The festival of Sukkot, sometimes called in English “Tabernacles” or “Festival of Booths,” is one of the three holidays called regalim, pilgrimage festivals, in the Torah (Exodus 23:14). It is celebrated for seven days, from the fifteenth of Tishrei through the twenty-first. The first day, or outside of Israel the first two days, are days of yom tov, on which many of the types of labor that are forbidden on Shabbat [melakha] may not be performed. At the conclusion of Sukkot, another festival is celebrated. It is known as Shemini Atzeret or Simhat Torah, and is also a yom tov. Outside of Israel this festival is celebrated for two days, the first of which is commonly referred to as Shemini Atzeret and the second of which is called Simhat Torah. In addition to its status as a festival, Sukkot has its own unique mitzvot: the mitzva to dwell in a sukka and the mitzva to pick up the four species, namely, a palm branch [lulav], a citron [etrog], and myrtle [hadas] and willow [arava] branches.

The festival of Sukkot is mentioned several times in the Torah: “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month it shall be a holy convocation for you, you shall not perform any toilsome labor, and you shall celebrate a festival to the Lord seven days” (Numbers 29:12). This is the basic command to observe the first day of Sukkot as a festival day [yom tov], similar to other festival days. Elsewhere the Torah introduces the mitzva to dwell in a sukka: “You shall live in booths seven days; every native in Israel shall live in booths. So that your generations will know that I had the children of Israel live in booths, when I took them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 23:42–43). The mitzva of taking the four species also appears in that passage: “You shall take for you on the first day the fruit of a pleasant tree, branches of date palms, and a bough of a leafy tree, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days” (Leviticus 23:40).

Sukkot is also characterized as a time of great joy, as the theme of rejoicing is mentioned three times by the Torah in connection to this festival (Leviticus 23:40; Deuteronomy 16:14–15).Indeed, the Sages refer to Sukkot as “the time of our joy.”

This section, the first of three that deal with Sukkot, will discuss how to prepare properly for the festival by constructing a sukka and acquiring the four species. It will present the laws and customs pertaining to these mitzvot, as well as the rest of the mitzvot of the festival.