At the conclusion of the seventh daj' another festival is to be celebrated, denominated the concluding day (CT' TTi'^'J), the eighth concluding day {Vi'^'^V_ '^D"''Cd ; Sept. 6^(1^101^). Like the first day, it is to be a holy convo- cation, and no manner of work is to be done on it. As it is not only the finishing of the Feast of Tabernacles, but the conclusion of the whole cycle of festivals, the dwelling in the tabernacle is to cease on it, and the sac- rifices to be offered thereon are to be distinct, and un- like those offered on the preceding days of Tabernacles. The burnt-sacrifice is to consist of one bullock, one ram, and seven lambs one year old, with the appropriate meat- and drink-offerings, and one goat for a sin-offering
TABERNACLES, FEAST OF 140 TABERNACLES, FEAST OF
(Numb, xxix, 36-38). The sacrifices, therefore, were 1 tival, while his house is only to be his occasional abode, 1(1 be like those of the seventh new nuion and the (ireat \ and he is only to quit the booth when it rains verj' Day of Atonement. Beint;, however, attached as an octave to the P^east of Tabernacles, the Sabbatical rest and the holy convocation, which properly belong to the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles, are transferred to it, and hence the two festivals are frequently joined together ami spoken of as one composed of eight days. There is onlv one instance on record of this festival be- ing celebrated betwf'cn the entrance into the Promised Land and the Babylonian captivity (1 Kings viii, 2; 2 Chron. vii, 8-10 with Neb. viii, 17). No trace of any exposition of the I'entateuchal enactments with regard to this festival is to be found till we come to the post- exilian period.
2. The Pei-iod from the Return from Babylon to the Destruction of the. Temple. — In the account of the first celebration of this festival after the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, the concise Pentateuchal injunction is expanded. Not only are the localities specified in which these booths are to be erected, but additional plants are mentioned, and the use to be made of these plants is stated. The Jews, according to the command of Ezra, made themselves booths upon the roofs of houses, in the courts of their dwellings, in the courts of the sanctuary, in the street of the water- gate, and in the street of the gate of PIphraim, from the olive-branches, the pine-branches, the myrtle-branches, the palm-branches, and the branches of the thick trees, which they were told to gather, and dwelt in these booths seven days (Neh. viii, 15-18). The Sadducees of old, who are followed by the Karaites, took these boughs and the fruits to be itlentical with those mentioned in Lev. xxiii, 39, 40, and maintained that these were to be used for the construction and adornment of the booths or tabernacles. The Pharisees and the orthodox Jew- ish tradition, however, as we shall see hereafter, inter- preted this precept differently.
When the Feast of 'I'abernacles, like all other festi- vals and precepts of the Mosaic law, began to be strictly and generally kept alter the Babylonian captivity, un- der the spiritual guidance of the Great Synagogue, the Sanhedrim, and the doctors of the law = scribes, more minute definitions and more expanded applications of the concise Pentateuchal injunction were imperatively demanded, in order to secure uniformity of practice, as well as to infuse devotion and joy into the celebration thereof, both in the Temple and in the booths. Hence it was ordained that the tabernacle or booth (T^'S'O.su'k- kdh) must be a detached and temporary habitation, con- structed for the sole purpose of living in it during this
festival, and must not be used as a permanent dwelling.
The interior of it must neither be higher than twenty
cubits, nor lower than ten palms; it must not have less
than three walls ; it must not be completely roofed in,
or covered with any solid material, but must be thatched
in such a manner as to admit the view of the sky and
the stars; and the part open to the rays of the sun must
not exceed in extent the part shaded by the cover. It
must not be under a tree; neither must it be covered
■with a cloth, nor with anything which contracts defile- ment or does not derive its growth from the ground
(Mishna, Sukkah, i, 1-ii, 7). The furniture of the huts
was to be, according to most authorities, of the plainest
description. There was to be nothing which was not
fairly necessary. It would seem, however, that there
was no strict rule on this point, and that there was a
considerable difference according to the habits or cir- cumstances of the occupant (Carpzov, p. 415; Buxtorf,
Hi/n. Jud. p. 451). (See curious figures of different
forms of huts, and of the great lights of the Feast of
Tabernacles, in Surenhusius, Mischna, vol. ii ; also a
lively description of some of the huts used bj' the .Jews
in modern times in La Vie Juive en Alsace, p. 170, etc.)
Every Israelite is to constitute the sukkah his regular
domicile during the whole of tlie seven days of the fes-
heavily. Even a child, as soon as he ceases to be de- pendent upon his mother, must dwell in the booth ; and the only persons exempt from this duty are those de- puted on pious missions, invalids, nurses, women, and infants (Mishna, Sukkah, ii. 8, 9). The orthodox rabbins in the time of Christ would not eat any food which ex- ceeded in quantity the size of an egg out of the booth {ibid, ii, 5).