This portion covers all the “sacred occasions” that are mentioned in the Torah. It is only at the very end that Sukkot –and its symbols of the sukkah and four species – is mentioned. In the Reform tradition only the part that specifically focuses on Sukkot (Leviticus 23:33-44) is read on the holiday.
22:26. The LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
22:27. When an ox or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall stay seven days with its mother, and from the eighth day on it shall be acceptable as an offering by fire to the LORD.
22:28. However, no animal from the herd or from the flock shall be slaughtered on the same day with its young.
22:29. When you sacrifice a thanksgiving offering to the LORD, sacrifice it so that it may be acceptable in your favor.
22:30. lt shall be eaten on the same day; you shall not leave any of it until morning: I am the LORD.
22:31. You shall faithfully observe My commandments: I am the LORD.
22:32. You shall not profane My holy name, that I may be sanctified in the midst of the Israelite people -I the LORD who sanctify you,
22:33. I who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God, I the LORD.
23:1. The LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
23:2. Speak to the Israelite people and say to them:
These are My fixed times, the fixed times of the LORD, which you shall proclaim as sacred occasions.
23:3. On six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there shall be a sabbath of complete rest, a sacred occasion. You shall do no work; it shall be a sabbath of the LORD throughout your settlements.
23:4. These are the set times of the LoRD, the sacred occasions, which you shall celebrate each at its appointed time:
23:5. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, there shall be a passover offering to the LORD,
23:6. and on the fifteenth day of that month the LORD’s Feast of Unleavened Bread. You shall eat unleavened bread for seven days.
23:7. The first day shall be for you a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations.
23:8. Seven days you shall make offerings by fire to the LORD. The seventh day shall be a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations.
23:9. The LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
23:10. Speak to the Israelite people and say to them:
When you enter the land which I am giving to you and you reap its harvest, you shall bring the first sheaf of your harvest to the priest.
23:11. He shall wave the sheaf before the LORD for acceptance in your behalf; the priest shall wave it on the day after the sabbath.
23:12. On the day that you wave the sheaf, you shall offer as a burnt offering to the LORD a lamb of the first year without blemish.
23:13. The meal offering with it shall be two-tenths of a measure of choice flour with oil mixed in, an offering by fire of pleasing odor to the LORD; and the libation with it shall be of wine, a quarter of a hin.
23:14. Until that very day, until you have brought the offering of your God, you shall eat no bread or parched grain or fresh ears; it is a law for all time throughout the ages in all your settlements.
23:15. And from the day on which you bring the sheaf of wave offering – the day after the sabbath-you shall count off seven weeks. They must be complete:
23:16. you must count until the day after the seventh week-fifty days; then you shall bring an offering of new grain to the LORD.
23:17. You shall bring from your settlements two loaves of bread as a wave offering; each shall be made of two- tenths of a measure of choice flour, baked after leavening, as first fruits to the LORD.
23:18. With the bread you shall present, as burnt offerings to the LORD, seven yearling lambs without blemish, one bull of the herd, and two rams, with their meal offerings and libations, an offering by fire of pleasing odor to the LORD.
23:19. You shall also offer one he-goat as a sin offering and two yearling lambs as a sacrifice of well-being.
23:20. The priest shall wave these-the two lambs together with the bread of first fruits as a wave offering before the LORD; they shall be holy to the LORD, for the priest.
23:21. On that same day you shall hold a celebration; it shall be a sacred occasion for you; you shall not work at your occupations. This is a law for all time in all your settlements, throughout the ages.
23:22. And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I the LORD am your God.
23:23. The LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
23:24. Speak to the Israelite people thus: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe complete rest, a sacred occasion commemorated with loud blasts.
23:25. You shall not work at your occupations; and you shall bring an offering by fire to the LORD.
23:26. The LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
23:27. Mark, the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be a sacred occasion for you: you shall practice self-denial, and you shall bring an offering by fire to the LORD;
23:28. you shall do no work throughout that day. For it is a Day of Atonement, on which expiation is made on your behalf before the LORD your God.
23:29. lndeed, any person who does not practice self-denial throughout that day shall be cut off from his kin;
23:30. and whoever does any work throughout that day, I will cause that person to perish from among his people.
23:31. Do no work whatever; it is a law for all time, throughout the ages in all your settlements.
23:32. It shall be a sabbath of complete rest for you, and you shall practice self-denial; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall observe this your sabbath.
23:33. The LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
23:34. Say to the Israelite people:
On the fifteenth day of this seventh month there shall be the Feast of Booths to the LORD, [to last] seven days.
23:35. The first day shall be a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations;
23:36. seven days you shall bring offerings by fire to the LORD. On the eighth day you shall observe a sacred occasion and bring an offering by fire to the LoRD; it is a solemn gathering: you shall not work at your occupations.
23:37. Those are the set times of the LORD which you shall celebrate as sacred occasions, bringing offerings by fire to the LORD – burnt offerings, meal offerings, sacrifices, and libations, on each day what is proper to it-
23:38. apart from the sabbaths of the LORD, and apart from your gifts and from all your votive offerings and from all your freewill offerings that you give to the LORD.
23:39. Mark, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the yield of your land, you shall observe the festival of the LORD [to last] seven days: a complete rest on the first day, and a complete rest on the eighth day.
23:40. On the first day you shall take the product of hadar trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.
23:41. You shall observe it as a festival of the LORD for seven days in the year; you shall observe it in the seventh month as a law for all time, throughout the ages.
23:42. You shall live in booths seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in booths,
23:43. 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, I the LORD your God.
23:44. So Moses declared to the Israelites the set times of the LORD.
This English translation is reprinted with permission from Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures published by the Jewish Publication Society.
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sukkah
Pronounced: SOO-kah (oo as in book) or sue-KAH, Origin: Hebrew, the temporary hut built during the Harvest holiday of Sukkot.
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Sukkot
Pronounced: sue-KOTE, or SOOH-kuss (oo as in book), Origin: Hebrew, a harvest festival in which Jews eat inside temporary huts, falls in the Jewish month of Tishrei, which usually coincides with September or October.
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