Succoth

The 15th of Tishri (Hebrew Calendar) which occurred last week brought with it the Jewish festival Succoth, "Harvest Feast," "Feast of Tabernacles," "Feast of Ingathering," "Feast of Booths," as it is variously called.

It is a spoor marker of the days when nomadic Hebrews, detaching themselves from their fellow Bedouin tribes of the Arabian Desert, settled themselves down to a pastoral, and, later, an agricultural life in Canaan. Pious Jews, bound even though they be by modern commerce, memorialize it for seven days, wherever possible, by living in thatched huts, as did their ancestors on pilgrimages to Jerusalem. Deprived of an outdoor areaway, ghetto-crowded Jews have been known to rip holes in their roofs, holes which they covered with corn stalks or twists of grass. On the last day of the feast, Simkhat Torah, the yearly reading of the" Law is completed. Then there is a riot of rejoicing which the Mishnah, Talmudic commentary on Mosaic Laws, reflects in the phrase: "He who has not seen the joy of the libations of Tabernacles has never in his life witnessed joy."