From the sources by Eliezer Segal: The Forgotten Festival

by Eliezer Segal

(AJNews) – Sukkot, the festival of Tabernacles, has two principal rituals: (1) the carrying of four species of plants in a procession in the Temple or synagogue, and (2) dwelling in booths. As understood by the rabbinic tradition, these ceremonies are quite distinct and seem to reflect differing aspects of the holiday.

A very different picture seems to emerge from the book of Nehemiah when it describes the great assembly that was convened by Ezra at the return of the Babylonian captivity. On that occasion, Ezra read and expounded from “the book of the Torah of Moses.” On the first day of the seventh month, which coincided with Rosh Hashanah, the people wept as they realized that they were not keeping the festival regulations as prescribed in the Torah, and they had to be encouraged to celebrate it as a joyous feast.

Upon reconvening on the second day,  “they found written in the law which the Lord had commanded through Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month. 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 pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written. So the people went forth and brought them, and made themselves booths… for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun unto that day the children of Israel had not done so.”

Now this account raises numerous difficulties.

For starters: Is it really imaginable that a festival that was commanded in the Torah had not been observed since the earliest days of Israelite history?

This question was taken up by the sages of the Talmud: “Is it possible that King David arose, and yet neither the Jews of his time nor of all subsequent generations constructed sukkahs until the advent of Ezra?” (Indeed, scripture explicitly describes how King Solomon celebrated the festival when he inaugurated the Jerusalem Temple.) The rabbis proposed a rather technical solution to the question, explaining that the holiday had in fact been observed throughout the era of the first Temple, albeit not in exactly the same manner as in the days of Joshua and Ezra.

Critical  biblical historians cite this episode as evidence that the relevant passages in the Torah (what they designate the “Priestly Document”) were later creations that were not composed or redacted until the era of the Babylonian exile, when they were published and circulated to a populace that until then was unfamiliar with Sukkot or other holy days.

Furthermore, from the narrative in Nehemiah it would appear that there was no separate command to take hold of the “lulav” and the other three plant species, but rather that the people fetched those items in order “to make booths.” That is to say, they were the materials out of which the booths were constructed and decorated. Indeed, Rabbi Judah ben Ilai in the Mishnah ruled that a sukkah must be built from the four species.

Although the lists of plants in Nehemiah overlap tantalizingly with those in the Torah, they are not identical. The Torah in Leviticus mentions four items while Nehemiah has five. The overlap includes the branches of “thick trees” which the rabbis equated with myrtle (hadas, whose leaves cluster around the branch), and palm leaves or fronds.

The Torah speaks of an undefined “fruit of a goodly tree” which Jewish tradition identified as the citron, etrog. Nehemiah on the other hand has “olive leaves and oil trees.” This might indicate that the author interpreted the Torah’s “goodly tree” as the olive, the source of valued oil. Many traditional and modern commentators identify the “oil” tree as pine. However, even this does not quite match, inasmuch as the verse refers to leaves and trees (wood), but not to fruit.

Commentators were forced to ingeniously stretch the semantic range of the Hebrew words that normally designate trees, leaves, branches and fruits, in order to turn them into materials suitable for building walls or decorative hangings. Some even suggested that “to make booths” here really meant “to celebrate Sukkot.”

Diverse branches of ancient Judaism took differing positions on these questions.

Philo of Alexandria wrote at considerable length about how dwelling in plain booths commemorates the autumn equinox and the completion of the agricultural ingathering, and brings all humanity to the state of simple equality that is a prerequisite for true justice. In all this he made no mention of a separate ceremony of carrying the “four species.”

Similarly, the Samaritans, who claim to be the authentic remnants of the Israelite tribes who resisted the innovations introduced during the Babylonian exile, insist that the plant species were used for building sukkahs. This was the position generally favoured by medieval Karaite Jews; though some—like the respected fourteenth-century Byzantine scholar Aaron ben Elijah—after making an objective assessment of the scriptural texts and their possible interpretation, leaned towards the rabbinic interpretation even though in principle Karaites rejected the authority of the talmudic tradition.

On the other hand, the ancient book of Jubilees, revered by the Essene sect, described the Sukkot holiday—whose origin it traced back to Abraham—in terms that dovetailed with the rabbinic version: “For it is ordained forever regarding Israel that they should celebrate it and dwell in booths, and set wreaths upon their heads, and take leafy boughs, and willows from the brook. And Abraham took branches of palm trees, and the fruit of goodly trees, every day going round the altar with the branches seven times in the morning.” Similar statements are found in non-rabbinic authors like Josephus Flavius and the Second Book of Maccabees.

With this wealth of opportunities for the interpretation of Sukkot as a celebration of history, nature and spirituality, may we all succeed in making our holiday an event that is truly unforgettable.

Eliezer Segal is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter.

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