The holiday of Sukkot has been blessed with many beautiful laws and customs: the recitation of Hallel, Ushpizin (welcoming our ancestors as honored guests), Hoshanot, the Simchat Bet Hasho'evah celebrations, reading the book of Kohelet, and, of course, blessing and waving the Arba'ah Minim - the four species. Yet, needless to say, the most basic mitzvah is that of dwelling in a sukkah. But why do we sit in the sukkah?

The Torah itself gives two reasons, one agricultural and one historical.

1) The agricultural reason is found in two places in the Torah: a. Exodus 23:16: ".and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in the results of your work from the field". b. Deut. 16: 13, 15: "After the ingathering from your threshing floor and your vat, you shall hold the Feast of Booths for seven days.You shall hold a festival.in the place that the Lord will choose, for the Lord your God will bless all your crops and all your undertakings, and you shall have nothing but joy".

Thus, according to these verses, Sukkot is a holiday of thanksgiving for the harvest.

2) The historical reason is found in the book of Leviticus (23:42-43):
You shall live in booths seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in booths. In order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.

Thus, according to Leviticus, we sit in the sukkah in order to retain a historical link with our ancestors and to remember all that God did for us when we left Egypt.

These are the simple reasons given by the Torah for observing this holiday, but Jews are never satisfied with the simple reason for anything! A few verses in the bible were frequently expounded upon by later Jewish philosophers and rabbis. Sukkot is no exception.

3) Philo was a Hellenistic-Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria in the first century C.E. In his many works written in Greek, he gave allegorical interpretations to stories and commandments in the bible. In his book De Specialibus Legibus, On the Special Laws (2:204, 206-211), he adds a number of reasons to those mentioned above. He writes:

Another reason may be, that it should remind us of the long wanderings of our forefathers in the depths of the desert, when at every halting-place they spent many a year in tents. And indeed it is well in wealth to remember your poverty, in distinction your insignificance, in high offices your position as a commoner, in peace your dangers in war, on land the storms on sea, in cities the life of loneliness. For there is no pleasure greater than in high prosperity to call to mind old misfortunes. But besides giving pleasure, it is a considerable help in the practice of virtue. For people who having had both good and ill before their eyes have rejected the ill and are enjoying the good, necessarily fall into a grateful frame of mind and are urged to piety by the fear of a change to the reverse, and also therefore in thankfulness for their present blessings they honor God with songs and words of praise and beseech Him and propitiate Him with supplications that they may never repeat the experience of such evils.

Philo says two things: He says that it's a pleasure for a prosperous person to remember the "bad old days". But he goes one step further; he says that sitting in the sukkah reminds us how far we have come and leads us to praise and thank God for all the kindness He has bestowed upon us.

4) The Rashbam, R. Shemuel Ben Meir, lived in France in the twelfth century. He was one of Rashi's brilliant grandsons and is known for his Talmud and bible commentaries. In his commentary to the verse from Leviticus quoted above (23:43), he gives still another reason for sitting in the sukkah:

Why do I command you to do this? .Do not say in your hearts, "My own power and the might of my own hand have won this wealth for me. Remember that it is the Lord your God who gives you the power to get wealth" (Deut. 8:17-18). Therefore, the people leave houses filled with good at the harvest season and they dwell in sukkot as a reminder that they had no property in the desert or homes to inhabit. This is why God designated Sukkot at the harvest season, so that a person's heart should not grow haughty because of houses filled with everything good, lest they say: "Our hands made all of this wealth for us".

In simple English, the Rashbam is saying: the sukkah is a lesson in humility; it comes to prevent a swelled head. God commanded us to sit in the sukkah precisely at the harvest season when we are congratulating ourselves for our successful harvest and our fancy homes. The humble sukkah reminds us: everything you eat and everything you own comes from God. Rabbi Prof. David Golinkin by Rabbi Professor David Golinkin The holiday of Sukkot has been blessed with many beautiful laws and customs: the recitation of Hallel, Ushpizin (welcoming our ancestors as honored guests), Hoshanot, the Simchat Bet Hasho'evah celebrations, reading the book of Kohelet, and, of course, blessing and waving the Arba'ah Minim - the four species. Yet, needless to say, the most basic mitzvah is that of dwelling in a sukkah. But why do we sit in the sukkah? The Torah itself gives two reasons, one agricultural and one historical.

1) The agricultural reason is found in two places in the Torah: a. Exodus 23:16: ".and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in the results of your work from the field". b. Deut. 16: 13, 15: "After the ingathering from your threshing floor and your vat, you shall hold the Feast of Booths for seven days.You shall hold a festival.in the place that the Lord will choose, for the Lord your God will bless all your crops and all your undertakings, and you shall have nothing but joy".

Thus, according to these verses, Sukkot is a holiday of thanksgiving for the harvest.

2) The historical reason is found in the book of Leviticus (23:42-43):
You shall live in booths seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in booths. In order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.

Thus, according to Leviticus, we sit in the sukkah in order to retain a historical link with our ancestors and to remember all that God did for us when we left Egypt.

These are the simple reasons given by the Torah for observing this holiday, but Jews are never satisfied with the simple reason for anything! A few verses in the bible were frequently expounded upon by later Jewish philosophers and rabbis. Sukkot is no exception.

3) Philo was a Hellenistic-Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria in the first century C.E. In his many works written in Greek, he gave allegorical interpretations to stories and commandments in the bible. In his book De Specialibus Legibus, On the Special Laws (2:204, 206-211), he adds a number of reasons to those mentioned above. He writes:

Another reason may be, that it should remind us of the long wanderings of our forefathers in the depths of the desert, when at every halting-place they spent many a year in tents. And indeed it is well in wealth to remember your poverty, in distinction your insignificance, in high offices your position as a commoner, in peace your dangers in war, on land the storms on sea, in cities the life of loneliness. For there is no pleasure greater than in high prosperity to call to mind old misfortunes. But besides giving pleasure, it is a considerable help in the practice of virtue. For people who having had both good and ill before their eyes have rejected the ill and are enjoying the good, necessarily fall into a grateful frame of mind and are urged to piety by the fear of a change to the reverse, and also therefore in thankfulness for their present blessings they honor God with songs and words of praise and beseech Him and propitiate Him with supplications that they may never repeat the experience of such evils.

Philo says two things: He says that it's a pleasure for a prosperous person to remember the "bad old days". But he goes one step further; he says that sitting in the sukkah reminds us how far we have come and leads us to praise and thank God for all the kindness He has bestowed upon us.

4) The Rashbam, R. Shemuel Ben Meir, lived in France in the twelfth century. He was one of Rashi's brilliant grandsons and is known for his Talmud and bible commentaries. In his commentary to the verse from Leviticus quoted above (23:43), he gives still another reason for sitting in the sukkah:

Why do I command you to do this? .Do not say in your hearts, "My own power and the might of my own hand have won this wealth for me. Remember that it is the Lord your God who gives you the power to get wealth" (Deut. 8:17-18). Therefore, the people leave houses filled with good at the harvest season and they dwell in sukkot as a reminder that they had no property in the desert or homes to inhabit. This is why God designated Sukkot at the harvest season, so that a person's heart should not grow haughty because of houses filled with everything good, lest they say: "Our hands made all of this wealth for us".

In simple English, the Rashbam is saying: the sukkah is a lesson in humility; it comes to prevent a swelled head. God commanded us to sit in the sukkah precisely at the harvest season when we are congratulating ourselves for our successful harvest and our fancy homes. The humble sukkah reminds us: everything you eat and everything you own comes from God.