Sukkot

SUKKOT

The Three Pilgrimage Festivals, known as the Shlosha Regalim, are three major festivals in Judaism - Pesach (Passover), Shavuot (Weeks), and Sukkot (Booths). These Festivals were celebrated by the Israelites living in ancient Israel and Judea by making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, as commanded by the Torah.

Praying at the Wailing Wall during Sukkot

In Jerusalem, they would participate in festivities and ritual worship in conjunction with the services of the kohanim ("priests") at the Temple in Jerusalem.

Sources in the Hebrew Bible

Book of Exodus: "Offer a sacrifice to Me three times each year... Also keep the harvest festival [i.e. Sukkot] soon after the year changes. Three times each year, all your males shall thus present themselves before God the Master, Lord of Israel." (Exodus 34:18-23)
Book of Deuteronomy: "...When you bring in the products of your threshing floor and wine vat, you shall celebrate the festival of Sukkot for seven days...Three times each year, all your males shall thus be seen in the presence of God your Lord in the place that He will choose: on the festival of matzahs, on the festival of Shavuot, and on the festival of Sukkot. You shall not appear before God empty-handed." (Deuteronomy 16

Sukkot hearkens back to times in ancient Israel when Jews would build huts near the edges of their fields during the harvest season. One of these dwellings was called a "sukkah" and "sukkot" is the plural form of this Hebrew word. These dwellings not only provided shade but allowed the workers to maximize the amount of time they spent in the fields, harvesting their food more quickly as a result.

Praying at the Wailing Wall

Sukkot is also related to the way the Jewish people lived while wandering in the desert for 40 years (Leviticus 23:42-43). As they moved from one place to another they built tents or booths, called sukkot, that gave them temporary shelter in the desert.

After the destruction of the Temple, the actual pilgrimage is no longer obligatory upon Jews, and no longer takes place on a national scale. During synagogue services the related passages describing the holiday being observed are read aloud from a Torah scroll on the Bimah (platform) used at the center of the synagogue services. During the Jewish holidays in modern-day Israel, many Jews living in or near Jerusalem make an effort to attend prayer services at the Western Wall "emulating" the ancient "pilgrimages" in some small fashion.

Three times a year during the three "foot festivals" (shloshet haregalim) - Tabernacles, Passover, and at Shavuot - a prayer used to take place at the Temple. These festivals refer to the ancient custom of regularly travelling to Jerusalem, and in ancient times, Jewish pilgrims came to Jerusalem from all over the country or abroad on foot. Nowadays, a formal "priestly blessing" (birkat kohanim) is said at the Wailing Wall in memory of the former pilgrimage. A multitude of people assembles and prays from the early hours of the morning in front of the Wall.