Sukkot is the Festival of Tents

Monday, October 1, 2012 thru Monday, October 8, 2012

The Festival of Sukkot is like a biblically prescribed week long camping trip in your front (or back) yard.  Sometimes we'll take a trip and actually do a camping trip; but mostly it's about being together as a family and as a community in the openness and simpleness of the outdoors... in October.  Okay, so it's also about knowing that our existence on this earth is a temporary situation.  That just like inside there's a warm couch and bed while I'm shivering out in my lawn chair.  I know that there is a place created for me to dwell with my Heavenly Father that is far more comfortable than what I can currently imagine.  In the meantime, we make the best of it, share memories and enjoy cocoa.

One of the traditions of Sukkot is the waving of the "Lulav."  This is a bouquet of four species of tree commanded that we use during the festival: the date palm, the mertyl, the willow, and that little fruit is called the citron.  These four species may be said to represent the four kinds of person.  The date palm has taste but no smell, symbolizing the person who has a love for God's Word but does not demonstrate it by outward expression.  The mertyl has smell but no taste, does what is right and good but has no understanding of how this builds his relationship with God.  The willow has neither taste nor smell (that is why he is weeping).  The citron (the etrog) has both.