Sukkot 2023: What is it and When is it? Know Everything

Sukkot 2023: Beginning on the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei, the Festival of Sukkot – “Booths” or “Tabernacles” is observed for seven days in Israel and eight days in the Diaspora. In the days of the Holy Temple, Jewish males were required to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem during one of these three festivals.

Today, in the absence of Temple service, the primary purpose of the festival is to reside in a sukkah (singular of “sukkot”), a four-walled booth topped with branches called schach.

For the purposes of the divine command, “dwelling” is defined as eating and sleeping, so Jewish males are required to sleep in this hut every night of Sukkot and consume all of their meals there. The only exception to the law of dwelling is if it is raining – and not just any rain, but raining heavily enough to alter the flavor of the soup. In this case, the meal may be brought indoors.

The purpose of these flimsy huts is to evoke the tents in which the Israelites resided for forty years in the desert before entering the Promised Land. The first and last day – or, in the Diaspora, the first and last two days – are a yom tov, a Sabbath-like holiday during which no creative labor is permitted, with the exception of preparation required for the holiday.

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As with most Jewish festivals, there are required feasts consisting of bread, meat, and wine, and family and friends are invited to dine together in the sukkah. In addition to welcoming physical visitors into their sukkahs, families also welcome ushpizin, or spiritual guests.

On each night, a different figure from Jewish history is invited into the sukkah: the patriarch Abraham on the first night, followed by Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph, and David. Some also observe the tradition of inviting biblical women or remembering rabbis or deceased relatives.

The last two days, during which sleeping in the Sukkah is no longer required (and is in fact forbidden), are termed Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, and in Israel they are combined into one day. Simchat Torah literally means “the joy of the Torah” and is a time of rejoicing, dancing, music, and feats.

The other highlight of Sukkos is reciting a benediction over the arba minim, the Four Species, to commemorate the agricultural significance of this ancient harvest festival. A bouquet of willow, myrtle, palm, and citron is created, and a benediction is recited before the bouquet is waved in various directions.

During synagogue services, males walk in circles around the sanctuary while holding the Four Species; this is known as “Hoshanot” (singular: Hoshana) – prayers. The seventh day of Sukkot is known as Hoshana Rabbah, or the Great Supplication. On this day, everyone prays for Divine mercy in the coming year.

Sukkot concludes the month-long “High Holy Days” and is followed by more than a month without any significant Jewish holidays until Chanukah in the winter. Spiritually, it functions as a kind of “extension” to the repentance of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and its conclusion signifies the end of the period during which God judges the Jewish people.

When is Sukkot celebrated?

Sukkot 2023: On the 21st day of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Jewish calendar, Sukkot is observed. Only a movable holiday according to the Gregorian Calendar.

Sukkot 2023 begins on September 29, 2023 at dusk and concludes on October 6, 2023 at dusk. From sundown on the first date listed until sundown two days later, the first two days of Sukkot are official, no-work holidays.