The Religious Affairs Office

WHAT DOES THE FESTIVAL OF SUKKOT REPRESENT?

Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles is a Jewish autumn festival that lasts for a week during the Hebrew lunisolar calendar month of Tishrei (between September and October in the Gregorian calendar). The celebration involves reconstructing the booths that were used by the Jewish people during their exodus from Egypt through the desert and on the way to the promised land of Canaan. The children of Israel lived in the desert for forty years, leaving slavery behind.

Together with Pesach and Shavuot, Sukkot is one of the most important festivals in Judaism. It involved three ancient pilgrimages to the temple in Jerusalem.

As an agricultural festival, Sukkot was celebrated as a day of thanksgiving for the autumn harvests, and for the bounties of nature throughout the year in general.

 

THE BOOTH OR SUKKAH

The Torah commands Jews to leave their homes and move into a sukkah (booth or tabernacle, the singular of sukkot) during the week-long festival.

“And ye shall keep it a feast unto the Lord seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations: Ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month. Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born 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”.

Leviticus 23:41-43

So Jews build a booth, either on the balcony or in the courtyard of their houses, which is suitable for eating and sleeping in. To emphasise the temporary nature of the sukkah, it needs to be built in a way that is reminiscent of the precariousness of the booths in the desert, and only natural materials can be used. Given the difficulty of putting up booths (sukkot) in modern cities,  communal booths have been used throughout the Jewish world. The first communal booth in Spain was created in Barcelona in 2018.

It is a tradition to invite friends and family to enjoy the festival, as the booths also symbolise strength and unity through hospitality. A series of rituals are held in the booths that include the blessing of the “four species”: palm (lulav), citrus (etrog), myrtle (hadass) and willow (aravah) trees.

BARCELONA'S JEWISH COMMUNITY

Judaism has been present in the municipality since the Middle Ages, but its continuity was affected by various periods of persecution. The Jewish community became active again in the city from the 20th century onwards.