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Tag Archive for: First Day of Sukkot

First Day of Sukkot – יוֹם רִאשׁוֹן שֶׁל סֻכֹּת (Leviticus 23:33-44)

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This Week’s Torah Portion: First Day of Sukkot – יוֹם רִאשׁוֹן שֶׁל סֻכֹּת (Leviticus 23:33-44)

While the Temple is the embodiment of the Jewish place, the Sukkah is perhaps the embodiment of the Jewish space. It is not planted in a specific geographical place, it can be erected anywhere in the world, and it becomes a Sukkah when it is erected according to the guiding principles, especially when daily life is carried out in it during the seven days of Sukkot. The sukkah is a unique Jewish space because it is a space that is, on the one hand, festive, and on the other hand, includes the everyday grind within it.

The Sukkah is a kind of house located outside. It allows the Jewish person to live inside even when they cannot be inside, to be at home even when they are under the dome of heaven. The Sukkah says that a Jewish space can exist anywhere and that even when there is no stable home, we can create stability through the actions we do and the actions we take in the world. The apparent impermanence of the Sukkah is not impermanence, but a declaration of stability in an ephemeral world.

Parsha First Day of Sukkot – יוֹם רִאשׁוֹן שֶׁל סֻכֹּת Summary:

In these verses, we are instructed to observe the festival of Sukkot for seven days. The first of the seven days is a sacred day, one on which we refrain from work. Our ancestors brought sacrifices to the Temple on each of the days and lived in a booth. Why would we be expected to dwell in a fragile booth, exposed to the elements? Perhaps it is so that we do not take our possessions for granted. Anyone who has experienced a hurricane or a fire in their home knows just how fragile our dwellings really are. We are told of the lulav and the etrog and we are commanded to rejoice on each of the seven days. How wonderful to be commanded to celebrate! First Day of Sukkot – יוֹם רִאשׁוֹן שֶׁל סֻכֹּת

First Day of Sukkot (Leviticus 23:33-44)

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This Week’s Torah Portion: First Day of Sukkot – יוֹם רִאשׁוֹן שֶׁל סֻכֹּת (Leviticus 23:33-44)

This week we read a special portion from the Torah which calls us to celebrate the harvest festival of Sukkot. In Biblical times they offered sacrifices by fire, gathered the branches of trees and their fruit, and dwelt in temporary shelters for the week of the festival. All this in order to offer thanks to God for redeeming us from slavery in Egypt and bringing us to the Promised Land.

Few of us bring in harvests from our fields and yet we have much to be thankful for as we celebrate this festival of Sukkot. We can offer thanks for the food we eat and the many hands which carefully bring it to our tables. Say a blessing for those who stock our grocery shelves and deliver our food, for those who produce it and bring it forth from the earth, for the earth itself which sustains us, and for God who has created it, and sustained it, and allowed us to celebrate this day. 

.בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הַעוֹלָם שֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ וְקִיְּמָנוּ וְהִגִּיעָנוּ לַזְּמַן הַזֶּה

Baruch Ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, shehecheyanu, v’kiyemanu, v’higianu lazman hazeh.

Parsha First Day of Sukkot Summary:

In these verses, we are instructed to observe the festival of Sukkot for seven days. The first of the seven days is a sacred day, one on which we refrain from work. Our ancestors brought sacrifices to the Temple on each of the days and lived in a booth. Why would we be expected to dwell in a fragile booth, exposed to the elements? Perhaps it is so that we do not take our possessions for granted. Anyone who has experienced a hurricane or a fire in their home knows just how fragile our dwellings really are. We are told of the lulav and the etrog and we are commanded to rejoice on each of the seven days. How wonderful to be commanded to celebrate!