Category: Sukkot

The Four Species

And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs [fruit] of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.

Leviticus 23:40 (KJV)

On Sukkot (Feast of Booths), God instructs us to take up four elements from four different species of trees. We hold these in our hands… for what? To understand this, we need to reflect on the details of this verse and contrast it with another one earlier in the Bible.

Continue reading “The Four Species”

Sukkot, the Place

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 23:43 (KJV)

Booths – When you compare the three holy days; Feast of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, and Sukkot (Feast of Booths), it’s difficult to understand why Sukkot is among them. In Deuteronomy 16:16 God commands all Israel men to appear before the Lord and bring an offering to the Temple on each of these holy days. These are the pilgrim feasts because all men were required to travel to Jerusalem. Let’s take a look at them. Continue reading “Sukkot, the Place”

To Humble Thee

And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.

Deuteronomy 8:2 (KJV)

Humble – In an age where everything is about me, how do we practice humbleness? It’s definitely not something that we can just pick up from the variety of examples around us [sarcasm]. It’s not something we learn in school. Nor is it anything that I might naturally be – not in this western culture anyways. So how do we understand what humbleness really is? Continue reading “To Humble Thee”