Sukkot-
Begins sunset of Friday, October 16, 2024 | Ends nightfall of Friday, October 23, 2024,
“And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the people of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Booths for seven days to the Lord”.
Leviticus 23:37-44
(*Please note that this message was originally broadcast in 2004. The date mentioned for Succoth was correct for that year. Succoth 2024 begins sunset of Friday, October 16, 2024 | Ends nightfall of Friday, October 23, 2024,. Date changes for Holy Days occur due to the fact that Jewish people follow a lunar calendar rather than the solar (Gregorian) calendar.)
Peace be to you, beloved Jewish friends, Peace and God’s blessings be upon you and yours! May it please God, the God of Israel, to use this radiocast to gladden your hearts, personally and individually, temporally and eternally!
“The Hebrew Christian Witness” which presents this program same time and same day over this station, constitutes an independent, unaffiliated, and non-denominational work to make known to Jewish people first the full truth of the Jewish Bible which includes the revelation that the God of the Jewish Bible can be known by us personally today! The Hebrew Christian Witness has no membership rolls and no dues. It does not make solicitations. It never charges for its’ services. It has nothing to sell. It is a friend of the nation Israel and of Jewish people wherever located. The Hebrew Christian Witness believes that the Bible is composed of the Jewish Bible, Tanakh, and the promised New Testament, B’rit Chadashah. The Bible, as such, is believed to be the divine Word of the God of Israel, who said to the people of Israel, “What thing soever I command you, observe to do it. You shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it.”
Sephardic Hebrew, the dialect of Israel, and Jewish, Yiddish, will be spoken in this radiocast. The official mailing address of the Hebrew Christian Witness is: Post Office Box 2, San Bernardino, California, zip nine two four zero two. Telephone number: area code, 909, eight eight, three, three, nine, one, zero. You are welcome to write us or to phone, direct or collect.
The subject of this message is: The Feast of Tabernacles, Succoth. Your speaker is Mike Perl, P-E-R-L.
From sundown October 10 until sundown October 16, some Jewish people will observe the holy days of “The Feast of Tabernacles,” also called “The Feast of the Booths.” It is a period of gladness for the people, and of thankfulness to God by the people for His providence and provision, and for their redemption out of Egypt. The commands to conduct these holy days are found in the Jewish Law, in the Book of Leviticus, chapter 23, beginning with verse 33. It reads as follows in Hebrew and English: “And the Eternal spoke to Moses, speak to the sons of Israel; on the fifteenth day of this seventh month, shall be the Feast of Tabernacles. For seven days to Yehovah, on the first day shall be a holy convocation; no servile work shall you do; seven days shall you offer an offering made by fire to the Eternal One; you shall take to yourselves, the fruit of the tree hadar, branches of palm trees, the boughs of myrtle-tree, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before The Eternal One your God seven days. It shall be a statute throughout your generations; in booths shall you dwell seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths; in order that your generations may know that I caused the sons of Israel to dwell in booths when I brought them forth out of the Land of Egypt; I Am The Eternal One your God.” End of quote.
For the proper observance of this holy festival and perfect compliance with the commands, God requires that all adult Jewish males must be in Jerusalem. No servile work – no business – is to be done on the first day. Each day of seven days there is to be a sacrifice made by fire to God, The Eternal One. For the entire seven days, the people are to dwell in booths known as sukkah. The fruit of the hadar tree, branches of palm trees, the boughs of the myrtle tree, and willows of the brook are to be carried in the hands of the worshippers. The rabbis ruled that “the fruit of the tree, hadar” meant the “etrog” or the citron. Every worshipper carries the citron in his left hand, and in his right the lulav or palm with myrtle and willow branch on either side of it, tied together on the outside with its own kind, though in the inside it might be fastened even with gold thread. As represented by the different vegetation: the palm branches recalling the valleys and plains, the booths depicting the bushes on the mountain heights, and the willows, those brooks from which God had given His people drink. The citron is to remind them of the fruits of the good land which God had given them.
Jewish history informs us that during the days when the holy temple stood in Jerusalem, while the morning sacrifice was being prepared, a priest, accompanied by a joyous procession with music went down to the Pool of Siloam from which he drew water in a golden pitcher. The priest, returned just as his brethren carried up the pieces of the sacrifice to lay them on the altar. He then went up the rise of the altar and turned to the left where there were two silver basins with narrow holes – the Eastern a little wider for wine, and the Western somewhat narrower for water. Into these the wine of the drink offering and the water from the pool were poured, later to be poured into the basin which led to the base of the altar. As soon as the wine and the water were being poured out, the temple music began and the “Hallel, “Psalms one hundred and thirteen through one hundred and eighteen, was sung. When the choir came to the words, “O give thanks to the Lord, O work then now salvation, Yehovah, O give thanks unto the Lord, all the worshippers shook their lulavs toward the altar. In addition, on every one of the seven days of the Feast of Booths, the priests formed in procession and made the circuit of the altar singing, “O then now work salvation Yehovah! O Yehovah give prosperity!” On the 7th day, they made the circuit of the altar seven times, repeating the words. The pouring out of the water was considered by the rabbis as being a subordinate reference to the dispensation of rain, but its main and real application was to the future out-pouring of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, as predicted by the prophet, Isaiah. Thus the Talmud says distinctly, “Why is the name of it called, ‘The Drawing out of Water?’ Because of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, according to what is said, “With Joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation.”
Today, no Jewish person anywhere, out of Israel or in Israel, keeps this holy season as Yehovah, The Eternal God of Israel, commanded that it should be kept!! Since the destruction of the second holy temple, more than nineteen hundred years ago, our Jewish people have not been able to perform the animal sacrifices, required for only at the temple in Jerusalem, may these sacrifices be performed. Failure to refrain from any kind of work, failure to offer the sacrifices, failure to dwell in booths, cannot be sanctioned on the argument that times have changed, that there is no temple, that the weather is not favorable, or that liberal Judaism has set aside some of the ritual connected with holy days!! The fact remains that any variance from the God-given way of observing these holy days constitutes sin! Continue, please, to listen to this radiocast that you might learn, dear Jewish friends, how such sins may be forgiven!
In the Jewish Bible, in the Book of Jeremiah, God promises to make a new covenant, with the twelve tribes of Israel. The New Testament reports that it was on the great day of the Feast of Tabernacles, over nineteen centuries ago, that in the holy temple in Jerusalem, that Jesus the Nazarene stood up and called out, “If any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes on Me, as the Scriptures says, Out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.” End of quote. The Apostle John, a Jewish believer in and follower of Jesus as Messiah, as Savior, as Lord, commented on these words of Jesus by saying that Jesus spoke thusly of the Holy Spirit, whom those believing in Jesus would receive. It was later that this same Jesus to fulfill the prophecy found in the Jewish Bible, Book of Zechariah, chapter nine, verse nine, rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. Then Jewish people strewed the path with branches cut from trees as well as with their own garments as they hailed Him, Jesus, as King of the Jews!! Thus they cried out, “O work then now salvation, Son of David!” They applied to Jesus what was regarded as one of the chief ceremonies of the Feast of Tabernacles, pleading that He would now work salvation!
Jesus, Y’shua, was rejected as “King of the Jews” that our holy Jewish Scriptures which predict His rejection might be literally fulfilled! It is recorded in the holy New Testament that Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, and the Jews gathered together to do what Yehovah had predestinated to be done to His Holy Servant, Jesus! Some Jews accused Him of blasphemy, some Gentiles crucified Him on a cross on which He died voluntarily for the sins of all Jews, Jewtiles, and Gentiles, the sacred Scriptures say! But even as the Bible, the Holy Word of God, prophesies, and even as He Himself said that He would, Jesus rose from the tomb in which He was buried on the third day as He said that He would! Before His death, Jesus also said that He would send the Holy Spirit, after His departure. So it was on the Feast of Pentecost, that one hundred and twenty Jewish people were gathered in one place in Jerusalem, the Holy Word of God states, when suddenly there came a roaring from Heaven like the driving of a might wind…and all were filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in foreign languages as the Holy Spirit granted them expression. Then arose Peter, another Jewish believer in and follower of Jesus as Messiah, as Savior, and as Lord, said, “This is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘It shall be in the last days, says God, I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh.’ Jesus, lifted high by the Right Hand of God and receiving from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, has poured out what you both hear and see. Without a shadow of doubt, then, let the whole House of Israel acknowledge that God made Jesus, both Lord and Messiah.”
It is in Jesus that every type and prophecy of the Bible is fulfilled! The Feast of Tabernacles, was a picture of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has been poured out even as the Eternal Yehovah will once more pour out His Holy Spirit upon the nation, Israel! But today the individual Jewish person, because the Holy Spirit was poured out more than nineteen hundred years ago, may receive the gift of the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit, will come into your heart and life if you will accept Jesus as your sacrifice, kippur, for sin! Our Jewish Bible declares that it is the blood upon the altar that makes atonement for the soul. Without a sacrifice, there is no forgiveness of sin! The ritual of sacrifices were shadows of which the sacrifice of Jesus, Y’shua, was the substance! His was a sacrifice once for all! By believing in Him and in His sacrifice, there is forgiveness of sins. There is salvation of one’s eternal soul! The Holy Spirit has been poured out that you might receive Him as the personal guarantee that you have been redeemed! He will fill your life to overflowing with joy, faith, love, power! Jesus the Savior, lives today seated at the Right Hand of God, His Father, in heaven awaiting your asking Him for the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the gift of salvation, for the gift of eternal life! The Holy Spirit will cleanse you of your sins! The Holy Spirit will purify your conscience! The Holy Spirit will remove your guilt, and only the Holy Spirit of God can do so!
You can enter the spiritual booth of salvation, through welcoming Jesus, Y’shua, into your heart. Both the Jewish Bible, Tanakh, and the New Testament, B’rit Chadashah, say, “Whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Through prayer call upon the Lord Jesus, Adonai Y’shua, to be your Savior, now!