50 Fun Facts About Sukkot

Sukkot begins on the 15th day of which Hebrew month?

The same month opens with Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, so the festival arrives five days after the Day of Atonement.

For how many days is Sukkot celebrated according to the Torah?

A separate Shabbat-like holiday, Shemini Atzeret, follows immediately afterwards, which is why many people count eight days in practice.

Sukkot is one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals alongside Shavuot and which holiday?

On all three, Israelites were commanded to travel to the Temple in Jerusalem.

By what English name is Sukkot also widely known?

'Feast of Booths' is the other common translation; the Torah itself also calls it the Festival of Ingathering.

What is the Hebrew name for the plant-material roof of a sukkah?

Palm fronds, bamboo and pine branches all qualify, as long as they were not previously processed for another use.

A sukkah roof must be made of what?

Walls, by contrast, can be almost anything that blocks wind, including canvas, wood or the side of a house.

What is the minimum number of walls a kosher sukkah must have?

One of them is allowed to be only a partial wall, and the sides of a building or porch can count.

The etrog, one of the four species, is what kind of fruit?

The Hebrew word is thought to come from the Persian name for the fruit, and a fine specimen can cost hundreds of dollars.

The lulav is a closed frond taken from which tree?

The frond must still be green and closed; the straightest lulav is prized as part of beautifying the commandment.

Hadass, bound alongside the lulav, comes from which plant?

In the classic symbolism the hadass has scent but no taste, standing for those with good deeds but no Torah learning.

Aravah, the fourth of the four species, is a branch of which tree?

It grows by wadis and rivers, and it is the species with neither taste nor scent in the traditional symbolism.

How many hadass boughs are bound into the lulav bundle?

Ashkenazi practice places them to the right of the palm frond and two aravah branches to the left.

In which directions are the four species shaken during the blessing?

The six-direction waving is read as attesting to God's mastery over all of creation, and as a prayer for rain.

On which day of the week are the four species never taken?

Every other day of the festival a blessing is recited over the lulav and etrog, whether at home, in the sukkah or in synagogue.

How many symbolic ushpizin guests are invited into the sukkah over the festival?

Each is linked to one of the seven lower sefirot, which is why Joseph follows Moses and Aaron despite preceding them in the Bible.

Which forefather is welcomed into the sukkah as the guest of the first day?

The order runs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph and David, one each night, with the other six following.

Which figure is the ushpizin guest on the seventh and final day?

The king of Israel closes the week; Reconstructionist communities add a parallel list of seven women such as Sarah, Miriam and Deborah.

What is the seventh day of Sukkot called?

The name means 'Great Supplication'; worshippers make seven circuits of the synagogue and beat a bundle of branches on the ground.

The custom of reciting the ushpizin prayer originated with which tradition?

The Aramaic word ushpizin is a loanword from Middle Persian meaning 'lodging'.

What are the intermediate, semi-festive days of Sukkot called?

The name means 'festival weekdays'; shopping and cooking are allowed, but laundry and labor-intensive work are not.

Which biblical book do Ashkenazi synagogues read on the Sabbath during Sukkot?

Its refrain that all is vanity echoes the flimsy sukkah, and its focus on mortality suits the autumn of the year.

The holiday immediately after Sukkot, the 'Eighth Day of Assembly', is called what?

It is treated as a holiday in its own right: people leave the sukkah and eat their meals back inside the house.

Simchat Torah celebrates what?

The last portion of Deuteronomy and the first of Genesis are read back to back so the cycle never stops.

How many hakafot (circuits) are made with the Torah scrolls on Simchat Torah?

Each circuit only has to go once around the synagogue, but the dancing often spills into the street and lasts for hours.

On Simchat Torah morning, the end of Deuteronomy is followed by the start of which book?

In many Orthodox and Conservative congregations it is the only time of year the scrolls are taken out and read at night as well.

How many bulls in total were offered in the Temple over the seven days of Sukkot?

Thirteen were offered on the first day, then one fewer each day down to seven on the last.

The Sukkot bull offerings were said to be made in honor of what?

The so-called Table of Nations names seventy peoples descended from Noah's sons.

The Temple water-drawing ceremony used water drawn from which spring?

Trumpets sounded as the flasks were carried in through the Water Gate, and a priest poured the water on a corner of the altar.

The Talmud says whoever never saw the Water-Drawing Celebration has never seen what?

Huge candelabras lit the whole city, and elders with long white beards danced, juggled and performed acrobatics.

Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel famously juggled how many flaming torches at the celebration?

He presided over the supreme court at the time, which made the spectacle all the more remarkable.

King Jeroboam's imitation festival sent pilgrims to which city instead of Jerusalem?

He feared that pilgrims from the northern kingdom who kept going to Jerusalem would turn back to Rehoboam of Judah.

In Exodus, the 'Festival of Ingathering' marks the end of what?

The Hebrew word asif also appears in the ancient Gezer calendar as a two-month autumn period.

According to Leviticus, dwelling in booths recalls what?

The exodus narratives never describe booth-building, but palm-roofed shelters were common housing at Sinai desert oases.

Which rebbe launched the public Lulav campaign in 1953?

Seventy young men went out in Brooklyn and the Bronx that first year, and about 1,500 Jews took the lulav in two days.

Inside a kosher sukkah there must be more of what than sun?

Yet the gaps should still be wide enough to glimpse the stars through the roof.

A pitam is which part of an etrog?

An etrog that keeps its pitam intact is especially prized; a Hebrew University horticulturist found a hormone dose that preserves it.

The only commercial etrog grower in the United States farms in which state?

John Kirkpatrick, who is not Jewish, started after a 1980 phone call from a Brooklyn Judaica store and grows about 3,000 usable fruit a year.

Which variety from Italy is traditionally used as an etrog?

Greek, Moroccan, Yemenite and Israeli Balady varieties are also accepted; fingered and Florentine types are not used for the ritual.

A common Ashkenazi custom saves the etrog to eat candied on which later holiday?

Eating etrog jam afterwards is also considered a charm for an easy childbirth, and some stud the fruit with cloves for havdalah.

During the holiday the etrog is traditionally kept in a decorative box often made of what?

The fruit is first wrapped in silky flax fibers to protect it.

Which fruit is NOT one of the seven species of Israel often hung in the sukkah?

Deuteronomy 8:8 lists wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates.

Some families line the sukkah walls with white sheets to recall what?

Chabad goes the other way and does not decorate at all, holding that the sukkah is already an object of beauty.

The 2010 'Sukkah City' design competition was held in which New York City public space?

A jury of critics and architects chose 12 finalists, and the winning design stood for the requisite seven days.

A 'pedi-sukkah', introduced in 2009, is a sukkah built on what?

Levi Duchman's mobile huts have since spread to at least 15 US states and five countries.

Where do Samaritans build their sukkahs?

They originally built outdoors like Jews, but moved inside during Byzantine-era persecutions and never switched back.

What do Lubavitcher Hasidim refrain from doing in the sukkah, citing its holiness?

They will still eat there even in the rain, when Jewish law would otherwise excuse them.

Sukkot is called Z'man Simchateinu in Hebrew, meaning what?

The Torah commands rejoicing with 'the stranger, the orphan and the widow', so the joy is meant to cross every social line.

Some have compared biblical Sukkot to the origins of which American holiday?

Both are autumn harvest feasts built around gratitude, guests and food.

The modern street revival of the water-drawing celebration began in 1980 in which borough?

The Lubavitcher Rebbe ruled it could start on the first night of the festival with voices alone, since there was no Levite orchestra.

After the Temple fell, which rabbi ordered the four species waved everywhere on all seven days?

In Temple times the species were taken all week only in Jerusalem; elsewhere only on the first day.