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Sukkot 2020 will begin in the evening of Friday, October 2, 2020.
This is one of my two favorite holidays (the other being Passover). Sukkot is commanded in the Torah: "Every resident among the Israelites shall live in booths, in order that your [ensuing] generations should know that I had the children of Israel live in booths when I took them out of the land of Egypt" (Vayikra / Leviticus 23:42-43). We build temporary booths to live in. For forty years, as our ancestors traversed the Sinai Desert, following the Exodus from Egypt, miraculous "clouds of glory" surrounded and hovered over them, shielding them from the dangers and discomforts of the desert. Ever since, we remember G-d's kindness and reaffirm our trust in His providence by dwelling in a sukkah (booth). For the eight days and seven nights of Sukkot, Jews eat and sleep in a sukkah, a temporary dwelling with a thatched roof. In Israel you see them everywhere! For the first two days of Sukkot melachot are forbidden. Since Sukkot begins Friday night (Shabbat) no melacha (activities used to build the Mishkan) is permitted from the evening of October 2nd until nightfall on the 4th (outside of Israel). Melacha is permitted from October 4 - 9 during the holiday. The final two days from sundown on October 10 until nightfall on October 11 in 2020 are Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah which I will discuss as we come closer to them. That means no posts will be released from Friday night October 2nd to the night of the 4th (at the earliest). On this festive holiday you will see Sukkahs (temporary dwellings) all over Israel -- on balconies, on streets... Everywhere! A sukkah is an outdoor hut that is covered with things like vines (although they can't still be attached to a live source like a tree or the ground)... You should be able to see the stars through its "roof" although this is not actually a requirement for a kosher sukkah. Sukkah 2a (Babylonian Talmud) says "a sukkah that is not even ten handbreadths high, and one that does not have three walls, and one whose sunlight that passes through its roofing is greater than its shade are unfit." We are also told that a sukkah may not exceed a height of twenty cubits We are also commanded to bring the "four species" -- the lulav (palm), willow, myrtle, and etrog (citron): "And you shall take for yourselves on the first day, the fruit of the hadar tree, date palm fronds, a branch of a braided tree, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before Hashem your G-d for a seven day period." (Vayikra / Leviticus 23:40). This mitzvah shows yet again that one cannot fulfill Torah mandated commands without the oral Torah. The written Torah commands that we take the four species and to rejoice before HaShem for seven days. So what exactly are we supposed to do with the fruit of the hadar tree, date palm fronds, a branch of a braided tree, and willows of the brook? The written Torah tells us to do it -- but not HOW to do it. That was handed down orally and eventually explained in the Talmud. First we bind all the branches together – two willows on the left, one palm branch in the center, and three myrtles on the right. During the daytime for the seven days of Sukkot (except Shabbat) we hold this bundle in our right hand, and then lift them together with the etrog (citron). We shake them three times in from front, right, back, left, up and down. But you won't find those directions in the written Torah! During Sukkot we expect guests (ushpizin in Aramaic) -- all are welcome into anyone's sukkah.
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