The feast of Booths - Feast of Ingathering (Chag Ha-Asif)
and Simchat Torah or Rejoicing in the Law
and Shimini Atzeret the eighth day
"Baruch ata Adonai, Eloheynu, Melech ha Olam, asher kidshanu b'mitzvo-sav, vi'tsavanu lay-shave ba- sukkah"
"Blessed art thou O Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who has sanctified us with His mitzvot , and instructed us to sit in the sukkah" www.aish.com/holidays/sukkot/default.asp
(Sukkot - Tabernacles ( or Booths ) is found in Deuteronomy 16 starting at v13, Celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. Be joyful at your Feast--you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. For seven days celebrate the Feast to the LORD your God at the place the LORD will choose. For the LORD your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.
Also, Leviticus 23 v39-43 says, " `So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the LORD for seven days; the first day is a day of rest, and the eighth day also is a day of rest. On the first day you are to take choice fruit from the trees, and palm fronds, leafy branches and poplars, and rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days. Celebrate this as a festival to the LORD for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month. Live in booths for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in booths so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.' "
( Sukkot is the plural form of Sukkah - adding "ot" in Hebrew is equivalent to adding an "s" in English )
(Sukkot is pronounced as "sue coat" - emphasis on the second syllable )
Sukkot
is the seventh of the seven feasts in Torah (the five books
of Teaching (Law) )
( Remember seven is
for completeness) Tabernacles
is the only feast with specific instructions to Rejoice.
(Tabernacles is reckoned by scholars to be the time of Yeshua's birth. ) (see also Dates in the Christian Calendar)
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Simchat Torah (Rejoicing in the Torah) is celebrated on 22nd Tishrei, the day after the end of Tabernacles, and marks the reading of the last portion of Torah and the reading of the first portion in the next year. (Torah is read right through every year) The Torah scrolls are carried around the synagogues with great joy, sometimes with dancing, and possibly spilling out onto the streets and throwing candies to the children. (Perhaps we could enthuse this much about our Bibles) 22nd Tishrei, The day after the end of Tabernacles is also celebrated as Shmini Atzeret; the eighth, extra, day of assembly. Someone said that it is like God saying, "Wasn't that good to celebrate together - lets have one more day." It culminates the celebration of renewal and thanksgiving and invokes anticipation of the Messianic Age. Memorial ( Yizkor ) services are said in synagogue in remembrance of family members and friends who have died.
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Tabernacles
/ Booths
Looking back
The
Hebrews in the Exodus had to live in booths for 40 years because of their
unbelief and
Sukkah would be better translated as shed or shack or shelter *, and the nature of the sukkah in which Jews eat their meals at this time is a reminder of the transitory nature of this life and the need for humility before our God. The shelter could also be a reminder of the shelter which field labourers lived in during harvest time or even the shelters in Jerusalem that accommodated the masses of pilgrims for the feast.
* Tabernacle is a translation of Mishkan - which is the "Tent of Meeting" which preceded the Temple in Jerusalem.
Booths
Now and Looking forward
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At
Tabernacles Jews build booths outside, roofed with branches. They decorate them with Living and eating in a Sukkah is a reminder that our "bricks and mortar" life is only temporary and that we should not cling too tightly to it. Just as the weather gets cooler and we feel satisfied and comfortable after the harvest, God tells us to go and live in shacks for a while. Think on this. |
The Four Species
The
Jews have a pictorial ritual using a citron (or Etrog) and branches from three trees, bound together,
representing four sorts of
At various times during the celebrations, the four species ( Arba minim ) are waved in all six directions (North, South, East, West, up and down) to emphasise that God is everywhere. They are also carried in procession around the bimah in the synagogue. The processions, carrying the arba minim are called Hoshannas because a prayer including the refrain Hosha na is recited. Hosha na means "Save us". (Here we have the connection with palm branches and hosannas as Yeshua rode into Jerusalem)
| Etrog sweet taste
& smell,
( Citron - a citrus fruit looking like a lemon) |
|
like
people who read torah and do good |
| Lulav Sweet taste no smell
( Date palm branches/ leaves) |
like people who read torah but don't do good | |
| Hadas no taste
sweet smell
Myrtle branches/leaves |
like people who don't read torah but do good |
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| ARaVah no taste or smell
Willow branches/leaves |
like people who don't read torah or do good |
|
| GOD
looks after us all but wants us all to be like the Etrog.
This is true to a point, but suggests that many Jews have missed the point
of redemption by faith. |
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The
booths and the special meals eaten in them celebrate GOD'S goodness in another
harvest and
The
roofs of the booths are loosely made so that it is possible see through them to heaven and remember
the
Being a harvest
festival, fruit and vegetables feature prominently in the celebrations.
Dishes such as stuffed cabbage (Holishken), aubergine dishes and Apple Strudel
are popular. The celebration also looks forward to the next
year.
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Temple rituals
at Tabernacles
Simchat
bet ha Sho'ebhah
- Joy of the House of Drawing (water) - Ceremony of Water
Every
morning of the feast there was a joyous procession to the Pool of Siloam, with
music, headed by a priest with a golden pitcher (a little over 2
pints). At the same time there was a procession to the Kidron Valley to
collect willow branches which were made into a canopy over the altar of burnt
offerings. As the sacrifice proceeded, the priest returning with the water
entered through the Water Gate (named for this event). With a threefold
trumpet blast he poured the water into a silver receptacle on the altar.
The actual Pool of Siloam has recently been discovered a little further down this water course. See ....The Pool of Siloam
The
rainy season begins after Tabernacles. Rain is needed to soften the ground ready for
ploughing.
Lighting
the Temple
In
this seasonal celebrations the people remembered that as well as
At the end of the first day of Tabernacles, the worshippers congregated in the Court of Women where a great illumination took place. Four huge golden lamps or candelabras, each with four golden bowls were filled with oil by four youths of priestly descent. They had to use four ladders for this task. According to the saying, "There was not a court in Jerusalem that was not lit up by it". Around the lamps a sacred dance was conducted by hassidim (saints) and prominent leaders with flaming torches in their hands. This was accompanied by Levites playing harps, lutes, cymbals, trumpets and "instruments without number" standing on the fifteen steps leading up from the Court of Women to the Court of Israel, according to the "songs of Degrees" in Psalms.
The symbolism of this event looked back and forward
In the past God led Israel in the wilderness with the pillar of fire and His Shekeinah had dwelt in the Tabernacle and the first Temple (but not in the second Temple)
In the future Messiah would be the light of YHVH arising on the people
Hashanna Rabba - The Great Hossana
On
the last day of the feast ( 21st Tishrei. )
-
The day of the
Great Hosanna was celebrated. It
was the climax of the day that was the climax of the whole season of
feasts / holy days.
A joyous crowd assembled, carrying palm branches a couple of metres in length. It was said to resemble a forest in motion if seen from a rooftop. There was silence in the crowd as the priest said the Hallel (praise) Psalm 118, to which the people responded at every line with Halleluyah. The people processed seven times around the altar.
As
they got to verses 25 - 29 they joined in with the words "Hossana, make thy
salvation now manifest, o Lord" and "O Lord send now
prosperity" and they would wave their palm branches. As they
reached the words "Baruch haba bashem Adonai"
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD", the godly would
greet the coming Messiah in their hearts, knowing it applied to Him.
The joy of this celebration became proverbial. "He that has not seen Simchat bet ha Sho'ebhah has not seen joy in this life"
It
was on this "last great day of the feast", the day of messianic
expectation, that Jesus said, "If anyone is thirsty let him come to me and
drink"
(John 7 v37).
Tabernacles is the only feast to have an extra day. It has been suggested that the LORD is saying to his people at the end of the Feast, "Hasn't this been good? Lets spend another day together." The people will have gone back into their homes but the rejoicing continues on this crowning day, which celebrates the completion of renewal and invokes anticipation of the Messianic age. The eighth day in scripture speaks of resurrection and new beginnings, so this day, coming at the end of the cycle which leads up to the Ingathering, speaks of the consummation of all things. It looks to the end of the earthly rest (The seventh Millenium) in the commencement of eternal heavenly glory. (See Revelation 21 and 22)
John chapter eight tells us that it was on the day after the Hoshanna Rabbah that Jesus was back in the Temple, where he said, "I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light which gives life." (John 8 v12) Clearly the significance of the Lighting of the Temple would still have been fresh in the minds of those present on this day of great messianic hope.
| In spite of this most of the religious leaders rejected him, because ... | a |
they loved their rituals more than they loved their GOD. |
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b |
They wanted what GOD would do for them politically not spiritually. |
Thus
the
majority missed out on entering their rest in their hearts; but also as a nation.
( Remember, when Jesus/ Yeshua wept over Jerusalem he said "....if only you
had known on this day what would bring you peace." )
The Significance of Tabernacles for non Jews ( Goyim - the Nations)
Tabernacles was the first feast to be rediscovered by Christians. Why is it relevant and how does it fit into God's plans?
The Nations
The bundle of the four species is waved to all four points of the compass, signifying that the ministry is to the whole world through God's chosen people of priests (Israel). Also, seventy bulls were sacrificed during Sukkot; seventy being the number of nations in the known world at that time. Thus Sukkot is a feast for the nations - not just Israel.
Tabernacles figures prominently in the last chapters of Zechariah. The prophet talks of the nations coming to attack Jerusalem and then, after God has defeated them, of the nations coming up to Jerusalem at Tabernacles. Clearly this talks of representatives of the nations (the armies first, and then the nations' chosen representatives)
Remember that Tabernacles is all about the culmination or completion of God's purposes, when Jerusalem is the metropolis of God's Kingdom on Earth - not just of Israel. Tabernacles is also about Ingathering. The Talmud and the Mishna single out Tabernacles as being prophetic of when, after Israel's national Day of Atonement, the nation will be the channel of blessing for the world - spreading the knowledge of their Messiah over the whole earth.
This is certainly something to look forward to and many Christians are already, voluntarily representing their nations at this feast. (see Tabernacles snaps ) It is also well worth celebrating for all its teaching value, even at home.
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Jesus
as fulfillment He
is the Tabernacle of GOD. In him all the fullness of GOD dwells
(John 1 v14)
(For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form -
Col 2 v9)
If we are correct in believing he was born at Tabernacles, this fulfils the
point of Tabernacles as he left his home in Glory and came to dwell in a frail
mortal body. He
is GOD in our midst ( For where two or three come together in my name, there I
am with them -
Matt 18v20) The
ultimate fulfillment will be his second coming to take us to our rest. Until
then he is the rest for our souls (Come
unto me and rest all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest
Matt 11 v28
) We should not be asking for things from Jesus - not for
Jesus to give us life - he is our life; not to give us rest - he is our rest. Click the picture to hear the Shema blessing - "Hear o Israel, the Lord our God the Lord is One. Blessed be His name, whose glorious kingdom is forever" |
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Our
walk
The
seventh step in our walk - spiritual maturity - rest in our souls.
Paul
spoke of having reached this point (
Phil3v12-14
"Not that I have
already obtained all this
Prophetic - End Times
Zechariah 14 v16 talks of the Nations coming up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. Since 1980, the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem has sponsored a feast for Christians from many nations around the World. These Christians delight to go and share with Israel and stand with Israel. It is a wonderful time of coming together for Christians and Jews, but merely a foretaste of what is to come. The 2000 (5761) feast coincided with the flare-up of conflict. The Jerusalem Post observed that, "The Jews are canceling but the Christians are still coming." The Jewish families watching the parade through the streets of Jerusalem (it went ahead as usual) were even more welcoming than usual. They were so touched by the love and support of Christians from around the World. See Tabernacles snaps
Ultimately,
the
fulfillment will be rest for planet Earth when Messiah has come and taken up his
rule on Earth
This
will be the thousand year Shabbat, THE Millenium.
Isaiah 51 v11 says, "The ransomed of the LORD will
See also End Times Prophecies and the Future of Israel
Some concluding thoughts
Remember, the cycle of seven feasts starts with Pessach, the feast of deliverance, and ends with Sukkot, the feast of ingathering and rejoicing at God's keeping during our journey of faith. We can only celebrate the last feast if we started our journey at the first feast !
The ingathering/culmination of forty years wandering brought the childen of Israel into the land God promised them for ever! We are seeing Jews making Aliyah (being ingathered) from all the nations. Surely this is an end times sign.
Romans 11 (the wildolive teaching) talks of "And so all Israel shall be saved" and of "until the full number of the gentiles have come in." Is not this the final ingathering of the cultivated and the wild branches together; finally united in Yeshua.
Much of the material for this page comes from "The Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah" by David Baron ( see Books)