a saint who, fluent in 13 languages, was a veritable Paraclete-on-earth. He spoke courageously and often, raising his voice against persecution of religious freedom. He did so not just in his munist Poland, but throughout the entire secularized world. By the...
Rev. Sirico: How central planning created tunnel vision on COVID-19 response
Did central planning in health care and government make the COVID-19 pandemic worse by making the response more ineffective? Rev. Robert Sirico, president and co-founder of the Acton Institute, offers his thoughts on how centralization in health care and the economy has marginalized other perspectives and pushed aside notions of subsidiarity. ...
Awe and wonder: The keys to curbing COVID-19 hubris
In our information age, armchair economists and epidemiologists are many. Society remains deeply divided—preoccupied with social media squabbles over the credibility of our leaders and the rightness or wrongness of their proposed solutions. Of course, the actual experts are divided, as well. Scientists and researchers are still arguing over the validity of various mathematical models. Inventors, businesses, munity institutions have adopted wide-ranging approaches to adapt to the virus. Governors and legislators remain split on how to interpret the bigger picture—weighing...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved