254 A History of Judaism
Sukkot, which comes only five days after Yom Kippur, retained its
character as primarily a harvest festival, with the waving of the four
species (palm, etrog, myrtle and willow) in synagogues and meals taken
in the sukkah, a booth with cut vegetation for the roof that let in some
sunlight. Observance was more difficult in some of the less clement cli-
mates in the diaspora than in the land of Israel, and rules developed
about the degree of discomfort from cold or wet which made use of the
sukkah inappropriate.
During late antiquity the custom gradually grew that the four species
should be carried in procession round the synagogue each day to the
chant of hoshana in recollection of circuits round the altar in Temple
times. On the seventh day there were seven circuits, and this day came
to be known as Hoshana Rabba, ‘The Great Hoshana’, which was also
the occasion for beating willow branches. Hoshana means ‘O deliver’, and
hoshanot prayers, addressing God by different epithets and beseeching
his aid, were much elaborated in the sixth to seventh century ce by
poets like Elazar Kallir. Originally prayers for rain, in keeping with the
timing of the Sukkot festival, they became quite general in the liturgy as
it developed.
The end of Sukkot was marked by a final eighth day (Shemini Atseret)
on which no work was to be undertaken. In the diaspora, where two
days of the festival were observed, the second day in due course took on
a character of its own in celebration of the completion of the annual
cycle of reading the Torah and the start of the new cycle with the book
of Genesis. This celebration, known as Simhat Torah, is not attested
until the beginning of the second millennium ce, but it has become a
major festival for diaspora Jews, with much singing and dancing by the
congregation.
The month of Heshvan which follows all these festivals has no spe-
cial festivals or fasts, so the next festival is Hanukkah which begins near
the end of the month of Kislev (usually in December). The festival cele-
brates the rededication of the Temple by Judah Maccabee (see Chapter
5), but rabbinic Jews did not read the full account in the books of Mac-
cabees, which survived only in Greek, and the Babylonian Talmud
explained the lighting of lamps for eight days as a memorial of a miracle
at the time of Judah’s victory: only enough pure oil for one day was
found in the Temple when it was rededicated, but the oil kept burning
for eight days until fresh supplies of pure oil could be brought.
The festival of Purim in Adar (usually March) also purports to com-
memorate an event of divine salvation, in this case recorded in the