What Is the Feast of Tabernacles All About?

Of all the feasts I've celebrated so far this year, the Feast of Tabernacles had the most readily available information. I'm guessing this is because, unlike Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Tabernacles is about doing something. It's about fun, food, and friends. This is not to discount the remembrance aspects and the Messianic threads, but the Feast of Tabernacles (also called Sukkot and the Feast of Booths) shakes off the heaviness of repentance, atonement, and reconciliation and says, "Let's have a party."

The basics of the feast are outlined in Leviticus 23:33-44. Build a shelter and stay outside for seven days. Make sacrifices. Wave 4 kinds of fruit before the Lord. Don't work on the first day. Have the biggest festivities on the last day.

It was a time to remember how God led Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, how he took care of them during their 40 years of wandering in the desert, and how he eventually gave them a permanent home in the land he had promised them.

The festival, which always falls in autumn, also has a harvest aspect to it. In fact, some say the first American Thanksgiving was based off the Feast of Tabernacles tradition.

Tabernacles (or booths or Sukkah) are built outside. Their roofs are typically made of plants so the light of the stars can filter through. They often have only 3 walls made of sheets or blankets, something that can be disassembled at the end of the feast. The openness reminds us not to close ourselves off to the suffering of others. The temporary house reminds us what it was like to have enough, but not more than we needed (like the children of Israel in the desert had enough manna and quail, but could not store it up for the future). It also reminds us we are not in control.

This feast is a time to invite guests. By inviting strangers in, you are also inviting invisible guests like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, David, Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Leah, Miriam, Hannah, and Deborah. It's quite a prominent guest list who join you as you open your temporary home.

I gleaned a couple of very interesting points about the Feast of Tabernacles from a book called "Jesus and the Jewish Feasts." Tabernacles is one of the feasts we know Jesus celebrated. He likely celebrated it every year, but only one occasion was recorded in John 7-9. Besides the temple sacrifices, the waving of fruit, and the building of shelters, the Feast of Tabernacles involved a ceremony of fetching water from the Gihon Spring and pouring it out on the altar to ask God to end the long drought season and bring rain to the land. In the evening, there was the lighting of some huge bowls of oil in the women's court of the temple. They say these lights illuminated the temple so everyone in Jerusalem could see it.

It was during the Feast of Tabernacles that Jesus declared, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink," and possibly, "I am the light of the world." I never knew that water and light are part of the activities surrounding this holiday.

Photo credit: Israel_photo_gallery via Visualhunt / CC BY-ND