Tradition Today: Be happy!

Of the three pilgrimage festivals, Pessah, Shavuot and Succot, Succot has always been considered to be the most important.

By REUVEN HAMMER
succot 88 (photo credit: )
succot 88
(photo credit: )
Of the three pilgrimage festivals, Pessah, Shavuot and Succot, Succot has always been considered to be the most important. It earned the title of "The Festival" (1 Kings 8:2) because of its prominence. This can be seen, for example, in the fact that in Temple days the Hallel prayer was recited every day of Succot, while on Pessah it was only said at the beginning of the festival. That is why on the intermediate days of Succot we say the full Hallel, while on those days of Pessah it is only the partial one. Similarly on Hanukka, which originated as a copy of Succot, the full Hallel is recited each day. While on Pessah the sacrifices offered each day are the same, the number of sacrifices offered on Succot is different for each day, as if to demonstrate that each day has its own importance. As Jacob Milgrom has pointed out, five times as many bulls and twice as many rams and lambs are sacrificed on Succot as on Pessah (Numbers 28-29). It is also quite possible that the reason we have a holy day of purification on the 10th of the same month, only five days before Succot, originally was to purify the sanctuary before people could come to it en masse on Succot. In a sense this is very strange. We can understand that Shavuot, being only one day, has lesser weight to it - it is really the conclusion of a long period that begins with Pessah, analogous to Shmini Atzeret, a separate festival that comes as the conclusion of Succot. But should not Pessah have greater importance than Succot? After all, it is the celebration of the central event in our history, the Exodus from Egypt. Surely that is more important than "I caused the Israelites to dwell in succot when I brought them out of the land of Egypt" (Leviticus 23:43). Of course anthropologists tell us that both these holidays are actually adaptations of ancient festivals that existed prior to the Exodus, agricultural celebrations - Succot of the fall harvest and Pessah both the new lambs (Pessah) and the new spring wheat (matzot), which only later were given historical connotations. That may be so, but is of relatively little importance since so many practices have ancient origins, and what is important is not how they started, interesting as it may be, but what meaning they acquired within the religion of Israel and the Jewish tradition. In this regard there are at least two aspects of Succot that may account for its centrality. One is the fact that it comes at the beginning of the rainy season in the Land of Israel. According to the Mishna, "On the festival [i.e. Succot], the world is judged concerning water" (Rosh Hashana 1:2). The special water drawing ceremony, Simhat Beit Hashoeva, was a way of praying for or helping to assure a rainy season. The use of the agricultural symbols the lulav and etrog may also be seen as signifying the need for rain to produce good winter crops. Because of the lack of ground water in Israel which, unlike Egypt, has no major water sources and therefore was as totally dependent on the rain in ancient days as today, a holiday that could help assure abundant rain would be absolutely vital to the good of the nation. The other aspect that emerged was the belief that Succot has eschatological importance. For whatever reason the prophets saw Succot as a time when the ultimate battle between good and evil would occur with the result that at the conclusion the vision of the entire world coming to worship the same God, the only true God, would be realized. The haftara from Zechariah read on the first day of Succot is devoted to this theme. "All who survive of all those nations that came up against Jerusalem shall make a yearly pilgrimage to bow before the Lord of Hosts and to observe the feast of Succot" (Zechariah 14:16). But in addition to being eschatological, Succot is also a strange but wonderful combination of Judaism's concern with both the universal and the particular. The sages said that the 70 bulls sacrificed on Succot are brought for the welfare of the 70 nations of the world. It is therefore a time when we as Jews show concern for the entire world, for all of humanity. This is as it should be, for the corollary of the idea of one God, one parent, is the brotherhood of humankind. At the same time that we are concerned with our own history, our wandering in the wilderness and the rain needed for our land and our prosperity, we pray for the welfare of all. The lesson is clear: One can cling to one's own particular identity and still be concerned and involved with all humanity and vice versa. No wonder, then, that of all the festivals, it is concerning Succot alone that the Torah commands us "You shall rejoice in your festival... and you shall have nothing but joy!" (Deuteronomy 16:14-15). The writer is an author and lecturer who serves as the head of the Rabbinical Court of the Masorti Movement.