Lesson on Sukkot, or Feast of Tabernacles:

 

This is the 7th and final feast given to the Jews.  They were to prepare small huts (or booths) and take their meals in them.  I once had a Jewish friend email me pictures of the makeshift hut that they constructed inside their apartment as they celebrated this festival.  The word sukkot comes from sukkah which means hut (or booth).  The sukkah was to remember the temporary dwellings that the Jews lived in during their wilderness journey through the desert after they fled Egypt.

 

After the Jews reached the promised land Sukkot became associated with the Fall harvest and became known as the Chag ha-Asif, or the Festival of the Ingathering.

 

The Torah states that the festival was 7 days long, but an 8th day was added.  I am unclear as to why.

 

Blessings are repeated during the festival.  “Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us by His commandments, and instructed us concerning the waving of the palm branch.” Then the shehekeyanu is said: “Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the universe, for keeping us in life, for sustaining us, and for helping us reach this day.”

 

Each day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the people in the Temple courtyard would hold their lulavs (palms tied with golden string) and make a circular procession around the altar. During the procession they would pray a prayer that came to be known as Hoshanos. It is a prayer for God’s blessing, ending each phrase of the prayer with the word hoshana (“Please save” or “save now!”).  Traditionally, Psalm 27 is also recited at the service of the Feast of Tabernacles.

 

Another practice during the celebration was the pouring of water into a basin.  This pictured the Fall rains.  Secondly, it pictured the coming of the Messiah and His kingdom in which the Holy Spirit would be poured on Israel and believers of all nations. This ritual of water pouring was continued for six days and concluded the Feast of Tabernacles. This last day was called the “Day of the Great Hosanan” (Hoshannah Rabbah). The word “Hoshannah” means to “save now” and applied to the feast became “Hosanna” which looked forward to the coming of the Messiah.  This was what the Jews cried out when Jesus entered Jerusalem on the back of a colt.

 

An interesting side note about the Festival of Tabernacles is that it will be celebrated during the Millennial epoch. 

 

Zechariah 14:16
And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

YBIC

Bruce Baber