Sukkot

Tonight we started the first day of the seven day holiday of Sukkot. Sukkot is the plural of the word Sukka, which means booth.  It's a tent we build outside and in which we eat our meals the coming days and have guests over, to remember the tents we lived in during the 40 years in the desert after the Exodus. My mom came over for the first dinner in the Sukka with Yael and Sarai and hubby and me. Sharon had to work late and Michal is at her boyfriends place.

Sukkot (Hebrew: סוכות or סֻכּוֹת, sukkōt, Feast of Booths, Feast of Tabernacles) is a Jewish holiday celebrated on the 15th day of the month of Tishrei (late September to late October). It is one of the three biblically mandated Shalosh regalim on which Jews made pilgrimages to the Temple in Jerusalem.

The Holy Day lasts seven days, including Chol Hamoed and is immediately followed by another festive day known as Shemini Atzeret. The Hebrew word sukkōt is the plural of sukkah, "booth, tabernacle". The sukkah is intended as a reminiscence of the type of fragile dwellings in which the ancient Israelites dwelt during their 40 years of wandering in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt.

Throughout the holiday the sukkah becomes the living area of the house, and all meals are eaten in it. On each day of the holiday, members of the household hold, and recite a blessing over, the lulav and etrog, or Four species.

According to Zechariah, in the messianic era Sukkot will become a universal festival and all nations will make pilgrimages annually to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast there.