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magidSukkot, like the other pilgrimage-class1 holidays of Pesach and Shavuot, has a dual aspect in both the agricultural year (harvest) and the Exodus from Egypt (meandering in the desert)2. Like the others, the Exodus aspect is more the focus these days, since many of us do not live in Israel (many of the agricultural mitzvot are relevant only in Israel), and the Beit ha-Mikdash (the Temple) is not currently extant (read: sacrifices do not happen). So it's not strange that one of the most noticeable aspects of the holiday, the sukkah, is commemorating traveling through the desert, dependent on the blessings of the Everpresent (daily manna and so on). What is different is that the sukkah is a space-based food custom, rather than a menu-based one (unlike the other holidays, when we avoid leavened foods or have dairy products), something that doesn't happen the rest of the year. Additionally, sukkah is also one of the few mitzvot that one can be encompassed in, like tallit and mikvah, but without the traditional genderedness of those spaces3.
The other Sukkot-specific aspect of the holiday is the lulav and etrog4, the four species held together and waved. The mitzvah is mentioned in the Torah, but it doesn't seem to fit particularly with either the agricultural or the Exodus aspect of the holiday. While lulav and etrog may be linked to agricultural plenty in that they are plant matter, they are not obvious choices, three indedible branches with a citrus fruit that is mostly pith and seeds. There are a variety of midrashim about the four species (four kinds of people, etc.), but they seem to focus on what we can learn from these four, rather than an explanation of the choice in the first place.
The lulav and etrog are not only waved once during the service, they are waved at particular times during Hallel. And they are held during hoshanot, prayers in praise of the Almighty, said while the congregation circles the room with a sefer Torah held in the middle. These, too, have no parallels in the other holidays.
Today is Hoshana Raba, the "big hosanna": there were seven circles this morning, and afterward willow branches were beaten on the ground. The seven circles are definitely a culmination for the end of the holiday, but I have never understood the beating of the willow branches. And yes, the end of the holiday is today: tonight is Shmini Atzeret5, which outside of Israel (and in non-Reform congregations) has a second day, Simchat Torah, celebrating the end of a cycle of weekly Torah portions and restarting at the beginning6. It is no longer Sukkot, we no longer use the lulav and etrog, and it is no longer required to sit in the sukkah (though there are some who have the custom of doing so on Shmini Atzeret, but without a bracha). However, Hoshana Raba is considered chol hamo'ed, a middle day of the holiday, without the extra restrictions in place that a full holiday would require. It's an odd balance.
There are another oddity on Sukkot, in the liturgy. All of the holidays have a megillah associated with it. For Pesach and Shavuot, the megillot are linked to the theme of the holidaybeginning7, while on Sukkot, we read Ecclesiastes, designed to be a reminder of the futility of life in the midst of the wild happiness of the ceremony of the drawing of water in the Beit haMikdash, marking the time when the world is judged for water. Absent this source of joy, reading the megillah feels less connected to the holiday, since it counterbalances nothing.
It's a wonderful holiday. But every year, I take my lulav and etrog, smelling the alluring scent of the etrog, feeling how the palm can catch at me, comfortably familiar after so many years of the same actions, yet with that strangeness catching at me, making me wonder how this strangeness can be made so routine.
1 The Jewish year includes the high holy days of Rosh ha-Shana and Yom Kippur; the shalosh regalim (lit. 'three feet,' or pilgrimage festivals) of Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot; and an assortment of fast days and minor holidays (such as Hanuka and Purim).
2 Passover is both the beginning of spring, and the going out from Egypt, while Shavuot is the first fruits and the receiving of the Torah.
3 True, in many times and places, women have not dwelled in sukkot, but it has not taken on the flavor of a mostly-male mitzva.
4 A lulav refers both to a palm branch, and to a palm branch bound together with two willow branches and three myrtle branches. An etrog is a citron.
5 Shmini Atzeret is a strange day when it is not the same day as Simchat Torah, having a name of its own, but nothing else uniquely identifying it. It is the generic holiday. And in any other situation, the second day of a two-day holiday is almost parallel to the first (some small variations, no shehechiayanu blessing the newness, for instance), while Simchat Torah is wildly different, a single day of intense celebration at the end.
6 Universally celebrated, though there are synagogues that use a triennial cycle.
beginning7 Shir haShirim, Song of Songs, is read on Pesach, the love poetry seen as a symbol of the love between Israel and the One who set events in motion to make Israel a nation, by taking us out of Egypt. On Shauvot, it is the book of Ruth, where gleaning in the barley fields is central to the story of this righteous convert.
The other Sukkot-specific aspect of the holiday is the lulav and etrog4, the four species held together and waved. The mitzvah is mentioned in the Torah, but it doesn't seem to fit particularly with either the agricultural or the Exodus aspect of the holiday. While lulav and etrog may be linked to agricultural plenty in that they are plant matter, they are not obvious choices, three indedible branches with a citrus fruit that is mostly pith and seeds. There are a variety of midrashim about the four species (four kinds of people, etc.), but they seem to focus on what we can learn from these four, rather than an explanation of the choice in the first place.
The lulav and etrog are not only waved once during the service, they are waved at particular times during Hallel. And they are held during hoshanot, prayers in praise of the Almighty, said while the congregation circles the room with a sefer Torah held in the middle. These, too, have no parallels in the other holidays.
Today is Hoshana Raba, the "big hosanna": there were seven circles this morning, and afterward willow branches were beaten on the ground. The seven circles are definitely a culmination for the end of the holiday, but I have never understood the beating of the willow branches. And yes, the end of the holiday is today: tonight is Shmini Atzeret5, which outside of Israel (and in non-Reform congregations) has a second day, Simchat Torah, celebrating the end of a cycle of weekly Torah portions and restarting at the beginning6. It is no longer Sukkot, we no longer use the lulav and etrog, and it is no longer required to sit in the sukkah (though there are some who have the custom of doing so on Shmini Atzeret, but without a bracha). However, Hoshana Raba is considered chol hamo'ed, a middle day of the holiday, without the extra restrictions in place that a full holiday would require. It's an odd balance.
There are another oddity on Sukkot, in the liturgy. All of the holidays have a megillah associated with it. For Pesach and Shavuot, the megillot are linked to the theme of the holidaybeginning7, while on Sukkot, we read Ecclesiastes, designed to be a reminder of the futility of life in the midst of the wild happiness of the ceremony of the drawing of water in the Beit haMikdash, marking the time when the world is judged for water. Absent this source of joy, reading the megillah feels less connected to the holiday, since it counterbalances nothing.
It's a wonderful holiday. But every year, I take my lulav and etrog, smelling the alluring scent of the etrog, feeling how the palm can catch at me, comfortably familiar after so many years of the same actions, yet with that strangeness catching at me, making me wonder how this strangeness can be made so routine.
1 The Jewish year includes the high holy days of Rosh ha-Shana and Yom Kippur; the shalosh regalim (lit. 'three feet,' or pilgrimage festivals) of Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot; and an assortment of fast days and minor holidays (such as Hanuka and Purim).
2 Passover is both the beginning of spring, and the going out from Egypt, while Shavuot is the first fruits and the receiving of the Torah.
3 True, in many times and places, women have not dwelled in sukkot, but it has not taken on the flavor of a mostly-male mitzva.
4 A lulav refers both to a palm branch, and to a palm branch bound together with two willow branches and three myrtle branches. An etrog is a citron.
5 Shmini Atzeret is a strange day when it is not the same day as Simchat Torah, having a name of its own, but nothing else uniquely identifying it. It is the generic holiday. And in any other situation, the second day of a two-day holiday is almost parallel to the first (some small variations, no shehechiayanu blessing the newness, for instance), while Simchat Torah is wildly different, a single day of intense celebration at the end.
6 Universally celebrated, though there are synagogues that use a triennial cycle.
beginning7 Shir haShirim, Song of Songs, is read on Pesach, the love poetry seen as a symbol of the love between Israel and the One who set events in motion to make Israel a nation, by taking us out of Egypt. On Shauvot, it is the book of Ruth, where gleaning in the barley fields is central to the story of this righteous convert.
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no subject
Date: 2007-10-03 07:54 pm (UTC)Not sure I actually subscribe to this, just putting it out there.
I'd be interested in knowing what the true origins of waving the four species are. I know historically beating the willows (aravot) predates waving the four species and it is the reason Rosh Hashana never falls on Sunday (I think). Hoshana rabba can never be shabbat because we need to beat the willows.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-03 08:03 pm (UTC)I know that the description of taking the four species is from the Torah. Perhaps they got grafted into the davening to make them feel more a part of the chag?
And it makes sense to me that this is one of the places the calendar is futzed with to make sure particular days don't happen on Shabbat (or before Shabbat, in the case of Y"K).
Chag sameach.