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Sukkot: A Promise of Living Water

by Fred Klett

Fruit Harvest in Ancient Israel

When summer is gone, the final harvest is ready. Nimble fingers separate grapes from the vines. Some of the harvest is laid out for the sun to sweeten into delicious dried fruit: raisins. Huge quantities of grapes are crushed and their juice is stored in large earthen vats until the proper time for it to be poured into wineskins to complete the fermentation process. All look forward to the abundance of wine, which King David said "gladdens the heart." (Psalm 104:15)

Each of the family joins in collecting the fruit of the land, the fruit God has provided for his people. Children scramble to fill oversized baskets with figs and dates which will be molded into cakes for a sweet confection to be used in the months ahead. Some dates will be made into a sweet syrup, date honey.

The apple fragrance sets mouths to watering and telltale stains from bright red pomegranates are evidence that some have sampled the fruit to "taste and see that the LORD is good." (Psalm 34:8)

Then it is time to harvest the olives. The lush dark green olive trees on the terraced hillsides are black with the ripe fruit. Everyone joins in the exhausting but exhilarating work, stripping the trees of their fruit. Copious volumes of olives are collected and then crushed under the massive rolling stone of the olive press to extract the precious oil for cooking or fuel for the oil lamps or for anointing. The oil will also provide the base for soap as well as for unguent, a healing ointment to spread over one's wounds.

The harvest event spurs the people to rejoice and meditate on God's provision for his people, as they observe the biblical Feast of Booths, or "Hag Sukkot," in this joyous setting.

The festival is explained in Leviticus 23:33-35, 39-43:

The LORD said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites: 'On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the LORD's Feast of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days. The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work. For seven days present offerings made to the LORD by fire, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present an offering made to the LORD by fire. It is the closing assembly; do no regular work....after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the LORD for seven days; the first day is a day of rest, and the eighth day also is a day of rest.

On the first day you are to take choice fruit from the trees, and palm fronds, leafy branches and poplars, and rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days. Celebrate this as a festival to the LORD for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month. Live in booths for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in booths so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.'"

The book of Numbers, chapter 29, provides a more detailed description of the sacrifices and burnt offerings made during Sukkot. On the first day (in addition to the regular Temple offerings) thirteen bullocks were sacrificed, along with two rams, fourteen male lambs and a goat for a sin offering. The number of bullocks diminished by one each day until a total of 70 had been sacrificed by the seventh day. On the eighth day only one bullock was sacrificed.

According to the Midrash on Psalm 109 verse 4, the seventy bullocks were for the seventy nations thought to make up the world, while the single bullock on the eighth day was said to be for Israel (1). There is no actual Biblical basis for the interpretation (2), but it is an interesting speculation and it hints at the ancient rabbis' understanding that God desired to provide atonement not only for Israel, but for all peoples. This sacrifice was not superficial to the harvest festival; it was the central feature.

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Notes

(1) See Philip Goodman, The Sukkot and Simchat Torah Anthology, p. 43.

(2) Zechariah 14:16-19, however, does explicitly give a universal interpretation to Sukkot!


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