MEKUDESHET SUKKOT 2023 by Raphael ben Levi
Sukkot is one of the three feasts of pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Ps.118:28-29 says, “You are my God, and I will praise You – I exalt You! Praise Adonai, for He is good, for His lovingkindness endures forever.” Thanksgiving is a time of gratitude – to rejoice in the bountiful ways God has blessed us. We are thankful to our Father for His love and faithfulness. We never cease giving thanks the Lord our God who always stays close to our side. Amen! May each one of us be blessed as we celebrate together in His presence! In Him is fullness of joy!”
There are various themes running through the feast of Sukkot but joy is the one that sets the tone, Z’man Simchateinu (the Time of our Joy). Scripture states, “Be joyful at your feast, and your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. For seven days celebrate the feast to the Lord your God at the place He will choose. For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.” Deut.16:14,
At Sukkot, we leave the security and comfort of our houses and dwell in a sukkah (a temporary dwelling) exposed to the wind, the cold and the rain. Yet we call it “Z’man Simchateinu”, “Our season of joy”!
The word JOY occurs in the bible 10 times more frequently than the word HAPPINESS because happiness is circumstantial but joy isn’t. In this world, happiness is something many people pursue thinking that somehow it will fill the void but it never does. Joy however, is something that pursues us to the measure we submit ourselves to God.
The Book of Eccles. (“Kohelet” – preacher) is traditionally read on Sukkot which uses the word ‘simcha’ (gladness and joy) 17 times, more so than the whole of the 5 books of Torah combined. Whenever the “Kohelet” reflects upon life he concludes that everything in this world is pointless, (‘hevel’ – futility) yet ends up with the conclusion exhorting everyone to rejoice: (Kohelet 3:12; 3:22; 8:15; 11:8) Things become clearer by examining the word ‘hevel’ that literally means “a shallow breath”. Our mortal lives are just a fleeting breath and Kohelet discovers, as we have already mentioned, that it’s not in the primary pursuit of happiness offered by the world but in joy that we find true meaning through Yeshua as born-again children of the Living God.
A good friend wrote, “ Sukkoth is one of the major biblical feasts and it has every possible indication for happiness, celebration of wealth of food and prosperity, and also of the beginning of the rainy season, and the end of wheat, and fruit and olive harvest. The barns are full, and the new wine is plentiful, and it is a time of celebration…”
Central to Sukkot in Temple times was the Water Libation. Everything about it was characterised by joyful celebration. According to the Mishna (Trac. Sukkah, 5) the levites, would play on musical instruments whilst 2 priests blew silver trumpets on either side of the entrance to the great gate of the Court. The sages claimed that “…whoever has not seen the celebration of the water libation has never experienced the feeling of true joy!” Great lamps of gold were hoisted, with four golden bowls at the top of each lamp and 4 young priests-in-training would climb to the top, carrying immense oil jugs to fill the bowls. It was said that once lighted, there was not a courtyard in all Jerusalem that did not glow with the light that emanated from the celebration in the Temple courtyard. As the people sang, men would dance before them while juggling flaming torches. All of this was done in honour of the Water Libation.
The Water Libation continued for 6 days and lasted the entire night. Everyone could participate in the celebrations even the wise men of the Sanhedrin with dancing, acrobatics and other activities normally only associated with younger enthusiasts, and special elevated balconies were constructed for spectators!
At dawn, the assembly arrived in procession to the Spring of Siloam at the foot of the walls of Jerusalem. One priest carried a special golden decanter and filled it with sparkling spring water. Then the procession returned to the Temple led by the priest who bore the golden vessel who brought it to the altar and poured the water into the silver cup, and offered it up to the Lord.
On the final day of Sukkot, the 7th day, (“Hoshana Rabba”) the Water Libation was not repeated and it was on that day that Yeshua announced to the crowds who had gathered: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink! Whoever puts his trust in me, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water will flow from his inmost being!” (John 7:37–38). Yeshua fulfilled the Water Libation by pouring out His own life for us. On the day when no water was poured, Yeshua pronounced publicly that He was the Water of Life, better than the waters of Siloam!
FOUR SPECIES (‘Arbar Minim’)
“Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick (leafy) trees, and willows of the brook [and make booths of them]; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.“ (Lev.23:40)
In Jewish tradition the
- ‘foilage of beautiful trees’ refer to the etrog (citron)
- ‘Branches of palm trees’ refer to the lulav (palm)
- ‘Boughs of thick (leafy) trees’ refer to the hadasim (myrtle)
- ‘Willows of the brook’ refer to the aravot (willow).
(The four species are grouped together under the inclusive term ‘lulav,’ (PALM branch) since it is the largest and most prominent.)
In Temple times, the arbar minim were brought together as the people pronounced the daily blessing throughout the 7-day period of Sukkot waving them in all directions whilst walking around the altar. Each type of fruit represents 4 types of people that can be compared to Yeshua’s parable of the Sower and the Seed.
- Seed sown on path that was snatched away is like the 1st fruit, the Willow which has no taste or scent – spiritually redundant
- Seed sown in shallow soil is like the 2nd fruit, the Palm which produces dates and has a pleasant taste but no scent, representing a fair-weather believer who is scorched by hard times and falls away from God
- Seed sown among thorns is like the 3rd fruit, the Myrtle which has a beautiful scent but no taste like a person whose testimony is choked by the cares and pleasures of this world.
- Seed sown in good ground is like the 4th fruit, the citron – pleasing scent and taste (Ps.1) a righteous person who has both a good taste and scent.
MESSIANIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SUKKAH
A Sukkah (tabernacle) literally means a “temporary dwelling place” and reminds us of several things:
1. Even though unexpected things can happen in our lives, we have complete security when we abide (tabernacle) in His dwelling place. God promises to cover us in His manifold presence, His Shekinah glory, unto the “Day of Trouble” that Ps.91:15 refers to regarding the end times we are living in.
2. When people make a sukkah they are deliberately constructed incomplete with 3 instead of 4 walls because as a reminder that they are TEMPORARY dwellings reminding us of our own mortality. Scripture states that, “We know that when the tent (of our lives) which houses us here on earth is torn down, (we we pass away) we have a permanent building from God, (our eternal reward) a building not made by human hands, to house us in Heaven.” (2Cor 5:1)
3. Sometimes, the roof of the Sukkah is constructed with openings so one can see the sky which declares His glory. As one gazes upon the starry heavens we are reminded of God’s goodness and faithfulness whose promises never fail! We rejoice with he knowledge that although the Sukkah is incomplete we are complete in Yeshua! And when we take our meals in the Sukkah it reminds us of the precious fellowship we have with Him.
It is interesting that the creation of the universe takes a mere 34 verses of space in Scripture. Yet the making of the tabernacle covers many hundreds of verses—considerably more than ten times as long. Why is this? Our sages offer the following explanation. “The universe is vast. The sanctuary was small, a modest construction of poles and drapes that could be dismantled and carried from place to place as the Israelites journeyed through the wilderness. Given that the length of any passage in the Torah is a guide to the significance the Torah attaches to an episode or law, why devote so much time and space to the Tabernacle? The answer is profound. The Torah is not man’s book of G-d. It is G-d’s book of mankind. It is not difficult for an infinite, omnipotent creator to make a home for humanity. What is difficult is for human beings, in their finitude and vulnerability, to make a home for G-d.” (Late Lord Jonathan Sacks)
Shortly before his death, Moses taught the Israelites that on each sabbatical (shemitah) year on the 2nd day of Sukkot, the entire nation should assemble to hear the priests read from Deut. 31. They focused upon three things: faithfulness to the Lord, His covenant and the consequences of obedience and disobedience. This special event was known as ‘Hakhel’ (Assemble) which was the only one that required the attendance of every person.
During the monarchy, when the entire nation had gathered the king who was situated on a specially constructed platform in the Temple’s courtyard was handed the Torah scroll that Moses himself had written and read aloud portions from the Book of Deut, Then he would conclude with several blessings.
SUKKOT IN THE MILLENNIUM
Zech.14:16 prophesies that one day the Messiah will reign from Jerusalem in the Millennium period where “…everyone who is left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and celebrate the Feast of Sukkot.”
John compares the 1000-year millennium to a permanent ‘sukkah’ where death will be swallowed up in victory.
Following this he sees the New Jerusalem descending from the skies with no temple, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. “The city will have no need of the sun or moon to shine in it, for the glory of God will illuminate it. The Lamb of God, Yeshua, is its light. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honour into it. Its gates shall never be shut by day (there shall be no night there). And they shall bring the glory and the honour of the nations into it!” (Rev.21:23-27)
“…the Lamb in the centre of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.” Rev.7:17
Yeshua provides every true believer with the promise in Rev.21:6-7: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.”
To to every every thirsty soul who seeks Yeshua as their Saviour and Lord: “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come’. And let the one who hears say, ‘Come’. And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.” Rev:22:17
SUKKOT AND YESHUA’S BIRTH AND RETURN
This area holds special significance for us as believers. We celebrate the fact that Yeshua was born during the season of Sukkot. He was born in a temporary dwelling place (or ‘Sukkah’) with an open roof to the stars, and no room in a permanent dwelling place (i.e., the inn). John.1:14 tells us that “…the Word became flesh, and did tabernacle (dwelt) among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of an only begotten of a father, full of grace and truth.”
The word in Greek for ‘dwelt’ (‘skenoo’) could literally be translated ‘to pitch a tent’ providing us with a clearer understanding how God abides within every believer – He symbolically “pitches His tent” in us. In Rev. 21:3 we read “Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.”
We are all in a sense nomads clothed in the temporary dwelling of our mortal bodies yearning for the day when we will receive a permanent dwelling place which God is preparing for us in eternity.
Above everything, we celebrate Yeshua at Sukkot the One who is “…the Word became flesh, and tabernacled (dwelt) among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of an only begotten of a father, full of grace and truth” to bring salvation to a world steeped in sin! John 1:14
And when He returns He will come as the Lion of Judah in judgement to judge all flesh. And those who know and love Him, the redeemed of the Lord, will rule and reign with Him forever.
