As Passover has been poetically called the day of Israel’s betrothal to God, the Feast of Weeks would [[394]]correspond to the wedding-day, and the counting of the Omer does thus not only connect two harvest-feasts, but represents the longing of the bride for the day of her complete happiness; i.e., the longing of the Israelites for the Divine Revelation, which was to complete the work of their deliverance from Egypt.
The celebration of the Feast of Weeks thus involves the second principle of our faith: תורה מן השמים “The belief in the Divine origin of the Law,” or “Divine Revelation.”
On the first day we read Exod. xix.–xx., the account of the Law-giving on Mount Sinai, and Ez. i., the first vision of the prophet Ezekiel, in which the glory of God is revealed to him. On the second day Deut. xv. 19 (on Sabbath, xiv. 22) to xvi. 17; and Hab. iii., “the prayer of Habakkuk,” in reference to God’s Revelation as the Ruler of the universe.—There is also the custom to read the Book of Ruth, which contains the account of Ruth’s embracing the true faith, and a description of the harvest and the treatment of the poor in the harvest-season.
There is a custom among some of our brethren to employ the first night of the Feast in preparing themselves for the coming celebration of the giving of the Law. The greater part of the night is spent in reading passages from the Scriptures and from the Talmudical books.[93] The custom has its basis in the preparation commanded by God to be made during “the three days of bordering” (שלשת ימי הגבלה) which preceded the Law-giving (Exod. xix. 10–12). [[395]]
The Feast of Tabernacles, סכות
“The fifteenth day of this seventh month (Tishri) shall be the Feast of Tabernacles (סכות) for seven days unto the Lord” (Lev. xxiii. 34). The name has its explanation in the commandment, “Ye shall dwell in booths seven days” (ibid. 42); “that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt” (ver. 43). We are thus commanded to commemorate the travelling of the Israelites through the wilderness. They dwelt in tents, that gave them shelter to some extent; but without the Divine protection this shelter would have proved insufficient. Of this twofold shelter and protection we are reminded by the tabernacle in which the Law commands us to dwell during the Festival.
In fulfilment of this commandment we make booths (סכות). The chief difference between a booth and an ordinary house consists in the mode and in the material employed for roofing the two structures. For the succah must not be covered with fixed boards and beams or with canvas, but with detached branches of trees, plants, flowers, and leaves, in such a manner that the covering is not quite impenetrable to wind and rain, or starlight. During the Festival the succah is our dwelling-house, in which we take our meals, study, receive our friends, and, if possible, enjoy rest and sleep. If, on account of the severity of the climate, the constant dwelling in the succah threatens to prove injurious to our health, we content ourselves with taking our meals in the succah. Before each meal [[396]]we recite the blessing ברוך … אשר קדשנו … לישב בסוכה “Blessed art thou … who hast sanctified us by thy commandments and hast commanded us to dwell in the booth.” The first time we are in the succah we add the blessing, שהחינו (p. 358).
The Festival is, secondly, called “the Feast of Ingathering,” חג האסיף. The produce of the fields and gardens have been gathered in, and the people rejoice before the Lord in gratitude for the blessings which He has granted to them. “And ye shall take unto you on the first day the fruit of the goodly tree, branches of palm-trees, and boughs of thick-leaved trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days” (Lev. xxiii. 40). In accordance with the traditional interpretation of this verse, we take four kinds of plants (ארבעה מינין), viz., אתרוג “the citron;” לולב, “a branch of the palm-tree;” הדסים, three “myrtle branches;” and ערבות, two “branches of the willow.” According to a Midrashic interpretation, they represent four different types of plants, that which has a pleasant fragrance and a beautiful form (esrog); the beautiful in form, but without fragrance (lulabh); that which smells pleasantly, but is inferior in form (hadassim); and that which has neither a goodly form nor an agreeable fragrance (arabhoth), as if to say that we are thankful to God for all that He has given us, although to our mind some of these seem imperfect in comparison with others.
In obedience to this commandment we take, every day of Succoth except Saturday,[94] the above four kinds [[397]]into our hands, hold them during the recitation of the Hallel, and make with them a procession round the Synagogue,[95] while singing the hymns called hoshaanoth (so called on account of the repeated occurrence of the word hoshaanah in them).
Before taking the arbaah minim into our hands we say the following blessing: ברוך … אשר קדשנו … על נטילת לולב “Blessed art thou … who hast sanctified us by thy commandments and hast commanded us to take the lulabh.”[96] On the first day שהחינו is added.