Simchat Torah (begins at sundown – Jewish)
The final day of the holiday of Sukkot, Simchat Torah is a Jewish holiday, which translates literally to the Joy of the Torah. The holiday marks the end of the annual cycle of reading the Jewish Bible and the beginning of the new cycle. In Israel, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah are celebrated simultaneously.

Shemini Atzeret (begins at sundown – Jewish)
This Jewish holiday commemorates the end of Sukkot. In ancient Israel, this holiday marked the start of the rainy season.

image credit: via flickr

Sukkot (Jewish)
With the final blowing of the Shofar, The Jewish High Holy Days draw to a close and the focus of the Jewish community shifts from the solemnness of Yom Kippur to the jubilant celebration of the festival of Sukkot.

The festival of Sukkot, also known as Chag’ha Succot, the “Feast of Booths” (or Tabernacles), is named for the huts (sukkah) that Moses and the Israelites lived in as they wandered the desert for 40 years before they reached the Promised Land. These huts were made of branches and were easy to assemble, take apart, and carry as the Israelites wandered through the desert.

Join us for our celebration of the Jewish Holiday of Sukkot: Sukkot on the Net

The Story of Sukkot
The Holiday and its Meaning

The Sukkah
What is a Sukkah and Why is it Important?

Etrog, Lulav and the Four Species
How Do You Pronounce it? And What do you do with it?

Sukkot Craft Projects
Make a newspaper Lulav
Bulid your own PVC Pipe Sukkah

*Sukkot began last night at sundown

photo credit: via flickr

Sukkot (Jewish – begins at sundown)
With the final blowing of the Shofar, The Jewish High Holy Days draw to a close and the focus of the Jewish community shifts from the solemnness of Yom Kippur to the jubilant celebration of the festival of Sukkot.

The festival of Sukkot, also known as Chag’ha Succot, the “Feast of Booths” (or Tabernacles), is named for the huts (sukkah) that Moses and the Israelites lived in as they wandered the desert for 40 years before they reached the Promised Land. These huts were made of branches and were easy to assemble, take apart, and carry as the Israelites wandered through the desert.

Click to continue reading and to visit our Sukkot celebration

photo credit: via flickr

Did You Know?
Facts, Figures & Folklore
About Sukkot, the Jewish
Feast of Tabernacles
Oct 02 : Sukkot begins tonight
@ sundown

Did you know that the ninth day of Sukkot (the eighth day in Israel) is called Simchat Torah?

On this holiday, the final passage of the Torah, or Five Books of Moses, is read and the first passages of Genesis is begun anew. The holiday is celebrated by calling every person up to the Torah for an “aliyah”, or special blessing over the sacred text. Festive dancing is also common.

Sukkot is a jubilant celebration, known as Chag Ha’Sukkot or Feast of the Booths, which falls on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Tishri, just 5 days after the solemn Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.

On Sukkot, Jewish families build their sukkah, or hut, in which they eat and sleep for the duration of the holiday. Recalling the impermanent structures that the Israelites lived in as they wandered the desert for 40 years before reaching the Promised Land, Sukkot also has an agricultural significance: celebrating the conclusion of the fall harvest.

Hag Sameach! Sukkot begins tonight at sundown.

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