Sukkot Trivia
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50 free Sukkot trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Sukkot is the week when observant Jews move meals (and often beds) into a hut with a leafy roof, wave a palm frond and a citron in six directions, and invite Abraham, Moses and David in as guests. These Sukkot trivia questions cover the rules of a kosher sukkah, the four species, the Temple water-drawing festival, Hoshana Rabbah and the dancing of Simchat Torah. Every answer is sourced, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss.
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Q 01Sukkot begins on the 15th day of which Hebrew month?
Tishrei
Tishrei is the seventh month when counted from spring, so the Torah dates Sukkot to 'the fifteenth day of the seventh month' even though the Jewish new year falls on Tishrei's first day.
Q 02Sukkot begins five days after which Jewish holy day?
Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur has barely ended when the mood flips from fasting to feasting: tradition urges families to start building the sukkah that same night, going straight from one commandment to the next.
Q 03Sukkot is one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals alongside Shavuot and which holiday?
Passover
Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot each drew Israelites to the Temple in Jerusalem, and Deuteronomy adds a rule for the journey: no pilgrim was to turn up empty-handed.
Q 04By what English name is Sukkot also widely known?
Feast of Tabernacles
Feast of Tabernacles borrows the Latin tabernaculum, 'tent', itself from a word for a hut, which is why 'Feast of Booths' is the same name in plainer English.
Q 05What is the Hebrew name for the roof covering of a sukkah?
S'chach
S'chach has to go on last: by tradition the covering only counts if it is laid once the sukkah's walls are already standing.
Q 06A sukkah roof must be made of what?
Plant material cut from the ground
Plant material cut from the ground means exactly that: the Mishnah rules a sukkah roofed by a living grapevine or gourd unfit until the growth is severed from its roots.
Q 07Which tied animal do the Talmud's rabbis all accept as a sukkah wall?
Elephant
An elephant passes because of its bulk: the rabbis worried a living wall might die and slump, but reasoned that even a dead elephant would lie higher than the minimum wall height.
Q 08The etrog, one of the four species, is what kind of fruit?
Citron
Citron is never named in the Torah, which asks only for the fruit of a 'hadar', or beautiful, tree; it was the rabbis of the Talmud who settled on this fruit as the etrog.
Q 09The lulav is a closed frond taken from which tree?
Date palm
Date palm fronds make the lulav the tallest of the four species, which the Talmud gives as the reason the blessing over the whole bundle mentions the lulav alone.
Q 10Hadass, bound alongside the lulav, comes from which plant?
Myrtle
Myrtle has fragrance but no taste, so a famous midrash reads the hadass as the person with good deeds but no Torah learning, tied into one bundle with everyone else.
Q 11Aravah, the fourth of the four species, is a branch of which tree?
Willow
Willow has neither taste nor scent, so the midrash casts the aravah as the person with no learning and no good deeds, then insists it be tied in with the rest so that each makes up for the others.
Q 12A famous midrash makes the lulav the spine and the etrog which body part?
Heart
The heart is the etrog's match by shape, as the leaves bound beside it are likened to an eye and a mouth; holding all four together stands for serving God with the whole self.
Q 13What is done with the four species once the blessing over them has been said?
Waved in six directions
Waved in six directions, the species salute the One who owns the four winds, heaven and earth, in the Talmud's words; sages in the Land of Israel added that the motion wards off harmful winds and dews.
Q 21Which biblical book do Ashkenazi synagogues read on the Sabbath during Sukkot?
Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes is often said to suit the week because its refrain that all is vanity matches life in a flimsy hut; a medieval tradition adds that Solomon first read it to the festival crowds.
Q 22Which separate holiday begins as soon as the seven days of Sukkot end?
Shemini Atzeret
Shemini Atzeret, the 'Eighth Day of Assembly', is pictured by Rashi as a father begging his children to stay one more day after a long banquet, because parting from them is so hard.
Q 23What does the holiday of Simchat Torah celebrate?
Completing the annual reading cycle
Q 14The four species are set aside on the Sabbath because the rabbis feared people would do what?
Carry them in the street
Carry them in the street was the Talmud's fear: someone unsure of the ritual might walk a lulav over to an expert for a lesson, so the whole practice gives way for the day.
Q 15In the Mishnah, who reads the Torah publicly every seventh Sukkot?
The king
The king read from a wooden platform built in the Temple court; the Mishnah recalls Agrippa winning the sages' praise by standing to read when custom let him sit.
Q 16Which forefather is welcomed into the sukkah as the guest of the first day?
Abraham
Abraham leads the list as the first patriarch, and he suits a custom built on hospitality: the Bible shows him running from his tent to welcome passing strangers.
Q 17Which figure is the ushpizin guest on the seventh and final day?
David
David closes the week because each guest stands for one of seven divine attributes, and his, sovereignty, comes last in the kabbalists' sequence.
Q 18What is the seventh day of Sukkot called?
Hoshana Rabbah
Hoshana Rabbah, the 'great hoshana', sends worshippers round the synagogue seven times instead of once, then has them beat a bundle of leafy twigs on the floor.
Q 19The ushpizin custom of welcoming biblical guests into the sukkah comes from which work of Jewish mysticism?
The Zohar
The Zohar puts Joseph after Moses and Aaron, matching each guest to a mystical attribute, though many Ashkenazi prayer books later moved the seven back into the order of their lives.
Q 20What are the intermediate, semi-festive days of Sukkot called?
Chol HaMoed
Chol HaMoed blends weekday and festival: cooking and family outings are fine while laundry, haircuts and needless work wait, so many observant families take the week as a holiday break.
Completing the annual reading cycle is a day when everyone gets a turn: even the children are called up to the Torah together, and by old custom the reader of the final verses throws the congregation a party.
Q 24What are the seven festive circuits made with the Torah scrolls on Simchat Torah called?
Hakafot
Hakafot need only go once round the synagogue each, but the singing and dancing with the scrolls runs far longer and often spills out into the street.
Q 25On Simchat Torah morning, the end of Deuteronomy is followed by the start of which book?
Genesis
Genesis follows within minutes, read from a second scroll so there is no pause; the person called up for its opening verses is honoured as the 'bridegroom of Genesis'.
Q 26The seven circuits made in synagogue on Sukkot's last day are said to recall which city's fall?
Jericho
Jericho fell after Joshua's army circled it once a day for six days and seven times on the seventh, the same rhythm worshippers keep with their circuits through the week of Sukkot.
Q 27The 70 bulls offered in the Temple over Sukkot were said to honor what?
The nations listed in Genesis 10
The nations listed in Genesis 10 come to seventy by rabbinic count, and the Talmud says the bulls atoned for them all; one sage sighed that the nations never knew what they lost when the Temple fell.
Q 28In the Temple's water-drawing ceremony, the water was carried up from which Jerusalem pool?
Siloam
Siloam lay downhill from the Temple Mount; a golden jug was filled there and carried up through the Water Gate to trumpet blasts before a priest poured it out at the altar.
Q 29The Talmud says whoever never saw the Water-Drawing Celebration has never seen what?
Joy in his life
Joy in his life is how the Mishnah sums up nights when giant lamps, their wicks torn from the priests' worn-out clothes, burned so brightly that no courtyard in Jerusalem was left dark.
Q 30At the water-drawing celebration, Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel was said to juggle eight of what?
Torches
Flaming torches, tossed and caught so that none touched another, were the party piece of the man who headed the Sanhedrin; the same Talmud page has later sages juggling knives, eggs and cups of wine.