The Feast of Tabernacles
One of the three great feasts of the Hebrew liturgical calendar,
even the greatest, according to Philo (heorton megiste) and
Josephus (heste hagiotate kai megiste). The common name, feast of
Tabernacles -- among Greek-speaking Jews skenopegia, that is, "the
pitching of the tent" (John, vii, 2) -- recalls to mind the custom
established by the law of Lev., xiii, 40, of erecting on the roofs
of houses, and even in streets and public squares, booths of
branches and foliage, wherein all who were not exempt through
illness or weakness were obliged to live during the entire
celebration. It is sometimes asserted that the origin of the feast
was similar to our "harvest-home" festivities.
This naturalistic view, based on the assumption that the religious
enactments of the Law are of relatively recent date and mere
sacerdotal ordinances, takes no account of the significance which
at all times attached to the feast. True it is that one of the
features of the celebrations was to be, after a fashion, a
harvest-home, and to offer thanksgiving for the crops of the year
(Deut., xvi, 13; Ex., xxiii, 16); and it is perhaps owing to this
special feature that the character of the feast was one of joy and
merriment (cf. Ps. iv, 7-8, in Heb.,; Joseph., Ant., VIII, iv, 1),
and that numerous sacrifices were then offered (num., xxix, 12-
39); yet to the Jews the feast of Tabernacles was always and
primarily in commemoration of their forefathers' indwelling in
tents in the wilderness (Lev., xxiii, 43) and in thanksgiving for
the permanent abode given them in the Promised Land, and later on,
after the erection of the Temple, for a permanent place of worship
(cf. III Kings, viii, 2; xii, 32). The feast began on the
fifteenth day of the seventh month, Ethanim of Tishri (about our
September), and lasted seven days (Lev., xxiii, 34-36). Every male
Israelite was, according to law, obliged to go to jerusalem, and
"every one who was of the people of Israel" was bound to live in
booths, which, though involving some discomfort, at the same time
contributed much to the merriment attending the celebration. The
distinctions between rich and poor were then somewhat obliterated
in the general encampment, and thus the feast had a most
beneficial social influence. The first day was held most solemn
and considered a sabbath, all servile work being forbidden on that
day (Lev., xxiii, 39; Num,.xxix, 35); during the whole octave
numerous sacrifices were offered (Num., xxix, 12-39) and on the
eighth day [styled the great(est) day of the feast in John, cii,
37], was held a sabbath like the first and marked by special
sacrifices of its own, the booths were broken up and the people
returned home.
After the Exile, the feast was protracted to the twenty-fifth of
the month, and two new rites were added to the old ceremonial.
Every morning of the celebration a priest went down to the Siloe
Fountain, whence he brought in a golden ewer water which was pored
on the alter of holocausts amidst the singing of the Hallel (Pss,
cxii-cxvii) and the joyful sound of musical instruments. It was
possibly the performance of this ceremony (the institution of
which may have been suggested by Is., xii, 3) which afforded to
Our Lord the occasion to compare the action of the Holy Ghost in
the faithful to a spring of living water (John, vii, 37-39). The
other new feature added to the ritual of the feast was the
illumination of the women's court, together with the singing of
the Psalms of the Degrees (Pss. cxix-cxxxiii) and the performance
of dances or processions in the sacred precincts. On the eighth
day a procession went seven times around the alter, the people
carrying myrtle-boughs and palms and shouting: "Hosannah!" in
memory of the fall of Jericho.
Every seven years, that is in the year of release, during the
feast of Tabernacles, the Law was to be read before all the people
according to the command found in Deut., xxxi, 10. But this
enactment was probably soon found to be impracticable; and thus
the Jewish authorities arranged to read on every sabbath,
commencing with the sabbath after the feast of Tabernacles in one
year of release and ending with the feast of Tabernacles in the
next year of release, a portion of the Law so calculated that the
whole Pentateuch would be read through in seven years. This would
in some way the commandment be fulfilled. Some time later, the
Jews of Palestine lengthened the sections for each sabbath in such
a manner that he entire Law could be read in three years (Talm.
Babyl. Megillah, 29b). At present (and this custom seems to go
back to the first century B. C.) the Jews have the Pentateuch so
divided that they read it through every year, the first Parashah
(division) being appointed for the sabbath after the feast of
Tabernacles, and the last chapters for the last day of the feast
in the next year, this being the day of "rejoicing in the Law".
GREEN, The Hebrew Feasts (Cincinnati, 1886); IKEN, Antiquitates
Hebraicae (Bremen, 1741); RELAND, Antiquitates sacrae (Utrecht,
1741); BAHR, Symbolik des mosaischen Cultus (Heidelberg, 1839);
BENZIGER, Hebr�ische Arch�ologie (Frieburg im Br., 1894); SCHEGG,
Biblische Arch�ologie (Frieburg im Br., 1894), 591 sq.;
WELLHAUSEN, Prolegomena zur geschichte Israels (4th ed., Berlin,
1895); EDERSHEIM, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (New
York, 1897), II, 149, 156-160, 165; IDEM, The Temple, Its Ministry
and Services (London, 1874), 232-49; Talmud, ROOKINSON (Boston, a.
d.), IV, Tract. Succah; DORTLEITNER, Archaeol. Bibl. (Innsbruck,
1906), 99-101; LES�TRE IN VIG., Dict. de la Bible, V, 1961-66.
CHARLES L. SOUVAY
Transcribed by Scott Anthony Hibbs
From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright � 1913 by the
Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright � 1996 by
New Advent, Inc., P.O. Box 281096, Denver, Colorado, USA, 80228.
(
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