The holiday of Sukkot is marked by popularism, royalty and again popularism

It seems to many good people from the public, that all those customs, procedures and ways of life associated with the Sukkot holiday and practiced to this day have been ours since time immemorial. And it turns out not

It seems to many good people from the public, that all those customs, procedures and ways of life associated with the Sukkot holiday and practiced to this day have been ours since time immemorial. And it turns out not! I did not come in this article to tattoo traditions and customs, as it is obvious to everyone that over time many of them have changed, but to point out a number of interesting points related to this holiday in the ancient era.

We begin with the well-known biblical article associated, traditionally of course, with the Israelites leaving Egypt. In the book of Leviticus (43:33-XNUMX) we read as follows: "And Jehovah spoke to Moses saying - on the fifteenth day of this seventh month (Tishrei) the Feast of Tabernacles, seven days for Jehovah. On the first day of the holy reading, you shall not do any work. For seven days you shall sacrifice a woman (the shi'an segolit) to Yahweh. On the eighth day you will have a holy reading and you will sacrifice a woman (as above) to Jehovah, he (she) will gather. You will not do any work. These are the feasts of Jehovah, which you will read from the holy books to offer a woman to Jehovah, an offering and an offering, a sacrifice and a sacrifice, every day... But on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you gather the grain of the land, celebrate the feast of Jehovah for seven days... and on the first day you took the fruit of the citrus tree, palm of dates And the branch of a thick tree and the banks of a stream, and you shall rejoice before Jehovah your God for seven days... you shall dwell in Sukkot for seven days... so that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in Sukkot when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I am Jehovah your God."

This is indeed the holiday haze at its best which is fundamentally popular and distributed among the entire public (and especially sitting in the family sukkah). However, with the exception of this text, there is mention of the Sukkot holiday without Sukkot, without the people sitting in Sukkot only twice: it appears as the holiday of "Assif" (Exodus 16:66) or in the detail of the sacrifices of the holiday (in Madbar 65), but, as mentioned, without mentioning sitting in Sukkot and the use of what the Bible indicates about the four species. And so in connection with David and Uriah the Hittite in an obscure origin. Moreover, the holiday was held during the time of King Solomon in connection with the dedication of the temple, and pay attention to the biblical text: "And Solomon celebrated the holiday at that time (that time) and all Israel with him... On the eighth day he sent the people and they blessed the king and they went to their tents happy and good-hearted..." (XNUMX Kings XNUMX) XNUMX-XNUMX). Where is the yeshiva in the sukkah? Where is the use of the four species? Where is the "eighth assembly" in the biblical text of the above-mentioned Book of Leviticus and where is the blessing to God? The blessing is addressed to King Solomon.

After the division of the kingdom into Judah and Israel, Jeroboam, the king of Israel, makes sure to hold the festival of Sukkot, and even here with a royal effect, as it is written: "And Jeroboam made a festival (referring to Sukkot) in the eighth month (that is, in Sheshvan) on the fifteenth day of the month as a festival in Judah... and ascended the altar which he had made In Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month in which he created Malchar and made a festival for the Israelites and went up on the altar to burn incense" (33 Kings 32:XNUMX-XNUMX).
Here, too, the holiday carries a royal, political and religious character if we wish, and was deliberately moved to a later month in order to create a new, unprecedented event, which seeks to distinguish Israel from Judah.

It therefore follows that the Sukkot holiday in its ancient biblical, folk origin, was not celebrated for many hundreds of years in Judah, and if it was celebrated at all, it carried a clear royal character. Is the existence of this holiday really not found throughout the biblical period until the destruction of the First Temple? Amazing? Indeed-indeed! And especially in view of the fact that this holiday is one of the trilogy of the three habits.

The first provision that helps my assumption is found in the book of Ezekiel (Ma 25): "In (the) seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month in a holiday, the seven days will be like this..." Ezekiel ben Buzi, the prophet of the exile, who was exiled in Jehoiachin's exile, and did not ascend to Judah as part of the return to Zion. Indicates the celebration of the holiday in the Babylonian exile with reference to the annual time and duration of the holiday.

A second helpful provision I believe is found in the biblical codex itself. Well, in the later biblical literature, at least according to the chronological key, I came to the book of Ezra, which in the third chapter (4-1) we read as follows: "And the seventh month (Tishrei) arose and the children of Israel were in the cities and the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem. And Yeshua the son of Yehozdek and his brother the priests and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel stood up and built the altar of the God of Israel to offer burnt offerings on it as it is written in the Torah of Moses... and they did the Sukkot holiday as it is written...".
It is of course difficult to accurately date the event and with the help of the terminus-ante-quom (the earliest date) it is possible to set the chronological peg to 457 BC at the earliest - it is the year of Ezra's ascension from Babylon/Pers to Judah.
The phrase - "And they did the Sukkot festival as it is written" - indeed implies a fundamental change from its celebration during the First Temple period, but we will not be satisfied with that and open the book of Nehemiah (15:1-XNUMX) and read as follows: "And all the people gathered as one man to the street before the water gate and said For Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the Torah of Moses which Jehovah commanded Israel... and Ezra the priest brought the Torah before the congregation... on one day of the seventh month (which was Tishrei) and read from it... and the ears of all the people (listened) to the book of the Torah... and Ezra opened the book for the eyes of all the people... and blessed Ezra called Jehovah the great God, and all the people answered Amen, Amen with the uplift of their hands, and they bowed and bowed to Jehovah with their noses to the ground... and Nehemiah said... and Ezra the priest... to all the people: Today is holy to Jehovah your God, do not mourn and do not weep, because (see that) all the people wept when they heard the words of the Torah . And he said to them: Go, eat fat and drink sweets and send portions to the wrong place... And on the second day the heads of the fathers of all the people, the priests and the Levites were gathered to Ezra the scribe and to be educated in the words of the Torah. And they will find it written in the Torah, which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses, that the children of Israel should sit in Sukkot on the holiday of the seventh month, and that they should make a sound and spread the word in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying: Go up the mountain and bring olive leaves, olive leaves, myrtle leaves, date leaves, and thick tree leaves to make Sukkot as it is written."

So what have we had so far? A kind of closing of a centuries-old circle in connection with the holiday of Sukkot: from the desert when the holiday took on a folk character through its "deterioration" - its change during the period of the continuation of the settlement and the days of the kings until the destruction of the First Temple and the beginning of the Babylonian exile until the return of Zion, when the holiday was hardly celebrated, and what was celebrated took on a royal character To the extent of the blessing and glory addressed to the monarchy.
Ezra and Nehemiah seek to renew, to recycle, the holiday in its ancient, desert form, perhaps also to give validity and power to the very return of Zion. They bring solid evidence from the Torah book, but create a change from the ancient procedure - under four species, Ezra and Nehemiah, probably in a different biblical text, require five species, and even while omitting one of the species of the ancient procedure, namely "the fruit of the citrus tree" (which appears, as stated in the book of Leviticus 40 XNUMX) and what is known in tradition as Atrog.
In the current text, we will not find the prayer and blessing to the king (as Solomon and Jeroboam did for example), but to God, and not because at that time there was no king in Israel, since Judah was ruled by the Persian king as one of the regions of the Persian Empire.
Let us note now, before we continue with the lecture, that between the previous text in the book of Ezra and the time of the current text in Nehemiah, at least 13 years have passed, when the celebration of Sukkot continued in its "Ezraite" form.

We will continue with the biblical text: "And the people went out and brought (the five species) and made sukkots for them, each one on his roof and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God and in the street of the Water Gate" (Nehemiah 16:XNUMX).

And here comes the punch-line: "And all the congregation that had returned from captivity (exile) made Sukkots and sat in Sukkots, for the children of Israel had not done so since the days of Jesus ben Nun until that (that) day, and there was great joy" (ibid. 17).

And how accurate the punchline is, since it is possible to read in the book of Deuteronomy (no. 10 onwards) how Moshe instructs the people about the laws of the holiday and informs Joshua ben-Nun, his successor and successor, about the connections of the holiday in the performance aspect.

We therefore have before us a fragmentary proof that throughout biblical times, from the settlement until the return to Zion (approximately 800 years), the Sukkot holiday was not celebrated in its "desert" format.

We will not go into the discussion here on the question of Ezra and Nehemiah's reasons for bringing about the essential and ceremonial change in the holiday of Sukkot, which in itself is a restoration of the ancient customs of the holiday, but it is clear that the very act of bringing the book of the Bible at the same time shows the theological and ceremonial revolution that the two sought to carry out in examining the recycling of the laws of the ancient holiday.

We note here that the prophet Zechariah, who lived during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, specifically says that "And there was all that was left of all the nations that came to Jerusalem and went up year after year to bow down to the King of Jehovah of armies and celebrate the Sukkot festival (Zechariah 19-16). This statement only serves to strengthen the success of Ezra and Nehemiah's work.

In the Hellenistic period, from the beginning of the 7th century BC, we have no evidence regarding the procedures of the Sukkot holiday and in general about the laws of the holiday, with the exception of an allusion involving Judah the Maccabee, and as mentioned, she is "alone in the campaign". In the book of Maccabim 6-164, it is told about the purification of the temple by Judah the Maccabee in XNUMX B.C. in Keslo XNUMX BC with much splendor and splendor and there they thanked God with thick tree branches and branches of citrus fruit (atrog?) and palm leaves. That is, in three species out of the four (without a willow branch), which are embedded in that important biblical text - the first in chronological order - which is in the desert. And perhaps there is an indirect allusion here to the aforementioned enterprise of Ezra and Nehemiah.

And perhaps, since it is clear that this is the celebration of Sukkot, even though it is late, in Kislu, it can be assumed that Judah will schedule the breaking into the temple, its purification and the dedication of the house, despite the unfavorable weather for conducting the battle. If this is true, then before the eyes of Judah the Maccabee stood the ceremony of consecrating the temple by Solomon, also on the holiday of Sukkot, out of royal megalomania.

The next time we come across the Sukkot holiday will be in the days of Alexander Janai, probably in 80 BC, according to Joseph ben Mattathias: "And Alexander's people stirred up an uproar against him, because the people revolted against him when the Sukkot holiday took place. And when he stood by the altar to sacrifice (as a high priest), they threw atrogim into it, since it is a law among the Jews, that everyone should have on the Sukkot holiday lulavs of dates and atrogim" (Kadmoniot 372, 73). The writer wonders if this attitude was caused by Yanai's harsh attitude towards the public and/or by the lack of purity in his mother who was imprisoned at the time. But for our purposes we are reminded here of the Sukkot holiday and the connection of the two sexes in this holiday and perhaps the demonstrated physical move was planned in advance. In any case, the author does not indicate any additional details related to the Sukkot holiday, and in an allusion elsewhere Josephus says: "But it happened that on the days of the holiday when the Jews hold a Sukkot to God according to the laws of their ancestors" (Wars of the Jews in Romans XNUMX:XNUMX).

This affair, which took place approximately halfway through the reign of King Yanai, symbolizes an important turning point in our case, and it is the transition to that festive folk, which began in the desert generation, "Hatakkala" - was almost shut down in the biblical period, when it took on a royal-royal characteristic, and again as if returning to its origins.
The reason, it seems, lies in a kind of transformation that took place in the Jerusalem Sanhedrin, when the conservative Sadducean majority (the "republican") gave way to the popular, Pharisee wing (the "democratic"), and grew stronger over time, and in particular as a result of the position of Queen Shlomzion Alexandra, the heir of Alexander Yanai.

In this matter we are helped by the literature of the Sages, especially the Mishnah, the Tosfa and certainly the commentaries of the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmud. This literature treasures important early evidence of the days of the Second Temple, and in particular those related to the temple ceremonies. And in this regard there are quite a few testimonies concerning the Sukkot holiday.

Every sukkah treatise in the Sage literature deals with the sukkah of the individual, the sukkah of the family, and goes down not only to the details, but to the details, many hundreds of laws and regulations regarding sitting in the sukkah, its construction, the prayers in it, the blowing of the shofar, the sifting of the Lulav assemblies and more of this kind such as: And others asked, such as I have two wives, one in Tiberias and one in Tzipori. What if I leave the Sukkah and renounce (the mitzvah of sitting in the Sukkah)? He said to him (one of the sages of the Sanhedrin answered him): Not that I am saying - anyone who goes from a sukkah to a sukkah cancels the first mitzvah. Tania Rabbi Eliezer says: There is no going out from a sukkah to a sukkah..." (Talmud Babli Sukkah XNUMX p. XNUMX - p. XNUMX).

The case of Alexander Yanai and the reaction of the people at Sukkot appears in the Talmudic literature in an implicit reference to one Sadducee priest (perhaps Yanai, before he supported the Pharisees). who poured water on his feet instead of into the cup in the temple and the public lapped it up in their rites.
The parshat of the mixing of the water is ancient and associated with the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, but it took shape and took shape throughout the Second Temple period. On "Shamini Atzeret", which is the eighth day that closes the holiday of Sukkot and is also known as "Simchat Beit HaShuava" (or "Hashuava"), they used to pump water from the kind of shiloh (cadron) into a gold saucer with a capacity of about four liters and they would pour the water over one of the horns Altar of the Ascended. The priest who won the mitzvah would bring the lamb to the altar of the offering and pour the water into a silver cup pierced at the bottom and sprinkle the water along with the same amount of wine on one of the corners of the altar.
The Sadducees asked to cancel the mitzvah of mixing the water due to the lack of wording in the Torah.

The strengthening of the status of the Pharisees reflected the attitude of the Romans towards them, for clear pragmatic reasons (the decentralization of the holiday reduced the mass gatherings of Jews in Jerusalem during the Passover holiday, which always raised quite well-founded fears on the part of the Romans of the outbreak of rebellious phenomena), and also because of the moderate and realistic position of the Pharisees and this phenomenon stands This is the basis of the strengthening of the popular status of the Sukkot holiday.

At the beginning of the great rebellion of the year 66 CE, the Roman general Castius Gallus carried out a military campaign to suppress the rebels at the head of the twelfth legion, and this is how Joseph ben Mattathias tells about him: "From Antipatris Castius continued to Lod and found the city empty of people, because its inhabitants had all gone up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Sukkot holiday ” (The Wars of the Jews in Romans 515:XNUMX).

It follows from this that the majority of the public near Jerusalem, and before the Halacha, gathered in Jerusalem for the third leg, that is Sukkot, for one day. Do you have a strong desire to follow the holiday mitzvot? Was this due to fear of the Romans? And maybe it's a pro-rebel gathering? In fact there is no telling. However, assuming we stick to the first option, this is a kind of return to the origins, to originality, to sitting in Sukkot

the family

The Sukkot holiday in its popular, ceremonial, somewhat enthusiastic status, manifested itself on the eighth day of a holiday called "the joy of Beit Ha'Shoeba". The Mishnah almost goes out of its way in describing the joy of that day and opens with the statement of "They said: Anyone who has not seen the joy of the house of the Shu'avah, has not seen joy in his days" (Sukkah 1:4). And on the basis of this revelry, the Tosefta provides amazing information about the president of Israel, the president of the Sanhedrin, Rabbi Shimon ben Gamaliel the Elder, as follows: "The act of Rabbi Shimon ben Gamaliel, who used to dance with eight torches of light and none of them (so in the text) touched (so in the text) falls) to Israel. (f) When he bows, he places his finger on the floor, stays (or swims) and immediately straightens up" (Tosefta Sukkah XNUMX:XNUMX). This is about a Pharisee leader close to the outbreak of the Great Rebellion, who, like a "falcon for his honor" (reminiscent of King David's arrogance in bringing up Jehovah's ark, and how Michal described him as "one of the empty ones") and performed house joyousness that involved difficult physical exercises and even juggling with torches.

The Jerusalem Talmud further excludes the event and with text changes such as "in eight gold lamps" and emphasizes the level of difficulty of the execution in the examination of push-ups on the thumbs, or even handstands with a press, when some tried to imitate it and injured their bodies from the intensity of the load. And the Yerushalmi tells about another man named Ben Yehutzedek who "was praised for his jumps" (Yerushalmi Sukkah chapter XNUMX, p. XNUMX, p. XNUMX).

The Babylonian Talmud also did not remain indifferent to this, and at the end of the description of the president's physical activity in the parshasia, he concludes as follows: "And not every creature can do that" (Sukkah Neg p. XNUMX).

For this juggling act, and not just in a show, but as performed by the central figure in the Jewish leadership, that is, the president in his own right, and it must be assumed that in order not to be ashamed, the president practiced this physical activity for many hours. This phenomenon, which is unique in all the holidays of Israel and its feet involved, was, so similar, beyond the biblical context to the rampaging King David, in a deep religious-faith-ritual experience to the point of reaching a physical and mental amok, and therefore one can only be amazed by the very phenomenon.

Including Joseph's previous testimony about the "disappearance" of the residents of Lod for their ascension to Jerusalem on the Sukkot holiday, we have learned from numismatics, the treasury of coins from the days of the Great Rebellion. On one coin dated 69 CE and minted in Jerusalem, we recognize on the front of the coin two Lulav complexes (namely Lulav, Hades and Araba) joined together with an etrog between them and around the inscription: "Year of Arba Rabia (for rebellion)". On the back of the coin is an etrog and the inscription: "Lagalat Zion".

An important contribution to the popular, decentralized effect of the holiday of Sukkot was made by President Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakai after he had strengthened his position and prestige in the Yavneh, and thus ruled: "At first (before the destruction when the temple was still standing) the Lulav was taken in the Temple seven (days) and in the Medina (outside the Temple) ( Nital) one day. After the destruction of the temple, Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai decreed that the blood be taken in the state seven (days) in remembrance of the temple" (Rosh Hashana 3:XNUMX). The motive was "remembering the temple" - that is, not to forget customs that were associated with the temple, but, perhaps not from its name it came to its name, its regulation brought about the custom of taking the lollav during all the days of the holiday in the family sukkah.
Did Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakai fear the prestige of the Jerusalem center (for it is a sword) and at the time - the alternative center in Yavneh? Maybe? But beyond the physical constraint of the destruction of the house, the leader surely feared a Roman reaction to the option of such a mass gathering in Yavne, and especially after the sensitive period of the Great Revolt and the Jewish gatherings, some of them provocative, in Jerusalem on the eve of the revolt. And perhaps in addition the leader was sensitive to the importance of recycling the ancient customs that give aura and respect to the holiday itself.

Ben Kusva's rebellion broke out in 132 CE and from the inscriptions of Shimon ben Kusva in the Quartet we learn how important it was for him and his warriors, despite their violence and violent actions, to keep and observe the Sukkot holiday mitzvah. One of the bills mentions the order to supply the four species in the form of a barter transaction.

According to the coins of Ben Kusava we recognize, among other things, an interior - the front of the temple, a kind of ark (temple?). The address "Jerusalem". Back - Lulev complex and on the left the inscription one year to Galat Yisrael is embroidered around.

In the second coin we recognize the front of the temple with a sort of coffin in the center and the inscription "Jerusalem". On the back of the coin you can see the Lulav complex and to the left of it an Atrog. Around the inscription: Shabalhar Yisrael, that is, the second year (133/134 CE) another coin is identical to the previous one and it is associated with the third year of the revolt and its inscription - "Leharot Yerushalayim".
It should be noted that, unlike other coins, when it comes to the Lulav and Etrog complex, there is no inscription along the lines of "Shimon" (Ben Khosba) or "President of Israel". And this is probably to teach about the continuation of the tradition of Sukkot festival folk for all that it implies.

Here is why the gist of the article is - for various reasons, political, personal and other, the holiday of Sukkot was transformed from its popular originality to a state and royal one, when it loses much of its originality and towards the end of the first century AD it slowly returned to its originality, and of course in the abundance of laws and regulations in the nature of the condition and the Amorite it is is becoming more and more a folk holiday. Of course, it is impossible to separate the compulsion - the destruction of the Temple and with it the temple - from the works of Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai and those who came after him as presidents of Israel who shaped the popular, family character of the holiday on their own initiative, and sometimes somewhat revolutionary.
On the other hand, Zil is perfect!