Editing Sukkot (section)

==Origins==
[[File:Sukkah Roofs.jpg|thumb|250px|External aerial view of [[sukkah]] booths where Jewish families eat their meals and sleep throughout the Sukkot holiday]]

Sukkot shares similarities with older Canaanite new-year/harvest festivals, which included a seven-day celebration with sacrifices reminiscent of those in {{bibleverse|Num.|29:13-38}} and "dwellings of branches", as well as processions with branches. The earliest references in the Bible ({{bibleverse|Ex.|23:16}} & {{bibleverse|Ex.|34:22}}) make no mention of Sukkot, instead referring to it as "the festival of ingathering (hag ha'asif) at the end of the year, when you gather in the results of your work from the field," suggesting an agricultural origin. (The Hebrew term ''asif'' is also mentioned in the [[Gezer calendar]] as a two-month period in the autumn.)

The booths aspect of the festival may come from the shelters that were built in the fields by those involved in the harvesting process. Alternatively, it may come from the booths which pilgrims would stay in when they came in for the festivities at the cultic sanctuaries.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Farber |first1=Zev |title=The Origins of Sukkot|url=https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-origins-of-sukkot |website=www.thetorah.com}}</ref><ref name="encyclopedia.com">{{cite web |title=Booths (Tabernacles), Feast of |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/booths-tabernacles-feast |website=www.encyclopedia.com |publisher=New Catholic Encyclopedia}}</ref><ref name="Rubenstein1995">{{cite book |last1=Rubenstein |first1=Jeffrey L. |title=A History of Sukkot in the Second Temple and Rabbinic Periods |publisher=Brown Judaic Studies |isbn=978-1-946527-28-8 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvzpv502.7 |chapter=The Origins and Ancient History of Sukkot|year=2020 |pages=13–30 |doi=10.2307/j.ctvzpv502.7 |jstor=j.ctvzpv502.7 |s2cid=241670598 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=MacRae |first1=George W. |title=The Meaning and Evolution of the Feast of Tabernacles |journal=The Catholic Biblical Quarterly |date=1960 |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=251–276 |jstor=43710833 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43710833 |issn=0008-7912}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Jacobs |first1=Joseph |title=TABERNACLES, FEAST OF - JewishEncyclopedia.com |url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14185-tabernacles-feast-of |website=www.jewishencyclopedia.com}}</ref> Finally, {{bibleverse|Lev.|23:40}} talks about the taking of various branches (and a fruit), this too is characteristic of ancient agricultural festivals, which frequently included processions with branches.<ref name="Rubenstein1995"/>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvzpv502.7?seq=5 {{rp|17}}]

Later, the festival was historicized by symbolic connection with the desert sojourn of [[The Exodus|exodus]] ({{bibleverse|Lev.|23:42-43|HE}}).<ref name="encyclopedia.com"/> The narratives of the exodus trek do not describe the Israelites building booths,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Frankel |first1=David |title=How and Why Sukkot was Linked to the Exodus - TheTorah.com |url=https://www.thetorah.com/article/how-and-why-sukkot-was-linked-to-the-exodus |website=www.thetorah.com}}</ref><ref name="Rubenstein1995"/>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvzpv502.7?seq=6 {{rp|18}}] but they indicate that most of the trek was spent encamped at oases rather than traveling, and "sukkot" roofed with palm branches were a popular and convenient form of housing at such Sinai desert oases.<ref>[[Yoel Bin Nun]], ''Zachor Veshamor'' p.168; [[Noga Hareuveni]], ''Teva Venof Bemoreshet Yisrael'', p.68-70</ref>