What is "sukkot"

n. (plural of sukkah English)

Sukkot or Succot ( or , ), in traditional Ashkenazi pronunciation Sukkos or Succos, literally Feast of Booths, is commonly translated to English as Feast of Tabernacles, sometimes also as Feast of the Ingathering. It is a biblical Jewish holiday celebrated on the 15th day of the month of Tishrei (varies from late September to late October). During the existence of the Jerusalem Temple it was one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals (, ) on which the Israelites were commanded to perform a pilgrimage to the Temple.

Sukkot has a double significance. The one mentioned in the Book of Exodus is agricultural in nature – "Feast of Ingathering at the year's end" – and marks the end of the harvest time and thus of the agricultural year in the Land of Israel. The more elaborate religious significance from the Book of Leviticus is that of commemorating the Exodus and the dependence of the People of Israel on the will of God .

The holiday lasts seven days in Israel and eight in the diaspora. The first day (and second day in the diaspora) is a Shabbat-like holiday when work is forbidden, followed by intermediate days called Chol Hamoed. The festival is closed with another Shabbat-like holiday called Shemini Atzeret (two days in the diaspora, where the second day is called Simchat Torah).

The Hebrew word is the plural of sukkah, " booth" or " tabernacle", which is a walled structure covered with s'chach (plant material such as overgrowth or palm leaves). A sukkah is the name of the temporary dwelling in which farmers would live during harvesting, a fact connecting to the agricultural significance of the holiday stressed by the Book of Exodus. As stated in Leviticus, it is also intended as a reminiscence of the type of fragile dwellings in which the Israelites dwelt during their 40 years of travel in the desert after the Exodus from slavery in Egypt. Throughout the holiday, meals are eaten inside the sukkah and many people sleep there as well.

On each day of the holiday it is mandatory to perform a waving ceremony with the Four Species.

The name Sukkot (Succoth) appears in a number of places in the Hebrew Bible as a location:

• An Egyptian Sukkot is the second of the stations of the Exodus. Pharaoh ordered the Israelites to leave Egypt, and they journeyed from their starting point at Rameses to Succoth ( Exodus 12:37). Both appear to be towns within the Land of Goshen, which is generally believed to be in the eastern Delta.
• A separate Sukkot is a city east of the Jordan River, identified with Tell Deir Άlla, a high mound, a mass of debris, in the plain north of Jabbok and about one mile from it ( Joshua 13:27). This is where Jacob, on his return from Padan-aram after his interview with Esau, built a house for himself and made sukkot (booths) for his cattle, ( Genesis 33:17). In the book of Judges the princes of Sukkot refused to provide help to Gideon and his men when they followed one of the bands of the fugitive Midianites after the great victory at Gilboa. After routing this band, Gideon on his return visited the rulers of the city with severe punishment. "He took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with them he taught the men of Sukkot" ( Book of Judges 8:13-16). Sukkot is also mentioned in relation to the battles of Saul and David ( 1 Samuel 17:1). The foundries for casting the metal-work for the temple were erected here ( 1 Kings 7:46).