Portal:Judaism/Weekly Torah portion/Sukkot Chol HaMoed

Sukkot (סֻכּוֹת) (Chol HaMoed) Exodus 33:12–34:26 & selection from Numbers 29:20–34 The Weekly Torah portion in synagogues on Shabbat, Saturday, — “'The Lord, the Lord, God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” (Exodus 34:6–7.)

Moses asked God whom God would send with Moses to lead the people. Moses further asked God to let him know God’s ways, that Moses might know God and continue in God’s favor. And God agreed to lead the Israelites. Moses asked God not to make the Israelites move unless God were to go in the lead, and God agreed. Moses asked God to let him behold God’s Presence. God agreed to make all God’s goodness pass before Moses and to proclaim God’s name and nature, but God explained that no human could see God’s face and live. God instructed Moses to station himself on a rock, where God would cover him with God’s hand until God had passed, at which point Moses could see God’s back.

God directed Moses to carve two stone tablets like the ones that Moses shattered, so that God might inscribe upon them the words that were on the first tablets, and Moses did so. God came down in a cloud and proclaimed: “The Lord! The Lord! A God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; yet He does not remit all punishment, but visits the iniquity of parents upon children and children's children, upon the third and fourth generations.”

Moses bowed low and asked God to accompany the people in their midst, to pardon the people’s iniquity, and to take them for God’s own. God replied by making a covenant to work unprecedented wonders and to drive out the peoples of the Promised Land. God warned Moses against making a covenant with them, lest they become a snare and induce the Israelites’ children to lust after their gods.

God commanded that the Israelites not make molten gods, that they consecrate or redeem every first-born, that they observe the Sabbath, that they observe the Three Pilgrimage Festivals, that they not offer sacrifices with anything leavened, that they not leave the Passover lamb lying until morning, that they bring choice first fruits to the house of the Lord, and that they not boil a kid in its mother's milk.

Selection from Numbers 29:20–34: God told Moses that every Sukkot, for seven days, the Israelites were to present to God an offering. This offering started with bulls, with a different number of bulls on each day of the holiday. On the first day, thirteen bulls were offered, on the second twelve bulls, and so forth, until on the seventh day there were seven bulls offered. In addition to the bulls, each day's offering included two rams and fourteen lambs as burnt offerings; as well as meal offerings and drink offerings; and a goat as a sin offering. Because the offering changes every day, this selection changes depending on which day of chol hamoed it is.

Hebrew and English text of Exodus 33:12–34:26 & Numbers 29:20–34

Hear the parshah chanted

Commentary from the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University (Conservative)

Commentary from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (Conservative)

Commentary by the Conservative Yeshiva

Commentary by the Union for Reform Judaism (Reform)

Commentaries from Project Genesis (Orthodox)

Commentaries from Chabad.org (Orthodox)

Commentaries from Aish HaTorah (Orthodox)

Commentaries from the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation (Reconstructionist)

Commentaries from My Jewish Learning (trans-denominational)