Lulav

The etrog has been identified as the Torah’s פְּרִי עֵץ הָדָר, “fruit of trees of beauty” (Leviticus 23:40), since the Second Temple period. Here are five other interpretations of this verse.

The book of Zechariah envisions a time when all the nations will come to the Temple in Jerusalem on Sukkot. The festival’s eschatological significance in the Second Temple period is hinted at in the book of Enoch, in the book of Revelation, and on coins minted during the great rebellion and the Bar Kochba rebellion.

According to Ezra (3:4) and Nehemiah (8:14-15) the returnees celebrated the holiday of Sukkot according to the law as it “was written,” but differences between their celebrations and the prescriptions in the Torah suggest that the laws they had written were slightly different than ours. Was the Torah finalized by the time Ezra-Nehemiah was written?

The connection between the Israelite festival of Sukkot in the temple and the Ugaritic new year festival and its dwellings of branches for the gods.  

Jesus is famously associated with the holiday of Passover. However, according to the Gospel of John, Jesus makes his debut and final visit at the temple on Sukkot, while the Book of Revelation uses Sukkot imagery to describe Jesus’ future appearance on earth. These repurposings of Sukkot and its rituals highlight Sukkot’s eschatological significance for Jews in Second Temple times (Zechariah 14).

The Torah and Bavli vs. the Prophets and Yerushalmi

Building materials or trail mix? How Karaite Jews read Leviticus 23:40, which describes the mitzvah of taking (ולקחתם) the four species, in light of Nehemiah 8:15.