DECEMBER 9, 2022 Deuteronomy 1:39 Your little ones and your children, who you say will be victims, who today have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. Moses reminded them that, when Israel embraced the spies’ evil report, they accused God of […]
DECEMBER 8, 2022 Deuteronomy 1:31 The Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place. There is a rabbinic adage based on this passage that says, “A loving father carries his son when he is too young or too weak to make the […]
DECEMBER 3, 2022 Deuteronomy 1:22 And every one of you came near to me and said, “Let us send men before us, and let them search out the land for us, and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up, and of the cities into which we shall come.” […]
DECEMBER 7, 2022 Deuteronomy 1:29-30 Then I said to you, “Do not be terrified, or afraid of them. The Lord your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes.” Once again, I think it is important to remember that the words spoken to Israel of […]
DECEMBER 6, 2022 Deuteronomy 1:28 Where can we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts. The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; moreover, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there. It is both compelling and sad to think that “our brethren” could be the ones to discourage us, […]
DECEMBER 5, 2022 Deuteronomy 1:26-27 Nevertheless, you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; and you complained in your tents, and said, “Because the Lord hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.” Murmuring against the purposes of […]
DECEMBER 4, 2022 Deuteronomy 1:23-24 The plan pleased me well; so I took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe. And they departed and went up into the mountains, and came to the Valley of Eshcol, and spied it out. Many have always assumed that God is the One who initiated the scouting mission executed by the […]
Jacob spent more than twenty years in Aram, a place in Mesopotamia. Jacob’s sojourn in Aram symbolizes the exile of the Jewish people from the land of Israel. His return to Canaan symbolizes the return of the Jewish people from exile.
As Jacob and his family returned to the holy land, they descended the Jabbok Canyon and arrived at a location east of the Jordan called Succoth. Biblical geographers tentatively identify the site with a high mound called Tell Deir Alla on the plain north of the stream of the Jabbok:
Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built for himself a house and made booths for his livestock; therefore the place is named Succoth. (Genesis 33:17)
The Torah offers a brief story to explain the name Sukkoth: “Jacob built for himself a house and made booths (sukkot, סוכות) for his livestock; therefore the place is named Succoth (i.e., ‘Booths’).” The Hebrew word sukkah (סוכה) means temporary shelter, stable, or hut. The name for the biblical festival of Sukkot (Feast of Booths) employs the plural form.
Although Jacob did not build his booths to keep the festival by the same name, the LORD commanded his descendents to imitate him by building sukkot annually as a reminder of their journey to the Promised Land, during which they lived in huts and booths:
You shall live in sukkot for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in sukkot, so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in sukkot when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. (Leviticus 23:42-43)
Just as God led Jacob out of exile and brought him safely into the land of Canaan, so too He led Israel out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and safely to the Promised Land. The construction of booths during the festival of Sukkot commemorates the journey.
The festival of Sukkot also foreshadows the future kingdom of heaven when Israel will dwell under the shade of the Almighty. Then the LORD will establish Messianic Jerusalem and spread a canopy over the city: “There will be a sukkah to give shade from the heat of day, and refuge and protection from the storm and the rain” (Isaiah 4:1). In the Messianic Era, all nations will ascend to Jerusalem to hear the Torah and to worship the LORD at the festival of Sukkot. Then David’s fallen sukkah will be restored, and the kingdom of Esau will become the inheritance of the children of Jacob:
“In that day I will raise up the fallen sukkah of David, and wall up its breaches; I will also raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old; that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by My name,” declares the LORD who does this. (Amos 9:11-12)
Likewise, Jacob built sukkot and a house, foreshadowing the final redemption when the exiles of Israel will return to the Promised Land and the Messianic Era will commence. In that day, the nations will say, “Come let us go up … to the House of the God of Jacob” (Isaiah 2:3), as it says, “Jacob journeyed to Sukkot, and built for himself a house and made sukkot.”
Vayishlach – וישלח : “And he sent” Torah : Genesis 32:4-36:43 Haftarah : Hosea 11:7-12:12 Gospel : John 1:19-2:12
DECEMBER 2, 2022 Deuteronomy 1:16-17 Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, “Hear the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the stranger who is with him. You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid in any […]
