Sukkot

Sukkot (Hebrew סֻכּוֹת or סוּכוֹת, plural of sukkah סֻכָּה " Feast of Tabernacles ", Yiddish Sukkes or Sikkes ) or Feast of Tabernacles is one of the three Jewish pilgrimage festivals. The festival is in the fall, five days after the Day of Atonement, celebrated in September or October and lasts seven days, from 15 to 21 Tishri, the seventh month of the Jewish calendar. In Israel and in some Reform congregations only the first day is a full public holiday, in Orthodox and Conservative communities of the Diaspora, however, the first two days, while the following day half- holidays (Hebrew Chol ha - Moad ) are. The last day of Sukkot is called Hoshana Rabbah, and is considered the last day on which the divine judgments for the year can still be changed. Immediately at the Feast of Tabernacles Shemini Atzeret close, the " Eighth Day of Assembly ", and Simchat Torah, the " Torafreudenfest " to.

History

That in the Bible mentioned several times is hard as the other two Jewish pilgrimage festivals of Passover and Shavuot peasant and probably Canaanite origin and has with them the historical and agricultural dual character together. The festival has already changed a lot in the ancient world for centuries, which is reflected in the biblical and post-biblical texts. In the second book of Moses it is called the " feast of ingathering " (Hebrew Chag ha'Assif ) and only in the fifth book of Moses as the " Feast of Tabernacles " ( Chag ha'Sukkot ) with a seven-day period: "If not only the grain, but also the wine harvest is brought in, ye seven days celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. Commits it as a festival of joy with your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levites in your town, the strangers who live among you, the orphans and widows. " Likely with the tabernacles here the shade shelters be referring to the fields as the harvest are also today in the Middle East at the time still in use. Only after the Babylonian exile, the date is set to the 15th of the seventh month and Sukkot at a historic festival which is justified by the wandering in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt and living in booths during the feast period prescribed. According to tradition, King Solomon is said to have inaugurated the temple in Jerusalem at Sukkot, and is in the Messianic age, the prophet Zechariah, Sukkot be a universal, associated with rain festival, to which all the neighboring nations will make pilgrimages to Jerusalem.

In Mischnatraktat Sukkah the ceremonies at the time of the Second Temple are listed, in particular the Water-lifting ceremony, just as the processions with fruits and tree and palm branches, the "four kinds" of plants (Hebrew אַרְבָּעָה מִינִים Arba'a minim ), in which psalms were sung, are associated with rain. In John's Gospel Jesus calls on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles those who thirst to what is interpreted in the context of an at that time from the first to the last day of the feast usual water pumping ceremony. The historian Flavius ​​Josephus describes the festival as an eight -day celebration, during which lived in huts and sacrificed in the temple, in Philo of Alexandria, it is available as a seven-day harvest festival, the a eighth day shall be attached to crown, in sign of equality and justice.

After the destruction of the temple remained are: the seven -day festival of Sukkot, the Atzeret on the eighth day, the sukkah, the Arba'a minim and the Hallel prayer and the prayer for rain on the eighth day.

Sukkot today

The seven-day Sukkotfest is today, especially outside Israel, only for observant Jews of importance. By contrast, the pleased on the Feast of Tabernacles following Torafreudenfest especially for families with children great popularity.

Sukkah

Religious Jews build in memory of the exodus from Egypt, when the Israelites lived in temporary dwellings each year to Sukkot where to place it offers - in the garden, in the yard, in the parking lot, balcony or roof - one with branches, straw or foliage -covered hut, sukkah, which must be under the open sky. Which meals are when the weather allows it in her, taken during the seven-day duration of the festival; particularly law-abiding Jews even stay in the Feast of Tabernacles. Create Jewish communities usually a Gemeindesukka, which hosts the Kiddush after the service and other receptions during the Sukkotfestes.

Worship

Based on the ancient harvest festival and associated with rain and fertility ceremonies Arba'a be worn minimally during Sukkot to worship in the synagogue. They consist of the bound to a solid bunch of palm branch ( in Hebrew Lulav ), the the ostrich gives the name, three myrtle branches (Hebrew Hadassim ) and two willow branches (Hebrew Arawot ) that are worn on the right hand and the etrog, a variety of citron, which is held in the left hand. The Arba'a minim be turned over during the Hallel prayer in six directions, first to the east, then south, to west, north to the top and then to bottom. Towards the end of worship is a move (Hebrew Hakkafot ) instead, in which one or several Torah scrolls to the lectern be worn and those present in Orthodox communities, only men, minim with the follow Arba'a, in memory of the Talmud traditional processions around the altar in the Temple in Jerusalem. On the seventh, the last day, Hoshana Rabbah ( the great Hoshana, German Hosiana, help yet! ), Is not only a move, but their seven place while being prayed for a good harvest. After five tied together willow branches are knocked off five times, also. Remembering the traditions of the processions at the time of the Second Temple, according to which on this day willow branches were carried seven times around the altar in a procession Only since posttalmudischer Hoshana Rabba time is regarded as the day on which the verdicts issued by God on the Day of Atonement for the individual annual be binding.

Sukkot as a place name

In the Hebrew Bible, Sukkot appears in various also as a place name. Thus, the first village that reach the Israelites in the exodus from Egypt, called Sukkot. She was lying, it shall be presumed in the Nile Delta. Another ' Sukkot ' named place was located near the Jordan River in the territory of the tribe of Gad.

Sukkot Events

Sukkot is celebrated on the following dates:

• 2013: September 19 to September 25
• 2014: October 9 to October 15
• 2015: September 28 to October 4

Note: Jewish holidays begin the evening before each of the specified day.