Sukkot or Succoth or Sukkos (or succotash?) is a Biblical pilgrimage festival which occurs in autumn on the 15th day of the month of Tishri (mid- to late-October). The holiday is also known as the Feast of Booths, the Feast of Tabernacles, or the Feast of In-gathering. It is one of the three major holidays known as the Shalosh Regalim, which mark the three times during the year that the Jewish populace travelled to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.The word Sukkot is the plural of the Hebrew sukkah, meaning booth or hut. During this holiday, Jews eat their meals, entertain guests, relax, and even sleep in a sukkah, a temporary structure. The sukkah is reminiscent of the type of huts in which the ancient Israelites dwelt during their 40 years of wandering in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt, and reflects God's benevolence in providing for all their needs in the desert.
Today, however, this Buddhist gentile flew down to Jacksonville, Florida for a meeting at an abandoned paper mill. The day was warm and pleasant, and I got to eat lunch at an outdoor table looking out toward Cumberland Island.
2 comments:
Though largely an aggricultural society in the era when the feast was defined and prescribed, the Jews have over the millenia become more of a culture than a society and mostly urban, predominently but not exclusively white collar. There are 5 "megillot" or scrolls each with an assigned holiday during which it should be read. The scroll for Sukkot is "Kohelet" (Ecclesiastes). And the traditional interpretation is that we should IN THE SAME MOMENT be aware of our gifts [its a harvest feast, the great granddaddy of Thanksgiving] and our impermanence [a kosher sukkah is flimsy and not weatherproof by specification and custom, and there we read "vanity, vanity, all is vanity....]
Ah, thank you GS - I intuitively felt that there was a zen lesson somewhere in there, but could not find it until you tapped my shoulder with your comments on being "in the moment" ("we should IN THE SAME MOMENT be aware of our gifts") and on impermanence. Thank you for your teaching.
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