Celebrate this as a festival to the Lord for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month. Live in temporary shelters for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in such shelters.
Leviticus 23:41-42
The festival of Sukkot (tablernacles/booths) is upon us again! It began Monday. I’m typing this from within my sukkah (singular of sukkot).
When I was in Israel this summer at a place called Neot Kedumim, I wandered around an area they have of various sukkot. The sages decided what made for a valid sukkah. This little village demonstrates what is permissible and what is not. Here is a sampling:
Just as the Israelites lived in tents in the desert, God commanded his people to live in tents for a week each year to remember the event. Paul (2 Corinthians 5:1-4) and Peter (2 Peter 1:13) both refer to our current bodies as tents. They are temporary and will eventually wear out. Like the Israelites in the desert, we are on a journey for a permanent dwelling place. Just as the land of promise was better than the hot, dry desert, so too will our eternal dwelling be better than the life we know now!