In ancient rabbinic tradition, Sukkot, sometimes called the “Feast of Booths,” is referred to as he-chag, or The Holiday. Today, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are viewed by the vast majority of Jews and Gentiles as the most important of Jewish Holy Days. However, in the biblical period and beyond, until the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans almost two thousand years ago, Sukkot was the quintessence of Jewish spirituality and community, the most significant and sacred of all Jewish ritual events.

Sukkot, along with Pesach (the “Feast of Unleavened Bread”) and Shavuot (the “Feast of Weeks”), was one of the three major pilgrimage festivals. A holy and celebratory occasion that lasted for an entire week, it brought Jewish pilgrims to their capital, Jerusalem, from every corner of the ancient Near East to make offerings at the Temple. Some brought animals that were then sacrificed, both as expressions of gratitude and as atonements for sin; some brought “first fruits,” the very best of their harvests, as this was also an important agricultural period in the ancient land of Israel.

A sukkah, or “booth,” constitutes a key role in the ritual observance of this holiday, and serves two functions. In antiquity, sukkot were the fragile and temporary dwelling places of farmers for their work in the fields during the harvest season, and in that respect they functioned as tools by which to reap the earth’s bounty. These booths were also erected to recall and honor the sojourn (and the rough, impermanent living conditions) of the Israelites as they made their way through the desert wastes of Sinai following their liberation from Egyptian servitude. Once the Second Temple was destroyed and the great Diaspora ensued, forcing the Jewish people to leave agriculture behind, the booths took on greater significance as purely religious and spiritual symbols. In either context, however, the booths represent the glorification of God and God’s role in the redemption of the Jewish people.

Yet the booths represent something else—the transience and fragility of life itself. The great twelfth-century rabbi and philosopher, Moses Maimonides, wrote that a sukkah was not considered kosher, or “fit” according to Jewish law, unless one could see the sky and stars through its roof, which is usually made up of large palm fronds and other delicate, impermanent organic materials. Though it is a custom to eat meals and to even sleep in the sukkah during at least part of the weeklong festival, it is not designed to offer any real protection from the elements. The physical structure and composition of the sukkah, therefore, is also its theological message: in spite of the transitory and often precarious nature of human life, Judaism teaches us that we are nonetheless able—and obligated—to celebrate it with joy and gratitude. Through the celebration of creation, we affirm and celebrate our relationship to the Creator as well.

There are other important features of the Sukkot holiday. In addition to constructing and spending time in booths, it is a Jew’s duty to observe the waving of the “four species,” a hybrid ritual object made up of four distinct and organic materials. The centerpiece or spine of this object is the lulav, a bundle of three types of branches and twigs: a single palm branch, two willow twigs, and three myrtle twigs. All of these are bound together as a single unit. The fourth element of the four species is the etrog, a fragrant citrus fruit that looks and smells very much like a lemon. Once the worshipper holds both the lulav and the etrog together, he or she recites the following blessing: “Blessed are you, Adonai our God, sovereign of the universe, who sanctifies us through your commandments, and commands us to shake the lulav.” Then the four species are waved, or shaken, toward every direction in the world in a circular, symbolic sequence: east (the direction of Jerusalem), south, west, north, up toward the heavens, and down toward the earth.

There are different interpretations of this ritual. One interesting reading comes from the mystical idea that each person who waves/shakes this object is drawing toward them the spiritual forces of the entire universe, and becomes—at least for an instant—the center of the world. It is thus a ritual through which the boundaries between the finite and the infinite vanish.

Communal worship is also of great import during the week of Sukkot, and the observant Jew is expected to attend worship services with others at this time. One of the special readings associated with Sukkot is the book of Ecclesiastes—a book drawn from the wisdom literature of the Hebrew Bible and one which conveys, as does the flimsy sukkah itself, the themes of transience and mortality—and our courageous faith in God even in the face of such awareness. This idea is reinforced with the chanting of special psalms of praise known as Hallel (from which the word “hallelujah” derives).

Some lesser known but beautiful features of Sukkot include inviting into our homes the ushpizin, seven invisible, mystical “guests” to celebrate this joyous holiday with us on each of the seven nights: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, and David. The ushpizin are meant to elevate our spirits and to help us connect with our ancient spiritual heritage.

In biblical times, a sort of Jewish “rain dance” known as the Celebration of the Drawing of the Waters was also a vital part of the Sukkot observance. In the post-Temple, postmodern era, some synagogues have begun to reintroduce (and reinterpret) this little known but remarkably powerful rite, a rite that is described in great detail in the Babylonian Talmud, a 1500-year-old masterwork of rabbinic dialogue, debate, and commentary on scores of religious topics and questions. The “rain dance” involved ceremonial water libations, song, and the recitation of the fifteen Psalms of Ascent (Psalms 120-134) by the Levites at the Temple.