Or Booths, Ingathering, Heb. Sukkoth
Along with Passover and the Festival of Weeks, one of three major pilgrimage festivals of Judaism. Celebrated for eight days from the 15th of Tishri (September/October), it was Israel’s joyous, thanksgiving, autumnal harvest festival for the ingathering from the threshing floor and the wine press (Exod 23:16; Exod 34:22; Deut 16:13-15). Its main distinctive ritual is the requirement to “dwell in booths” in commemoration of God’s protection of Israel during the wilderness wanderings (Lev 23:39-43; Neh 8:13-18). It was the occasion of the dedication of Solomon’s Temple (1Kgs 8), the public reading of the Torah (every seven years, Deut 31:10-11), and the future ingathering of all nations to Jerusalem to worship God (Zech 14:16).
