Sukkot: The Text, the Plants, the History, and the Chydah

Sukkot: The Text, the Plants, the History, and the Chydah

By Shamar Torah ~ Chag Sukkot 2026

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Chag Sukkot is a feast of ingathering, dwelling, and joy, and every later practice grows out of a handful of passages. Verse numbers below follow the Hebrew text; some English Bibles are one verse off in the Tehillim and Hoshea.

Torah references

Shemot (Names / Exodus) 23:16; 34:22. 

Chag ha'asif, the feast of ingathering, at the turn of the year, when the work of the field is gathered in.

Vayikra (And He Personally Summons / Leviticus) 23:33–43. The fifteenth of the seventh month, seven days, with a holy convocation on the first day and on the eighth. "You shall take for yourselves on the first day peri etz hadar, kapot temarim, va'anaf etz avot, v'arvei nachal, and rejoice before YHWH your Elohim seven days" (v. 40). Every native (ezrach) in Yisra’el dwells in sukkot, "so that your generations may know (l'ma'an yede'u) that I made the children of Yisra’el dwell in sukkot when I brought them out of the land of Egypt" (vv. 42–43).

Bamidbar (In The Wilderness / Numbers) 29:12–38. The feast offerings: thirteen bulls on the first day, one fewer each day down to seven, seventy bulls in all, then a single bull on the eighth day.

Devarim (Words / Devarimeronomy) 16:13–15. Kept "when you have gathered in from your threshing floor and your winepress." Son, daughter, servants, Vayikraite, ger, fatherless, and widow rejoice together, and "you shall be altogether joyful" (v'hayita akh sameach).

Devarim 31:10–13. Every seventh year, at Sukkot, the Torah is read aloud before all Yisra’el: men, women, children, and the ger within your gates.

Prophets

Aleph Melekim (1 Kings) 8:2, 65–66. Solomon dedicates the house of YHWH at the feast of the seventh month, and the people go home joyful.

Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 4:5–6. Over Zion YHWH creates a cloud by day and fire by night, and it becomes a sukkah for shade from heat and refuge from storm.

Hoshea 12:10. "I will yet make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the appointed feast."

Amos 9:11–12. "In that day I will raise up the sukkah of David that is falling," with room for "all the nations over whom My name is called."

Zecharyah / Zechariah 14:16–19. The survivors of the nations go up year by year to keep Sukkot, and on those who do not, no rain falls.

Tehillims / Songs / Psalms

Tehillim 18:12. "He made darkness His hiding place; around Him His sukkah: dark waters, thick clouds (avei) of the skies."

Tehillim 27:5. "He hides me in His sukkah in the day of trouble."

Tehillim 31:21. He hides His own in a sukkah from the strife of tongues.

Tehillim 76:3. "In Salem is His sukkah, His dwelling in Zion."

Tehillim 118:25–27. Hoshi'ah na, "save now," and "bind the festival offering with cords (avotim) to the horns of the altar." This Tehillim has been sung at Sukkot since the second-temple era.

The "Four" Species?

The Torah describes the plants of Vayikra 23:40 by their qualities, not their species names. The familiar four (citron, palm, myrtle, willow) are later identifications, so the Hebrew descriptions are where the text itself speaks.

What the verse actually says,

Fruit and foliage. Only the first item is called peri, fruit. The other three are foliage: kapot (fronds), anaf (a bough), arvei (willows). Within the verse, the only fruit-bearing tree named is the tamar, the date palm.

The missing vav (waw). The verse reads peri etz hadar kapot temarim, va'anaf etz avot, v'arvei nachal. No "and" joins the first two, while each of the last two carries one. That allows kapot temarim to be read with the first item: fruit of the splendid tree, fronds of the date palm.

Hadar is never a species. Nowhere in the Tanakh is any plant called hadar. The word always names a quality: splendor, majesty, the clothing of the King (Tehillim 96:6; 104:1).

Etz can be collective. "Of the fruit of the tree (peri etz) of the garden we may eat" (Baresyth 3:2) means all the garden's trees. The peri etz hadar likely means "fruit of splendid trees," a category rather than one species, which makes great sense considering the autumn harvest ingathering theme of Sukkot.

The date palm. Dates ripen in the land from late summer into autumn, so the heavy golden clusters are being harvested exactly at the feast of ingathering. The palm's fruitfulness is part of its meaning in the texts: "I will climb the tamar and take hold of its fruit stalks" (Shir HaShirim / Song of the Songs 7:9), and the righteous palm "still bears fruit in old age" (Tehillim 92:15). A laden cluster hung in the sukkah could feed a household for the whole week. The counterpoint: if specifically dates were meant, the Torah could have said peri tamar, and using two names may point to two trees.

Another option: Splendid fruit boughs of the season. With a collective etz, the fruit of splendid trees can include the native harvest of Devarim 8:8 that ripens around the ingathering: grapes (the winepress of Devarim 16:13), late figs, pomegranates, dates, and early olives. Hanging these with their leaves carries out the fruit and the foliage of the verse together. The two readings don't conflict: the date would be the most obvious splendid fruit among several.

The foliage,

Etz avot, the thick or interwoven tree, is never identified in the text. Tradition says myrtle, but Nehemiah 8:15 lists myrtle (hadas) and etz avot separately, which suggests they are different trees or sections of a tree.

Arvei nachal are the willows of the wadi. Some botanists think the aravim of Tehillim 137:2 were Euphrates poplars, which grow along the same kind of watercourse.

The validity of the citron (etrog),

The Torah gives no reason to require the citron, and strong reasons to look to the native harvest instead.

Not native. The citron's wild origins are placed far to the east, in the region of northeast India and southwestern China. It traveled west through Persia and Media, which is why Greek writers called it the "Median apple."

Late arrival. The earliest evidence of it in the land is pollen from the royal garden at Ramat Rachel near Yerushalayim, from the Persian period. That is roughly the era of the return from exile, long after Moshe.

Barely edible. It is mostly thick pith with little juice, usually eaten candied or preserved rather than fresh. It is hard to call it a glorious fruit to feed a household for a week.

How it became the rule. By the first century BCE the citron was established practice; Josephus records a crowd pelting King Alexander Jannaeus with citrons at the altar during the feast. The Talmud later defended the practice (Sukkah 35a) by reading hadar as ha-dar, "the one that dwells," because the citron can stay on its tree from one year into the next. That reading rests on a wordplay and on existing practice. The date and seasonal-fruit readings rest on the verse itself and on the harvest of the land.

Because rabbinic rules disqualify a citron grafted onto lemon stock, and because appearance determines its fitness, the fruit is now a specialized, inspected commodity. Each summer, inspectors travel to growing regions such as Calabria in Italy, known for the Diamante variety, and Morocco to examine fruit on the tree. Harvested citrons are graded, from a basic grade up to mehudar, the most beautiful, and the grade sets the price. Premium citrons can sell for many times the price of a basic one, and a certification is part of what the buyer pays for. In many communities, synagogues and congregational rabbis sell sets before the feast as a fundraiser.

The contrast with the Torah's harvest. In the land, dates and grapes are everyday staples, sold in any market and eaten through the season. The citron, by contrast, appears for sale mainly in a short window before Sukkot, in specialized seasonal markets, and is otherwise out of sight for most of the year. The gap comes down to agricultural scale, shelf life, and ritual requirements.

Deuteronomy 16:14 instructs that the feast include the Levite, the ger, the fatherless, and the widow, the people with the least. A feast built on the land's own harvest is open to all of them. When a requirement the Torah never states becomes an imported, graded, and certified product, the cost falls hardest on exactly the people the Torah told Israel to bring in. The Torah's instruction is simpler: take the fruit of the splendid trees and the boughs of the land and rejoice before YHWH seven days.

How Sukkot Was Kept in Yisra'el's History

The practice has taken many forms, from vineyard festivals to temple processions to booths on rooftops. The oldest detailed account is Nehemiah's, and it is a record of exiles recovering the feast.

Within the Tanakh

Shiloh (Shaphatym 21:19–21). A yearly feast of YHWH at Shiloh, with the daughters of Shiloh dancing out among the vineyards. Its timing at the grape harvest makes Sukkot the likely feast.

Solomon (Aleph Melekim 8:2, 65–66; 2 Divrei HaYamim 7:8–10). The house of YHWH was dedicated at the feast of the seventh month, followed by fourteen days of celebration.

The first returnees (Ezra 3:4). They kept Sukkot "as it is written" before the foundation of the temple was even laid.

Nehemiah 8:13–18. The returned exiles found the command written in the Torah and proclaimed it. They gathered branches of olive, etz shemen, myrtle, palm, and etz avot, and built booths on rooftops, in courtyards, in the temple courts, and in the squares of the Water Gate and the Ephraim Gate. The text says Yisra’el had not done this since the days of Yeshua ben Nun, and "there was very great joy." The Torah was read every day of the feast, with an assembly on the eighth.

Corrupting YHWH’s Festival Feasts:

Yeroboam (Aleph Melekim 12:32–33). He set up a rival feast in the eighth month, "the month he devised from his own heart." A feast moved from its time was counted among Yisra’el's first departures.

In the future (Zech 14:16–19). The nations go up year by year to keep Sukkot.

Communities that read Vayikra 23:40 differently,

Samaritans. They read the plants as materials for the sukkah itself. They build their booths inside their homes, with a canopy of fruit hung overhead.

Karaites. They read Vayikra 23:40 together with Neh 8:15 as a list of building materials for the sukkah, not items to carry and wave.

Rabbinic practice. Bound the palm, myrtle, and willow into one bundle and held it with the citron, waving it and circling during the feast. This became the most widespread form. It is the least reasonable, most profitable for rabbis, and most financially oppressive of all the possible readings of the Torah's instructions.

The Chydah of Sukkot

Read as a riddle, Sukkot says that YHWH is the one who raises the sukkah, that David's line is the splendid fruit hanging in it, and that His word is the fruit that gathers the remnant home. These are readings, each tied to the texts that support it, so the reader can check them against the text directly.

YHWH raises the sukkah of David

David swore he would not rest "until I find a place for YHWH, a dwelling (mishkanot) for the Mighty One of Ya'akov" (Tehillim 132:5). YHWH answered by turning it around: "YHWH will make you a house," and "I will raise up (hakimoti) your seed after you" (2 Sam 7:11–12). By Amos's day that house had become a sukkah, a booth already falling. The promise still stands with the same verb: "I will raise up (akim) the sukkah of David" (Amos 9:11). David looks for a dwelling for YHWH, and YHWH raises a dwelling for David. The sukkah Tehillims are David's own: "He hides me in His sukkah" (Tehillim 27:5), and the King of glory entering the gates (Tehillim 24).

David, the fruit of the splendid tree.

Fruit. "Of the fruit of your body (mipri vitnecha) I will set upon your throne" (Tehillim 132:11). "A shoot from the stump of Yishai, a branch from his roots will bear fruit (yifreh)" (Yeshayahu 11:1).

Splendor. Hadar is laid on David's king: "hod v'hadar - You lay upon him" (Tehillim 21:6; also Tehillim 45:4).

Generations. The core of hadar, דר, gives dor, generation: "I will build your throne for dor va'dor" (Tehillim 89:5). This matches the l'doroteikhem of Vayikra 23:41, 43.

Splendor set aside. The servant grows "as a root out of dry ground," with "no form and no hadar" (Yeshayahu 53:2). The splendid fruit comes up from the wilderness looking like nothing at all.

The old still bearing fruit:

The righteous palm, "planted in the house of YHWH… still bears fruit in old age (b'seivah)" (Tehillim 92:13–15). Moshe at 120, his eye not dim (Devarim 34:7), states that the Torah be read at Sukkot (Devarim 31:10–13) and sings, "my teaching shall drop as the rain" (Devarim 32:2). "Even to old age and gray hair, do not forsake me, until I declare Your strength to the dor" (Tehillim 71:18).

The prophets and writers of the Tanakh are palms of this kind. Their words, spoken in old age and in exile, are still bearing fruit and still gathering:

His word goes out like rain, gives seed and bread, and does not return empty. Then "all the trees of the field shall clap the kaf," and the myrtle comes up instead of the briar (Yeshayahu 55:10–13).

The fruit-bearing shoot of Yeshayahu 11:1 becomes a banner for the nations and gathers the dispersed of Yisra’el (Yeshayahu 11:10–12).

"I will surely gather the remnant of Yisra’el" (Mic 2:12). "I will lead them by streams of water (nachalei mayim)" (Yirmayahu 31:8, Eng 31:9).

Peri: fruit that is spoken

In the lexicon, peri means fruit or produce. The Tanakh repeatedly calls speech fruit, though:

"From the fruit of a man's mouth he is satisfied with good" (Mishlei 12:14). "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit" (Mishlei 18:20–21).

"I create the fruit (niv) of the lips…" (Yeshayahu 57:19). "We will pay the bulls (parim) of our lips…" (Hos 14:3), which the Greek translators read as "fruit of our lips."

In pictographs, פרי is mouth (פ), head (ר), and hand (י): the word from the head's mouth made into work.

Hosea 14 then shows the whole feast. Yisra’el's splendor (hod) is like the olive, those who dwell in his shade return, and YHWH says, "from Me your fruit is found" (Hos 14:7–9). Man lives "by every word that proceeds from the mouth of YHWH" (Devarim 8:3), and the word is "in your mouth and in your heart" (Devarim 30:14). The fruit hung in the sukkah is the word itself.

From the fruit of Eden to the fruit of Sukkot

The same phrase. In Eden, peri etz ha-gan is the fruit of the garden's trees (Baresyth 3:2). At Sukkot, peri etz hadar is the fruit of the splendid trees. Both use the collective etz, and both describe trees "pleasant to the sight and good for food" (Baresyth 2:9).

Taking, reversed. In Eden "she took (vatikach) of its fruit" (Baresyth 3:6). The man and woman hid "among the trees of the garden" (Baresyth 3:8), YHWH covered them (Baresyth 3:21), and they were sent out lest they "take (v'lakach) also of the tree of life" (Baresyth 3:22). At Sukkot, "you shall take (u'lekachtem) for yourselves" the fruit, and rejoice "before YHWH" rather than hiding from Him. Taking fruit leads into exile in Eden, and back into His presence at Sukkot.

The garden restored. Living waters go out from Yerushalaim (Zech 14:8), and the nations come up to keep Sukkot (Zech 14:16).

The wilderness blossoming:

Marah to Elim. At Marah the water was bitter (mar). A tree (etz) sweetened it, and there YHWH set a statute (Exod 15:23–25). The next camp was Elim: twelve springs and seventy palms (Exod 15:27). Tamar spells out the same story: the covenant mark (ת) on bitterness (מר).

So that they may know. YHWH opens rivers in the wilderness and plants the myrtle and the etz shemen in the aravah, "so that they may see and know (l'ma'an yir'u v'yed'u)" (Yeshayahu 41:18–20). This repeats the l'ma'an yede'u of Vayikra 23:43. The hadar of our Elohim appears when the wilderness blossoms (Yeshayahu 35:1–2).

The covering of the cherubim. Nehemiah's booths were covered with etz shemen (Neh 8:15), the wood of the cherubim in the Kodesh HaKodashim (Most Set-Apart Place) (Aleph Melekim 6:23). Those cherubim are sokhekhim, covering the kapporet with their wings (Shemot 25:20), from the same root as sukkah.

The defining feature of a Sukkah is its roof, known as the sechach (סכך), which is made of detached organic material (like branches or reeds). Both sokhekhim and sechach come from the exact same root, which means to shelter, intertwine, or protectively screen.

Cords of love. YHWH drew Yisra’el out of Egypt "with cords of a man, with bands (avotot) of love" (Hos 11:4). The feast offering is bound "with cords (avotim)" to the altar (Tehillim 118:27).

The willow of exile. "On the willows we hung our lyres" by the rivers of Babylon (Tehillim 137:2). At Sukkot the willow is taken up again in rejoicing, and YHWH promises offspring that "spring up like willows by streams of water" (Yeshayahu 44:3–4). The ערב letters also recall the erev rav, the mixed multitude who came out of Egypt (Exod 12:38), and Yehudah standing as arev, surety, in his brother's place (Baresyth 43:9).

Dwelling. "Better to stand at the threshold of the house of my Elohim than to dwell (dur) in the tents of wickedness" (Tehillim 84:11). For me, over the past three years, I can say I have come to fully appreciate the meaning of this passage (if you know me, you know exactly of what I speak).

"The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; my nachalah is beautiful" (Tehillim 16:6).

Pictographic readings

Pictograph values follow the common reconstruction of the early script. Some letters are well attested (ע eye, ר head, כ palm); others are debated. Each reading is kept only as far as the texts confirm it.

Word	Letters	Reading	Confirming texts	Verdict
עבת avot	eye · house · covenant mark	עב cloud + ת mark: the covenant cloud over His house	Shemot 19:9; Tehillim 18:12 (His sukkah of thick clouds); Hos 11:4	Strong
תמר tamar	mark · water · head	ת on מר: the covenant mark that turns bitterness sweet	Shemot 15:23–27 (Marah to Elim)	Strong
הדר hadar	behold · door · head	Behold the door of the Head; דר = dor, dur	Tehillim 24:7–10; Tehillim 118:19–20; Tehillim 84:11; Tehillim 89:5	Good
כף kaf	palm · mouth	The raised hand joined to the spoken word	Tehillim 63:5–6; Yeshayahu 55:12	Good
פרי peri	mouth · head · hand	The word from the head's mouth made into work	Mishlei 12:14; 18:20–21; Hos 14:9	Good
ערבה aravah	eye · head · house · behold	Behold, the eye of the Head over the house	Devarim 11:12; Tehillim 33:18; Baresyth 43:9	Tentative
נחל nachal	seed · wall · staff	Life kept within the fold, led by the staff	Tehillim 16:5–6 (nachalah); Yirmayahu 31:8	Tentative
סכה sukkah	thorn or prop · palm · behold	A supported covering, behold	Tehillim 91:4; Shemot 25:20	Tentative

YHWH is the maker of the sukkah and the covering over it: the cloud, the cherubim's wings, we rest in His own shade. This is a reminder of the first Yatsa / Exodus, when our people came out of Mistrayim (Egypt) and dwelt in tents, temporary dwellings, to live under the direct protection and provision of the Almighty, bound with cords of love. This happens again in the last days, as YHWH once again draws out the people in a second Yatsa.

“Therefore, behold, days are coming, declares YHWH, when it will no longer be said, ‘As YHWH lives, who brought up the children of Yisra'el from the land of Mitsrayim,’ but rather, ‘As YHWH lives, who brought up the children of Yisra'el from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’And I will bring them back to their own soil, which I gave to their fathers.”

Yirmayahu 16:14–15 (and repeated in Yirmayahu 23:7–8)

YHWH has brought us out of the realms of the false gods and religions, masters and teachers, which we have been serving for thousands of years. These lands into which we were scattered, to serve gods of wood and stone, we are now leaving in droves, united by the clarion call of YHWH returning us to His land – His Torah. Even in exile, we can return to the land in this way, a poetic allegory in which the chydah (riddle) of the Word is made plain.

The Sukkot is raised by YHWH, and David's line is the splendid fruit hanging in the booth. The prophets, still bearing fruit in their old age, hang their words there for a scattered remnant. For those in exile who cannot build a booth, dwelling in His word for seven days is not a substitute. It is what the booth pointed to all along:

"Adonai (Upright One), You have been our dwelling place in all generations." (Tehillim 90:1)

Sukkot offerings list with chydah application:

The Torah sets out the Sukkot offerings in Bemidbar 29:12–38, which makes it the most offering-heavy feast of the year.

The daily public offerings (Bemidbar 29)

Each of the seven days had rising offerings (olah) and a sin offering for going astray (chatat). The number of bulls went down by one each day:

Day	Bulls	Rams	Yearling lambs	Male goat (sin offering)
1	13	2	14	1
2	12	2	14	1
3	11	2	14	1
4	10	2	14	1
5	9	2	14	1
6	8	2	14	1
7	7	2	14	1
8 (Atzeret)	1	1	7	1

Over the seven days that adds up to 70 bulls, 14 rams, 98 lambs, and 7 goats, every total a multiple of seven. The eighth day changes to a single bull and ram, which is the same pattern as Yom Teruah and Yom Kippurim (Bemidbar 29:2, 8).

What went with each animal

Each animal had a grain offering (minchah) of fine flour mixed with oil and a drink offering (nesekh) of wine (Bemidbar 29:18; 15:1–10). The amounts were set by the animal:

For each bull: three-tenths of an ephah of flour and half a hin of wine.

For each ram: two-tenths of an ephah and a third of a hin.

For each lamb: one-tenth of an ephah and a quarter of a hin.

The regular daily offering (tamid), a lamb each morning and evening, continued on top of all of this (Bemidbar 29:16). The tamid is usually spoken of in the Tehillim as offerings of words as continuous appearance before YHWH, used often by David.

Personal offerings

Coming with a gift. "They shall not appear before YHWH empty-handed; each shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of YHWH your Elohim which He has given you" (Debarim 16:16–17). This was proportional to each person's harvest, not a fixed amount.

Peace offerings (shelamim). These were the offerings the worshipers ate themselves, and they were what made the command to rejoice a feast in practice. At the dedication of the house of YHWH during Sukkot, Shelomoh offered 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep as peace offerings (Melakim Aleph 8:63).

The tithe meal. The tithe of grain, wine, and oil was eaten "before YHWH" at the place He chose, and if it was too far to carry, it could be sold and the money spent on food and drink there, shared with the Levite (Debarim 14:22–27). Coming at the end of the harvest, Sukkot was the natural time for it.

The bull: the offering of the lips

"Take words with you and return to YHWH… we will pay the bulls (parim) of our lips" (Hoshea 14:3). The largest animal of the feast becomes speech: confession and praise. David says the same: "I will praise the name of Elohim with a song and magnify Him with thanksgiving; it will please YHWH more than a bull (shor par)" (Tehillim 69:31–32). "Offer to Elohim a sacrifice of thanksgiving (zevach todah)… whoever offers thanksgiving glorifies Me" (Tehillim 50:14, 23). The seventy bulls of Sukkot become a harvest of words.

The ram: the offering of obedience

"To obey is better than sacrifice, to listen than the fat of rams (chelev eilim)" (Shemuel Aleph 15:22). "Will YHWH be pleased with thousands of rams?… He has told you what is good: to do justice, to love chesed, and to walk humbly with your Elohim" (Mikhah 6:7–8). The ram, which is also the mighty tree, is fulfilled in the people themselves as eilei ha-tzedek, "oaks of righteousness, the planting of YHWH" (Yeshayahu 61:3). The offering becomes a planted, upright life.

The lamb: the offering of the yielded heart

Yirmayahu, "a gentle lamb led to the slaughter" (11:19), is the prophet whose surrender kept bearing fruit after him. "The sacrifices of Elohim are a broken spirit; a broken and crushed heart, O Elohim, You will not despise" (Tehillim 51:19). "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire… I delight to do Your will, my Elohim; Your Torah is within my heart" (Tehillim 40:7–9). The lamb is completed in the heart that yields to Him.

The grain and oil: the offering of lifted hands

"Let my prayer be set before You as incense, the lifting of my hands (kappai) as the evening minchah" (Tehillim 141:2). The grain offering becomes prayer with raised hands. This is the same kaf as the palm fronds, and the same hand-and-mouth pairing we found in Tehillim 63.

The wine: the offering of the poured-out soul

Channah said, "I have poured out my soul before YHWH" (Shemuel Aleph 1:15). "Pour out your heart before Him" (Tehillim 62:9). David himself made the drink offering in its truest form. When his mighty men risked their lives to bring him water from the well of Beit Lechem, he would not drink it, and "poured it out (vayasekh) to YHWH" (Shemuel Bet 23:16). Their devotion became his libation. The wine that gladdens the heart is completed in a heart poured out to Him.

In proportion to the blessing

The measures were sized to each animal, just as each person gives "according to the blessing of YHWH" (Debarim 16:17). No one brings more than he has been given. The heart offers back what YHWH has put into it.

The completion in the last days

Returning with the heart. "Return to Me with all your heart… rend your hearts and not your garments." Then, "who knows whether He will turn and leave behind a blessing: a minchah and a nesekh for YHWH your Elohim" (Yoel 2:12–14). Here YHWH Himself provides the grain and drink offering, and it comes after the rending of the heart. The early rain, the full threshing floors, and the overflowing vats come after that (2:23–24).

The purified offerers. He purifies the sons of Levi, "and they will bring offerings in righteousness; then the minchah of Yehudah and Yerushalayim will be pleasing to YHWH, as in the days of old" (Malakhi 3:3–4).

Among the nations. "From the rising of the sun to its setting My name is great among the nations, and in every place… a pure minchah" (Malakhi 1:11). "I will give the peoples a pure lip, to call on the name of YHWH… from beyond the rivers of Kush My worshipers will bring My minchah" (Tzefanyah 3:9–10). The pure offering comes from the lips.

The gathered as the offering. "They will bring all your brothers from all the nations as a minchah to YHWH… as the children of Yisra'el bring the minchah in a clean vessel" (Yeshayahu 66:20). The remnant gathered from the north and all the lands (Yirmayahu 16:14–15; 23:7–8) is itself the grain offering.

The sound of thanksgiving. In the restored cities there will again be "the voice of joy and the voice of gladness… the voice of those who say, 'Give thanks to YHWH of hosts'… as they bring the thank offering (todah) into the house of YHWH" (Yirmayahu 33:11).

Returning to YHWH and to David. "Afterward the children of Yisra'el will return and seek YHWH their Elohim and David their king, and they will come trembling to YHWH and to His goodness in the last days (b'acharit ha-yamim)" (Hoshea 3:5).

Yirmayahu uses the same promise with the sukkah verb: "they will serve YHWH their Elohim and David their king, whom I will raise up (akim) for them" (Yirmayahu 30:9). What David's line brings in the last days is a people returning with trembling, seeking hearts.

Malakhi pictures offerings in the restored house, so the prophets don't set the altar aside. But in every one of these passages, what makes the offering acceptable is the heart behind it: the purified offerer, the rent heart, the pure lip. The prophets never picture the animals without the heart, so the heart is what completes them. At Sukkot in the last days, the bulls are the praises of the lips, the rams are lives of obedience, the lambs are yielded hearts, the grain is hands lifted in prayer, and the wine is the soul poured out before YHWH.

In conclusion, I hope that your Sukkot will be a wonderous time of dwelling beneath the words of the Almighty, the Torah of our Elohim. Enjoy the words of his son, David, the mashiach (anointed one). Give ear to those bearing fruit in old age, the sons and daughters of the Covenant whose words were preserved across time for such purposes, so as to return us once more to the pastures of the Living Elohim, YHWH our righteousness. Present your offerings. Rejoice to YHWH, who has called us out of the nations to restore us once again!

Shalom, and Chag Sameach to you all!

Reading "this Torah" at Sukkot

Debarim 31:10–13 instructs reading "this Torah" (ha-torah ha-zot) at the feast. Here is an 8 day reading plan, which you can modify for your own use, if you like.

Day	Reading	Chapters	Verses (approx.)	Where it ends
1	Bereshit 1–26	26	730	Yitschaq settled at Be'er Sheva, the covenant renewed to him
2	Bereshit 27–50	24	805	Yosef's death in Mitsrayim, end of Bereshit
3	Shemot 1–24	24	665	The covenant ratified at Sinai, Moshe going up the mountain
4	Shemot 25–40; Wayyiqra 1–7	23	720	The mishkan filled with glory; the offerings
5	Wayyiqra 8–27	20	690	The priests' seven days and the eighth, the feasts, the covenant; end of Wayyiqra
6	Bemidbar 1–21	21	770	The camp set in order, the wilderness years, the well at Be'er
7	Bemidbar 22–36; Debarim 1–6	21	735	The plains of Moav; "this is the Torah" (Debarim 4:44), the Ten Words, the Shema
8 (Atzeret)	Debarim 7–34	28	740	The song, the blessing, and the death of Moshe; the Torah completed

Time. Read aloud at a steady pace, the whole Torah takes around 18 to 20 hours, so about 2 to 2½ hours a day, give or take - based on the skill and pace of your readers.