Four days after Yom Kippur, on the evening of the 14th of the month of Tishrei (this year – on the evening of September 25), a new stage of the celebrations of the month of Tishrei begins – the time of the holiday of Sukkos, followed by Shmini Atzeres and Simchas Torah. But preparation for Sukkos begins immediately after Yom Kippur, emphasizing the continuity of this period – it is precisely on the night after the conclusion of the Day of Atonement that it is customary to begin building the sukkah.
We will try to briefly provide our readers with information about the main elements of the holiday, but we recommend turning to the synagogues for more precise guidance from qualified and experienced specialists, for the details of observing the mitzvos of Sukkos are complex and numerous.
Sukkos differs radically from the first holidays of the month of Tishrei, where the main motif was repentance, teshuvah, and Judgment. If the beginning of the month of Tishrei is permeated with an atmosphere of repentance, of striving to elevate oneself spiritually and ascend toward the Divine, then the second part of the month has a different meaning – to bring the Divine into the world, to be so imbued with all that He has commanded as to evoke great joy.
The content of this radical transition is beautifully expressed in the book of Tehillim: “Light is sown for the righteous, and for the upright of heart – joy.” After our hearts have been made straight on Yom Kippur, the joy and tranquility of the holiday of Sukkos arrives.
And indeed, speaking of the holiday of Sukkos, the Torah mentions joy three times:
“And you shall rejoice before the L-rd seven days” (Vayikra 23);
“And you shall rejoice in your festivals…” (Devarim 16);
“And you shall be only joyful” (Devarim 16).
Therefore, in the Holy Books, wherever it simply says “the festival,” it refers to the festival of Sukkos.
This holiday is also called in the Torah the “festival of the harvest” – as it falls precisely at this time. It begins on the 15th of Tishrei and continues for seven days, and the eighth day is a separate holiday called Shmini Atzeres, when we no longer sit in the “sukkah” – the booth that concentrates within itself the entire essence of the holiday of Sukkos.
Shmini Atzeres is so called because the Torah says of it: “On the eighth day [shmini] there shall be a solemn assembly [atzeres] for you – you shall do no manner of work” (Bamidbar 29). Literally, the word atzeres means “detention.” Why this holiday is called precisely this is explained by the Midrash: “The Almighty said to the Jews at the conclusion of the seven days of Sukkos: ‘Please, stay with Me one more day – it is hard for Me to part with you!…'”
In all countries outside of Eretz Yisrael, Shmini Atzeres is the eighth day after the beginning of Sukkos, and Simchas Torah is the ninth, in accordance with the rule of doubling the festive days in the Diaspora. (In the Land of Israel, Shmini Atzeres is combined with the holiday of Simchas Torah.)
The first two days of Sukkos have the status of “Yom Tov” (in Eretz Yisrael – only the first), and the days between them and Shmini Atzeres are designated as “Chol HaMoed,” that is, “festive weekdays.”
Sukkos is one of the three festivals in the year on which the Torah commands all the children of Israel to gather in Jerusalem and celebrate them there.
Sukkos is very rich in mitzvos. The main ones, performed in our time, can be combined into two groups – those connected with the sukkah and those connected with the “four species.” In the times when the Jerusalem Temple stood (and when it will stand again), the mitzvos of the festive sacrifices and the sacrifices expressing festive joy were in effect on Sukkos.
However, in the celebration of Sukkos, even in the most distant country, motifs are always heard that refer us to the times of the Temple service. This is especially vividly manifested in the “Simchas Beis HaShoeivah” – the rejoicing over the water libation on the altar (nisuch hamayim) and in the ancient custom, introduced by the prophets, of beating the ground with willow branches on the day of Hoshana Rabbah, the concluding day of Sukkos.
Hoshana Rabbah, as it were, restores the connection with the motifs of the beginning of the month of Tishrei, with the motifs of Judgment and repentance, for Jewish tradition says that on Sukkos the Almighty judges not each individual separately, but the entire world as a whole, deciding how much rain will fall this year, how much fruit the trees will bear, what the harvest will be. But on Hoshana Rabbah, all personal matters begun on Rosh Hashanah are “closed” in Heaven – “on the seventh day of the festival, the final verdict is sealed.”
Therefore, Hoshana Rabbah partly resembles Yom Kippur. As on Yom Kippur, on this day repentance and prayer are especially important. On this day, several prayers are recited – Hoshanos; willow branches, also called Hoshanos, are taken in hand; and the Torah scroll lying on the platform in the center of the synagogue is circled seven times, similar to how the priests in the Temple circled the altar on this day.
We will describe in more detail further on what a sukkah should be, how to correctly observe the mitzvos concerning the booth, and the mitzvah of the “four species.”
