The Meaning of God in Modern Jewish Religion

VI. God as the Power that Makes for Cooperation

VI GOD AS THE POWER THAT MAKES FOR COOPERATION OF the three Pilgrimage Festivals, Sukkot is the one which illustrates most strikingly the unique way in which the Jewish religion has conceived of God as manifesting Himself both through history and through nature. At first entirely an agricultural festival, Sukkot assumed by the beginning of the Second Jewish Commonwealth a nationalhistorical significance, with the Sukkah as the chief symbol. Yet it also retained its connection with its ancient character as a nature or seasonal festival. The symbol of that connection was the Temple-libation of water.1 In the festivities attendant upon that rite, the waving of the "four species of plans" including the palm branch (Lulab) figured prominently . Both symbol and festivities were an expression of thanksgiving for the yield of the year that had passed, and of petition for an abundant crop in the year to come. Sukkot is known in the Bible also as the Festival of Ingathering,1 because it marked the conclusion of the harvests in the fields and the ingathering of the fruits from the orchards and the grapes from the vineyards. It is also designated as the "Festival of YHWH" 8 and by the unqualified term "The Festival" * (regularly so in the Mishnah ),B implying that it was at one time regarded as the festival par excellence. Originally, it appears, Sukkot was the only Pilgrimage Festival. On it the Israelites would leave their 1 Mishnah Sukkah IV, 9. Cf. Rosh ha-Shanah 16a. " Exod. 23:16 and 34:22. 8 Lev. 23:39. 4 I K. 8:2; Ezek. 45:23; II Chron. 7:8. 5 Cf. Bikkurim I, 6; Yoma II, 5; Sukkah III, 13, etc. 202 POWER THAT MAKES FOR COOPERATION 203 homes and their local bamot, and repair to one of the larger sanctuaries like the one at Shiloh,6 at Beth El,7 or at Jerusalem , where large groups of people were gathered and helped to create a holiday atmosphere. The behest to rejoice on the festival8 merely states what had been the practice since ancient days.* Indeed, the spirit of festivity seems to have been carried to a point where it broke out into orgies of hilarity and drunkenness, which became the special target of prophetic denunciation.10 To Hosea the spirit of their celebration still bore a pagan or Baal character.11 A radical change, however, in the observance of Sukkot took place when all sacrificial worship outside the Temple at Jerusalem was banned. From that time on Sukkot began to bear a national-historical character, and has had that character down to our own day. Whatever additional meanings the festival has retained or acquired, the principal one is that stated in Leviticus 23:42, 43: "Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are home-born in Israel shall dwell in booths; that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God" In subsequent periods, when the interpretation of religious values yielded first place to those which were individual or other-worldly in their reference, the Sukkah came to be regarded as symbolic of teachings dealing with man's personal life. Thus, according to Maimonides,11 the purpose in remembering the days that Israel spent in the Wilderness is "to teach men to remember his evil days in his days of prosperity . He will thereby be induced to thank God repeatedly, and to lead a modest and humble life." According to Isaac Aboab,*1 "The Sukkah is designed to warn us that a man is not to put his trust in the size or strength or beauty of his • I Sam. 1:3. T Amos 7:10. 8 Deut. 16:14-15. • Judg. 31:19-21. 10 Amos 5:21-23; Is. 28:7, 8. 11 Hosea 2฀7.฀ 1S Moreh Nebukim III,฀47. x i Menorat Hamaor III, 4, sec. 6. 204 THE MEANING OF GOD house, though it be filled with all precious things; nor must he rely upon the help of any human being however powerful. But let him put his trust in the great God Whose word called the universe into being, for He alone is mighty, and His promises alone are sure." The other rite which is still observed on Sukkot is that of waving the...