Just below the snowy
Water quenches our thirst and sustains our life. Sukkot begins this Sunday
night with holiday services Saturday and Sunday mornings at 9:30 AM. When the
Temple stood in Jerusalem there was a joyous celebration called Simchat Bet
Hashoavah. “Every day of the year, after the
sacrifice was burned, an offering of wine was poured on the altar. During Sukkot, there was also a water libation (nisukh
hamayim). Some have suggested that it was a folk rite, an inducement
for rain made by pouring out water at the season’s onset, transformed by the
rabbis into a symbolic Temple ritual.
“Each morning of Sukkot, the priests went to
the pool of Siloah (Silwan) near Jerusalem to fill a golden flask. Shofar blasts greeted their arrival at the Temple’s Water
Gate. They then ascended and poured the water so that it flowed over the altar
simultaneously with wine from another bowl.
“Based on Isaiah’s promise “With joy shall you draw water out of the wells
of salvation” (12:3), rejoicing began at the end of the first day and took
place every night except Shabbat. Talmud recorded
that “one who had never witnessed the Rejoicing at the Place of the Water
Drawing had never seen true joy in his life.” (Although the celebration was for
the libation that would be made the next morning it was named
for the preparation for the ritual — the water drawing — which the rabbis
said showed that getting ready was sometimes of greater merit than the mitzvah, or
commandment, itself because of its positive effect on the person
doing it.)” (https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/simchat-beit-hashoavah-the-water-drawing-festival/)
Although we don’t perform this ritual today, Sukkot culminating with Simchat
Torah reminds us that we have continual source of spiritual refreshment. Of
course I’m referring to the Torah which has been compared to water because
revives those who study it.
Are you thirsty today? This Sukkot make Torah study part and parcel of your
week
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