The Torah tells us that we must celebrate three festivals in the year: Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot (Leviticus 23). They are known as “Shalosh Regalim”, the three pilgrimages. The commandment said that every Jew in the land of Israel had to make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem to present a sacrifice.

On Pesach, each family or group of people brought a lamb or goat to sacrifice in the Temple the night before the festival. Then the pilgrims went out to the courtyards of Jerusalem to roast the animal on a bonfire. While they ate it with Matza and bitter herbs, they told the story of the Exodus from Egypt. On Shavuot, the harvest festival, farmers would bring their first fruits, baskets of grain and fruit, and hand them to the priests, while reciting a litany thanking God for having brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

Sukkot, for its part, had become the most observed festival in the Temple. During the eight days it lasted, the priests would sacrifice seventy animals accompanied by their respective portion of grain mixed with oil and wine. On Sukkot, the Jews would arrive in Jerusalem with palm branches intertwined with willow and myrtle branches and carrying an etrog. They would wave all of this while saying “Hoshiana,” God save us. After the ceremony, they would give the etrog to children to eat. Since Sukkot fell in the fall, at the beginning of the rainy season, the priests would draw a jar of water from the Siloam spring in Jerusalem and pass it from hand to hand until it reached the Temple to be made into a libation. The ceremony was followed by a joyous party that lasted well into the night. The idea was to ask God for abundant rains for good harvests.

However, over time, the background of being agricultural festivals changed to something more spiritual. Pesach became the day to remember the departure from Egypt. Shavuot was related to the day that God spoke to Israel on Mount Sinai. And Sukkot was associated by the sages with the 40-year journey in the desert.

When the Romans destroyed the Temple, the festivities changed. Pesach was now observed with a ritual meal at home, without sacrificing the lamb. The important thing now was to tell the story of the Exodus. On Shavuot, the reception of the Torah was celebrated, and on Sukkot, the huts were built, which were normally used in the fields to gather the harvest, but were now used to remember the years in the desert, and palm branches were waved with the willow, myrtle, and etrog. Hoshiana prayers were now performed in synagogues. Sacrifices in the Temple had obviously been cancelled. The festivals without the Temple were no longer like the festivals with the Temple.

By Marcos Gojman

Bibliography: The Jews in the Time of Jesus by Rabbi Stephen M. Wylen.