What is Sukkot?

Why booths

“You shall live in booths seven days… so that your generations may know that I made the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 23:42–43). The Talmud records two views: real huts, or the clouds of glory that surrounded the people in the desert. Sukkot is also the harvest festival, “the festival of ingathering”, and the Torah calls it a time of joy.

The sukkah

A sukkah needs at least three walls and a roof (schach) of material that grew from the ground and was cut – branches, bamboo, palm leaves – thick enough that there is more shade than sun inside, but loose enough to see stars. It must be under the open sky, not beneath a tree or balcony. Meals with bread are eaten in it; if rain spoils the food, one may go inside.

The four species

Each morning except Shabbat the lulav (palm branch), etrog (citron), three myrtles and two willows are held together, a blessing is said and they are waved in six directions. Hoshanot processions circle the bimah, and on the seventh day, Hoshana Rabbah, seven circuits are made.

After Sukkot

Shemini Atzeret follows on the eighth day; outside Israel the next day is Simchat Torah, when the yearly reading of the Torah is completed and begun again with dancing. In Israel both fall on one day.

Sephardi and Ashkenazi

Customs differ in waving order and in whether one sleeps in the sukkah. See our Sukkot guide.