Succot - the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths.
“You shall live in booths seven days in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt”. (Leviticus 23:42-43)

In order to fulfil the commandment of the LORD to remember how he preserved and provided for them through the wilderness, the Jewish people construct temporary shelters for the 7 days of sukkot. Although they do not live in their sukkah, all meals are eaten in it. Hence even hotels and restaurants provide a sukkah. The visitor to Israel during Sukkot will see these booths everywhere. They are frail and temporary structures with palm branches only as a roof, and stand as a reminder that God’s people do not trust in circumstances or material security, but in God’s care and provision.

Sukkot also celebrates the in-gathering of the final harvest. Also at this time, prayers for rain are said and they relate to the beautiful and impressive water-drawing ceremony that took place during the Temple period. The priest took water in a bowl from the Pool of Siloam, went back up the steep incline to the Temple, and poured it out before God, acknowledging in humility that they were asking for something beyond man’s ability. The coming of rain in Jewish tradition is associated with the coming of Redemption. It was at this point of the Feast that Jesus stood in the Temple and said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38).