Although Succot is part of the Shalosh Regalim, festivities which include Pesach and Shavuot, their proximity to the Yamim Noraim alludes to a relationship with the theme of the teshuvah that

dominates the religious environment of Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur.

During Succot a ceremony took place in the Beit HaMikdash called Simchat Beit Hashoeva, which had as central element water, a symbol of life represented by the liquid contained in the mother’s placenta. This idea is also manifest in the mikveh ritual, which consists of immersion in a special body of water that serves to eliminate spiritual impurity and symbolizes a sort of rebirth of the person who makes the immersion. Succot is the date for the “Judgment of the Waters”, when its abundance or scarcity for the coming year is decided.

Ancient sacred texts point out that, on Succot, and specifically in Hoshana Rabbah, human beings are also judged. Therefore, the Hoshanot recited during

the holiday consists of petitions for reconsideration

of the ruling issued in the Yamim Noraim. During

Hoshana Rabbah the usual greeting in Yiddish is the wish that the person receives “a gut kvítl”, a good ballot for the year to come. A sign that the Yom Kippur ruling did not have finality. God apparently gave a few extra days extension for the person to initiate a process of teshuvah so that he amends his behavior to be worthy of life.

As the Yamim Noraim nomenclature indicates,

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are solemn days on which the idea of ​​judgment imposes an atmosphere of seriousness. Succot, however, is the festival of rejoicing, as the Torah instructs: vehayita ach sameach, “and you will be excessively happy.” The Chachamim claim kol mi shelo raa Simchat Beit Hashoeva lo raa simcha miyamav, “who did not witness the Beit Hashoeva ceremony does not know what rejoicing is ”.

Perhaps the insistence of intense rejoicing during Succot, unlike the other Regalim that must also be accompanied by joy, is due to its contiguity and relationship with the Yamim Noraim.

Succot reflects the deep spiritual joy of having been

definitely registered for a new year of life. The double rejoicing, because of the Succot holiday – which commemorates the Divine protection

during the forty years of crossing the desert – and the completion of the verdict that began on Rosh

Hashanah, is also expressed by the number of

sacrifices that were offered in the Beit HaMikdash. The Torah orders the number of sacrifices to be doubled in the case of Succot.

The Torah identifies each of the Shalosh Regalim with an agricultural event. Succot is Chag Haasif, the holiday that celebrates the last harvest of the year, while Pesach commemorates the rebirth of nature in the spring. When establishing a relationship between Succot and Judgment Day, a connection is being made between nature’s products that are

necessary for physical survival and the idea of ​​teshuvah, the indispensable element for the spiritual survival of the individual. It is a further manifestation of how Judaism highlights the wholesomeness of the human being because the division between the material and the spiritual is made only for didactic reasons. Both are expressions of the Creator, who in the beginning made heaven and earth, the heavenly and the earthly.

Succot symbolizes then, that just as water and rain are vital for material development, the moral ingredient represented by the Yamim Noraim is essential nourishment for the spirit.