THE HOLIDAY SUKKOT

On the holiday of “Sukkot”, Jews are supposed to move into a makeshift leaf hut without a solid roof for a week, with a view of the sky and stars. They are also to shake festive bouquets, a commandment with a world-wide background. People gather together to celebrate this holiday together and follow their traditions. Others just stay at home playing Woo casino.

To cut a “lulav” is almost impossible in this country. The festive bouquet for “Sukkot” consists of four plants that are native to the Middle East and that already grew in Israel in biblical times.

The first of the four species is from a palm branch, the tip, that is, a palm leaf, which has not yet opened, which is still completely closed: It almost looks like a sword. So species number one is a long date palm branch. Then myrtle branches and willow branches from brook willows.

THE FOUR TYPES YOU SHOULD KNOW

In addition, very importantly, the “fruit of the splendor tree,” according to the Torah, a special, thick-skinned citrus species. Offenberg explains that it is not known why these four species were chosen. Over the millennia, Jewish scholars have given a lot of thought to their meaning.

Example one: “They are interpreted as a symbol for water, because on Sukkot the land is judged in terms of water.” In this context, “directed” is a biblical expression and is meant to mean that it is at this time that it is decided how much rain will fall in the coming rainy season.

Jewish rain dance

Unlike here, spring and autumn hardly play a role in the Middle East; climatically more significant are the dry season in summer and the rainy season in winter. That means now in October the rains will start there and if it doesn’t rain enough in the following months – or if it rains so much that it destroys the earth and the soil, then you can calculate that it will be hunger next year.

That is where asking for rain in the right measure helps – in Judaism, it is shaking the bouquet of the four kinds. Jews do this on “Sukkot” in all four directions. By shaking, they try to connect them all.

Four kinds, then, that need a lot of water. Perhaps the shaking of the bouquet is a kind of Jewish rain dance. It is amazing to watch these different kinds.