I was privileged to present this material - in a much expanded way - for Torah In Motion on 4/30/2026
The class is available online https://torahinmotion.org/classes/parshat-emor-how-many-holidays-are-there-in-tishrei-the-strange-phenomenon-of-the-holiday
or on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW_ZetzHvrw
If you choose to watch - I highly recommend speeding up the video to 1.5 or 1.75 speed 馃槆
by Rabbi Avi Billet
The holiday we mostly call Sukkos is mentioned in the Torah five times.
Shmos 23:16 – “And the holiday of the ingathering at the 爪讗转 (end/beginning) of the year, when you gather your doing from the field.”
Shmos 34:22 – “And the holiday of ingathering at the 转拽讜驻转 (time) of the year.”
[Many commentaries note that the words 爪讗转 and 转拽讜驻转 refer to a time of the year when the agricultural season comes to its conclusion, which is as the fields are closing up in advance of the winter, after the ingathering/harvest.]
In both of those cases, the Torah does not give a date, does not tell us how many days, and only mentions the concept of “ingathering” as it calls the festival “Chag HaAsif” – essentially the Jewish version of Thanksgiving.
