Why Does Sukkot Take Place in the Fall?
We are accustomed to Sukkot falling after the summer has ended. (In Israel, Sukkot takes place at the end of the hot, dry season.) We may ask, however, how the message of Sukkot might have been different if it had been established as a springtime holiday. This question is especially legitimate in light of the passage that outlines the rationale for the sukkah: You shall live in sukkot for seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in sukkot, in order that future generations may know that I caused the Israelite people to live in sukkot when I brought them out of the land of Egypt … (Leviticus 23:42-43) A procedure designed to remind us of living conditions after the exodus from Egypt (which, no one disputes, occurred in the spring) logically should be observed at the start of the dry season, not at the end of the summer. This question was addressed by Rabbi Ya’akov ben Moshe Ha-Levi (d. 1427), known as the MaHaRIL, who lived in Germany. In his book Minhagim (customs), as he transitio
