This week we will talk about one of the biggest holidays to biblical authors. Only Pesach (Passover) gets more attention than Sukkot in the Tanach. Unlike Pesach where the origins of the practices are detailed explicitly, the origin for the practices of Sukkot, as we'll see, are more mysterious.
Sukkot in the
Torah
In
the Torah, Sukkot
is discussed in all the same places that we talked about a couple
weeks ago when we discussed RoshHashannah. Using
the same tentative chronological ordering that we introduced then, we start with the earliest mention, which is a very brief
mention in Exod. 34:22
"and the feast of ingathering at the turn of the year."
A similarly brief mention occurs in Exod. 23:16
"and
the feast of ingathering, at the end of the year, when thou gatherest
in thy labours out of the field."
In
these two places,
the holiday is called Hag
Ha-asif,
and
is identified, along with Pesach,
called,
Hag Hamatzot, and
Shavuot
(Hag
Ha-Katzir
in Exod. 23). The
other times Sukkot is mentioned are much more extensive. Starting in Devarim
(Deuteronomy)
we have 16:13-16
"13
Thou shalt keep the feast of tabernacles (Sukkot)
seven days, after that thou hast gathered (Aspechah)
in from thy threshing-floor and from thy winepress. 14
And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy
daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite,
and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within
thy gates. 15
Seven days shalt thou keep a feast unto the LORD thy God in the place
which the LORD shall choose; because the LORD thy God shall bless
thee in all thine increase, and in all the work of thy hands, and
thou shalt be altogether joyful. 16
Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy
God in the place which He shall choose; on the feast of unleavened
bread, and on the feast of weeks, and on the feast of tabernacles;
and they shall not appear before the LORD empty "
There are two other places where the holidays are discussed. Once in Vayikra (Leviticus) and once in Bamidbar (Numbers). The one in Bamidbar comes in a description of all the sacrifices that exist, both daily and on holidays. It comprises all of chapters 28 and 29, with Sukkot starting on 29:12. The only things we'll note here is that the date is explicit, Sukkot (not named explicitly, but referred to as a Hag) starts on the 15th day of the 7th month. Here we also see the 8th day being referred to as an Atzeret.
The
mention in Vayikra
is more interesting. Chapter 23 says:
"33
And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 34
Speak unto the children of Israel, saying: On the fifteenth day of
this seventh month is the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto
the LORD. 35 On the
first day shall be a holy convocation; ye shall do no manner of
servile work. 36
Seven days ye shall bring an offering made by fire unto the LORD; on
the eighth day shall be a holy convocation unto you; and ye shall
bring an offering made by fire unto the LORD; it is a day of solemn
assembly (Atzeret); ye shall do no manner of servile work. 37
These are the appointed seasons of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim
to be holy convocations, to bring an offering made by fire unto the
LORD, a burnt-offering, and a meal-offering, a sacrifice, and
drink-offerings, each on its own day; 38
beside the sabbaths of the LORD, and beside your gifts, and beside
all your vows, and beside all your freewill-offerings, which ye give
unto the LORD."
This comes at the end of a list of all the holidays (like in Devarim and Bamidbar) and concludes with the standard way the Torah uses to indicate that a section is complete. Verse 37 starts with the word Eileh, which always is used as marker that a section is beginning or ending. However, right afterwards, the Torah pulls a "but wait there's more" moment. The next few verses read.
"39
Howbeit[1] on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have
gathered in the fruits of the land, ye shall keep the feast of the
LORD seven days; on the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the
eighth day shall be a solemn rest. 40
And ye shall take you on the first day the fruit of goodly trees,
branches of palm-trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the
brook, and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days. 41
And ye shall keep it a feast unto the LORD seven days in the year; it
is a statute for ever in your generations; ye shall keep it in the
seventh month. 42
Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are home-born in Israel
shall dwell in booths; 43
that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to
dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am
the LORD your God. 44
And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the appointed seasons
of the LORD."
This
is the only mention in the Torah of the commandments to sit in booths
and to gather the lulav
and
esrog. Indeed
it is the only reference in all of Tanach
about these commandments, and it appears as a sort of addendum to a
holiday list.
The explanation for why you sit in booths is also troubling. It says
that God made the Israelites dwell in booths when they left Egypt,
but nowhere in the narrative regarding the Exodus from Egypt is this
discussed. Rabbis have had to invoke various midrashic
interpretations in order to explain this, for example, the reference is to the ananei hakavod, the clouds of glory, vaguely hinted at in the text.
The only other mention of Sukkot in the Torah is a short appearance in Deut. 21:10-11 where there is a commandment for the king to read the
Torah on that day.
Sukkot elsewhere in Tanach
There are other
mentions of the holidays of the seventh month, not necessarily as
Sukkot. 1 Kings 8 describes the dedication of
the temple. Verse 2 reads:
"And all the men of Israel assembled themselves unto king Solomon at
the feast, in the month (yerach)
Ethanim, which is the seventh month (hodesh)."
The rest of the chapter goes on to
describe the dedication procedures. The length of the holiday is
described in verse 65:
So Solomon held the feast at that time, and all Israel with him, a
great congregation, from the entrance Hamath unto the Brook of Egypt,
before the LORD our God, seven days and seven days, even fourteen
days."
The same topic is covered in 2 Chronicles, chapters 5-7. However, the length of the holiday is described differently, to make it clear that the holiday is actually only seven days. It also mentions the Atzeret [2].
"8
So Solomon held the feast at that time seven days, and all Israel
with him, a very great congregation, from the entrance of Hamath unto
the Brook of Egypt. 9
And on the eighth day they held a solemn assembly (Atzeret);
for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast
seven days."
Yehezkel (Ezekiel) 45 gives a rundown of the holidays, and verse 25 reads
"In the seventh month, in the fifteenth day of the month, in the
feast, shall he do the like the seven days; to the sin-offering as
well as the burnt-offering, and the meal-offering as well as the
oil."
It should be noted that these sacrifices are very different than the ones in Bamidbar [3].Also the holiday is only referred to as a Hag. There is one more place where the holiday is prominently featured, and that deserves its own section.
The Sukkot of Ezra
The Sukkot
that was celebrated during the time of Ezra is described in both Ezra
and Nehemiah. Ezra 3:1-7 relates.
1 And when the seventh month was come, and the children of
Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as
one man to Jerusalem. 2 Then stood up Jeshua the son of
Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of
Shealtiel, and his brethren, and builded the altar of the God of
Israel, to offer burnt-offerings thereon, as it is written in the Law
of Moses the man of God. 3 And they set the altar upon its
bases; for fear was upon them because of the people of the countries,
and they offered burnt-offerings thereon unto the LORD, even
burnt-offerings morning and evening. 4 And they kept the feast
of tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily
burnt-offerings by number, according to the ordinance, as the duty of
every day required; 5 and afterward the continual
burnt-offering, and the offerings of the new moons, and of all the
appointed seasons of the LORD that were hallowed, and of every one
that willingly offered a freewill-offering unto the LORD. 6
From the first day of the seventh month began they to offer
burnt-offerings unto the LORD; but the foundation of the temple of
the LORD was not yet laid. 7 They gave money also unto the
hewers, and to the carpenters; and food, and drink, and oil, unto
them of Zidon, and to them of Tyre, to bring cedar-trees from Lebanon
to the sea, unto Joppa, according to the grant that they had of Cyrus
king of Persia.
Again no mention
is made here of any activities beyond sacrificial services. However,
Nehemiah 8 describes things in more detail. Nehemiah 8:1-3 says
1 all the people gathered themselves together as one man into
the broad place that was before the water gate; and they spoke unto
Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD
had commanded to Israel. 2 And Ezra the priest brought the Law
before the congregation, both men and women, and all that could hear
with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. 3
And he read therein before the broad place that was before the water
gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and
the women, and of those that could understand; and the ears of all
the people were attentive unto the book of the Law.
Now, this occurs
on the first day of the Seventh month, Yom Teruah, or as it's known today, Rosh Hashannah. He does not read it on Sukkot as is
commanded of the king in Devarim. Later, a more striking statement is
made about Sukkot itself.
13
And on the second day were gathered together the heads of fathers'
houses of all the people, the priests, and the Levites, unto Ezra the
scribe, even to give attention to the words of the Law. 14
And they found written in the Law, how that the LORD had commanded by
Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the
feast of the seventh month; 15
and that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in
Jerusalem, saying: 'Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive
branches, and branches of wild olive, and myrtle branches, and palm
branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is
written.' 16 So the people went forth, and
brought them, and made themselves booths, every one upon the roof of
his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of
God, and in the broad place of the water gate, and in the broad place
of the gate of Ephraim. 17 And all the congregation of them
that were come back out of the captivity made booths, and dwelt in
the booths; for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun unto that day
had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great
gladness. 18 Also day by day, from the first day unto the last
day, he read in the book of the Law of God. And they kept the feast
seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly (Atzeret), according
unto the ordinance.
So, the people of Israel, for the first time in over 1000 years, people actually dwell in Sukkot on the holiday of Sukkot. No wonder, there is no reference to this aspect of the holiday elsewhere in Nevi'im and Ketuvim. No one knew about this commandment during those times!
It's important to note the main issues
that Ezra was attempting to resolve. Ezra returned with people from
the Babylonian Exile to Israel. There he encountered several people
who had remained in the land. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah recount
the friction between the two groups. It is possible that there was
also religious friction between various activities, and Ezra
attempted to smooth this over by syncretizing two religious
outlooks.
Putting it all together
Now
we can attempt to assemble the development of this holiday. And
while certain aspects are unknown, we can attempt to fill in the gaps
with reasonable speculations. The early holidays, as recounted in
Shmot were purely
agricultural. They were local holidays to celebrate the harvests and
make offerings to the gods to gain their favor in assisting in future
harvests. It makes sense that his would be the sort of holiday that exists in a decentralized state. Later in Devarim,
the holiday gained a pilgrimage aspect, in which the centrality of
Jerusalem was established, something that makes no sense without a capital city with a central temple. At this time, the holiday was referred to
as Sukkot, and it's
possible that the ritual dwelling in sukkot
occurred at this time, although, this was not canonized by the author of Devarim. It's not clear at all where this
practice first occurred, but we can hypothesize that the activity of dwelling in booths
arose from local Canaanite/Israelite customs.
Later
still, possibly during the exile, the sections in Vayikra
and Bamidbar
were written. There, the actual length of the holiday, seven days
plus an eighth day, Atzeret,
was firmly established. Also, the description of the sacrifices were
expanded, over what was recorded in Yehezkel, possibly meaning to rival in magnitude some of the
sacrificial services performed in Babylonian festivals that Israelite would have experienced.
Finally,
when Ezra returned with the Babylonian captives, he encountered
people who participated in the old Israelite ritual activity of dwelling in booths, something that
may not have been done in Babylon. In order to reconcile these local
practices with what was written about the holiday in Babylon (the Vaykira and Bamidbar passages), Ezra or
someone else of that era, added onto the Vayikra
section the commandments about dwelling in sukkot, as
well as the commandments of lulav and
etrog. Indeed,
Richard Friedman assigns these
verses to the time of Ezra based on the statements in Ezra and Nehemiah indicated some new form of worship, and the bizarre language indicating that makes these commandments appear as an addendum [4]. To the
Babylonian exiles, these practices may have looked like avodah
zarah (idol worship), and might
even have had their roots in cultic practices. In order to justify the practices, the author of these
verses describing dwelling in sukkot rewrites the original
purpose behind these practices as relating to the
Exodus itself, despite their
being no surviving traditions of this.
This is actually a standard practice in Judaism. Take a foreign tradition that is being practiced by Jews, and justify it by relating it to a previous mythical era. In several hundred years, people will have completely forgotten the original origins of the practice, and will only know the sanitized version. In a couple months, we'll see this same procedure occur, albeit it with a more obvious paper trail, with relation to Hannukah candles.
This is actually a standard practice in Judaism. Take a foreign tradition that is being practiced by Jews, and justify it by relating it to a previous mythical era. In several hundred years, people will have completely forgotten the original origins of the practice, and will only know the sanitized version. In a couple months, we'll see this same procedure occur, albeit it with a more obvious paper trail, with relation to Hannukah candles.
The biggest
question is when and where did the idea of dwelling in sukkot
develop. And furthermore, does the dwelling of sukkot give
the holiday its name, in which case it dates prior to the writing of
Devarim, or, does the name come first, possibly deriving from
one of the places named Sukkot. The only thing we can say
with some certitude, is that the practice of dwelling in sukkot
during the holiday either didn't occur or, more likely, was not
officially sanctioned during the monarchial period. If it was observed, the absence of the description of this aspect of the holiday during the various times it is mentioned in these periods, and the statement in Ezra/Nehemiah that the holiday was observed now in a way unlike any during the monarchial period, require some serious explanation.
1. The Hebrew word here translated as "Howbeit" is ach, and is very tricky to translate. Usually something like, but or only. It's tempting to read this as an indication of an addendum, but it is used a couple verses earlier to describe Yom Kippur ↩
2. In general Chronicles and Kings are very similar. However, there are several cases where they differ substantively, like this case where one has an Atzeret and one does not. When these differences are also things discussed in the Torah, the Kings version always agrees with Deuteronomy, and the Chronicles version agrees with elsewhere in the Torah. This is not a coincidence, and may be the subject of a future post.↩
3. You really want to know the differences, huh? Yehezkel in my interpretation has the same sacrifices as the holiday preceeding, Pesach, which has all of those sacrifices. We have a chata'at offering of one cow on the first day and a chata'at of a goat on all seven days. The olah offerings are seven cows and seven rams for each day. The meal and oil offerings are one ephah and one hin respectively. Bamidbar also has a goat for a chata'at offering on all days, but that's the only similarity. There are two rams and fourteen lambs on each day as an isheh (which I think is the same as olah but don't quote me. There are also cows, which decrease from thirteen on the first day to seven on the seventh day. The quantities for the meal and oil are also given in terms of isronot and I'm honestly not going to bother trying to figure out the conversion.↩
4. See R.E. Friedman, "Who Wrote the Bible" Summit 1987 pp 222-223, or the footnote to the appropriate verses in Friedman's "The Bible with Sources Revealed".↩
Another excellent post. I intended to write a post about Succos with a different focus - it has remarkable similarities to fertility cults.
ReplyDeleteI was actually somewhat unsatisfied with what I was able to dig up regarding the origins of the living in sukkot and the arba-minim rituals. Any insight on the origins of those would be appreciated.
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