High Holidays · Sukkot and Simchat Torah
What is Sukkot?
Sukkot is a seven-day festival of joy that begins on the 15th of Tishrei, when we leave our solid homes to dwell in a sukkah (booth), remembering how our people lived after leaving Egypt.
A week of dwelling, a week of joy
Five days after Yom Kippur, the mood turns. Sukkot invites us out of our permanent houses and into the סוכה (sukkah, booth) — a temporary shelter with a roof open enough to glimpse the stars. For seven days we eat there, and by custom sleep there, treating the fragile hut as our true home.
The Torah calls it zman simchateinu, the season of our rejoicing. We remember that when Israel came out of Egypt, our shelter was not stone but the care of Heaven that traveled with us through the wilderness.
The source in the Torah
The commandment is spoken plainly in Vayikra (Leviticus) 23:42: בַּסֻּכֹּת תֵּשְׁבוּ שִׁבְעַת יָמִים — "You shall dwell in booths seven days." The reason follows in the next verse: so that the generations may know that the Holy One, blessed be He, sheltered Israel in booths when He brought them out of Egypt.
What to do
Enter the sukkah for the evening meal that opens the festival, and recite the berachah (blessing) leishev basukkah, "to dwell in the sukkah." Then eat, linger, and let the meal become the mitzvah. If you cannot build one, join a community sukkah — the joy is meant to be shared.
Source: Vayikra (Leviticus) 23:42.
When you want the exact candle-lighting time in your own city and the blessings for each day of the festival, let My Jewish Day (siddur, zmanim, the Hebrew calendar) carry you gently through the week.
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