More About Sukkot

Welcome to Sukkot with Wilderness Torah!

If you are new to Wilderness Torah, or new to celebrating Sukkot, this is the place where you can learn more about what we do at our Sukkot In-Gathering Festival, how we build village, and learn more about the traditions of Sukkot.

Sukkot is one of the three sacred agricultural and pilgrimage festivals in the Jewish tradition. It is a potent time for reconnecting with community, land, and Spirit. Following the introspective period of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Sukkot carries a different energy. It is a time of unbridled joy, gratitude for the gifts of the harvest, and gathering with beloved community!

Join us as we build and gather in the Sukkah (hut, or temporarily built structure) where we invite our ushpizin (ancestors) to join us. During the Simchat Beit Hashoeivah (Joy of the House of Water Drawing), we will fill the Sukkah with dance parties and revelry. On the final day of Sukkot, Hoshanah Rabah (“Great Pleading”), we will gather in prayer, song, and dance to call the much-needed rains back to the earth. This is the culminating moment we have worked toward since the first blow of the shofar in Elul, through Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. 

Testimonials

Sukkot Traditions

Sukkot, one of the earliest Jewish holidays, is more than 3,000 years old. Falling exactly half a year after Passover, Sukkot is the third in the Jewish pilgrimage festival cycle, including Passover and Shavuot. Historically during this time Jews would travel from all over to Jerusalem to honor the bounty of the seasonal harvest. Also known as the Z’man Simchateinu (“time of our joy”), Sukkot celebrates the earth’s generosity and honors the rains that make the harvest possible.

Key Sukkot Terms

On Sukkot we will sit inside a central sukkah. A sukkah is a temporary hut that provides shade during the day and is open to the stars at night. This hut may have originally represented temporary shelters people lived in during the harvest time. These temporary dwellings reconnect us to the natural cycles of the seasons and represent the impermanent nature of our lives. At our Sukkot In-Gathering we eat our meals and celebrate the holiday in and around our central sukkah.

Celebrating Sukkot involves waving the lulav each day of the holiday. The lulav is traditionally a collection of freshly cut branches of Palm, Willow, and Myrtle that are secured together. The etrog is a citrus fruit that looks like a lemon with a stem (pitom) at the end.

It is ritually shaken together in the  six directions as prayers are made that we may be blessed by both rains and by spiritual blessings. We will have a lulav and etrog available in the sukkah for all to use and pray with. Feel free to bring your own as well!

During the intermediate days of Sukkot, gatherings of music and dance known as Simchat Beit HaShoeivah (Rejoicing at the Place of the Water-Drawing) took place in ancient times. The water would then be drawn for the water libation on the Temple altar.

According to the Talmud, Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur is the time when it is thought that humanity is judged for its conduct, then based on this on Sukkot the world is judged for water, reflected in the amount of rain that falls.

The Simchat Beit HaShoeivah ceremony, like the shaking of the Lulav, invokes the blessing for rain in its proper time and is a time of incredible joy and celebration. The Talmud states that “one who has not witnessed the Festival of the Water Drawing has not seen joy in their lifetime.

During Sukkot, it has become customary to invite the ancestors into the Sukkah as honored guests. Each night of Sukkot, we perform a short ceremony to welcome the ushpizin (Aramaic for “guests”), including our ancient patriarchs and matriarchs, and any ancestors we would like to invite.The impermanent nature of the sukkah helps to remind us of the impermanent nature of our lives, and in this liminal space we connect with those who have come before us.

On the seventh day Sukkot, the holiday culminates with Hoshanah Rabah: the “Great Pleading.” Hoshanot are liturgical poems that we recite to call upon Spirit to send us rains during the winter months. Jewish communities all over the world recite these prayers and perform hakafot (circles), beating  willow branches upon the earth in order to emulate our prayers to the heavens — that the waters should return back to the land.

Village Building

Building the Village

We thrive by supporting each other to heal, find our gifts, and serve in community. Youth are mentored to discover their truth; adults are initiated to steward that which is greater than themselves; and elders are honored for their life experience and earned wisdom.

The village becomes a context for collaborative leadership, mutuality, celebration, and radical inclusivity.

The Sukkot In-Gathering festival is a co-created experience with collective service responsibilities. Read below to learn how we build our village together during the festival and how you can be an active participant. 

Tribes are small, assigned groups of 10–12 people who meet to connect, learn, play, and explore special themes in a smaller group. Tribes also perform one service shift for the community (e.g. chopping vegetables for dinner).

Tribes help people get to know each other and deepen their festival experience in the comfort of a smaller group. Each tribe has a Rosh (head) who will guide the tribe. Roshim, alongside Wilderness Torah staff and members of the Village Planning Council, are available to support you through your experience. Your Rosh is a contact for you throughout the festival, and meets daily with the Village Council to share information and feedback from participants.

We love homegrown food!

Email lila@wildernesstorah.org if you have food from a fruit tree or an overflowing garden that you’d like to offer.

Wilderness Torah provides all major structures for cooking, comfort, and learning.  If you have extra pillows, cushions, rugs, and other accessories to decorate our village, please bring them!  Please see the packing list for an idea of personal items you should bring.

Our village spaces provide distinct areas for people to engage deeply in diverse content. Below is a list of the spaces at this year’s Sukkot festival. See Village Spaces for more info on each space.

  • Family and Youth Village
  • Nevatim “Sprouts” Garden
  • Queer Magic Haven
  • BIPOC Sanctuary
  • House of Memory 
  • Red Tent
  • Healing Oasis
  • Men’s Care Sanctuary
  • Tea Lounge

Sukkot is a family-friendly event and we encourage families to join! Please see our families page to learn more about family programming. We will update this page with more specific family programming as the event approaches.

On the final day of Sukkot, Hoshanah Rabah (“Great Pleading”), we will gather in prayer, song, and dance to call the much-needed rains back to the earth.

You will be invited to participate in this co-created ritual by signing up for something that interests you: dancing, drumming, shaking a rattle, singing, or simply joining in to pray and witness this beautiful ceremony.

We can’t wait to rejoice as a community together, and give gratitude to the earth and Spirit for a blessed year and the coming rains!