And greeting fellow Saints of the Most High Elohim. Welcome to The Messianic Torah Observer. I’m Rod Thomas, your host. And as always, it is my sincerest hope, trust and prayer that this installment of the program finds you, your families and fellowships well and blessed.

As I am posting this installment of the program, Yom Teruah/Day of the Blowing of Trumpets and Yom Kppur/Day of Atonement have come and gone. I pray that you had a powerful and meaningful Fast-Yom Kippur observance.

Having just moved past The Day of Atonement (aka Yom Kippur), we are now just a couple days away from the start of the 8-Day Festival or Feast of Tabernacles. The Hebrew name that you should become familiar with regarding this feast (if you’re not already familiar with it) is Sukkot.

I noted that this is an 8 day observance and that it is the last of the 3-mandated pilgrimage and last of the annual Fall Feasts of Yah. The 8-days is actually composed of 7-days of Sukkot, the first day of which is a holy day and should be kept similar to the weekly Sabbath. The 8th day is actually a separate feast day called Shimini Atzeret, which most folks in our community simply group in with the 7 days of Sukkot and make it a single 8-day observance. The 8th day or Shimini Atzeret (aka Last Great Day) is also a holy day that should be kept similar to a weekly Sabbath.

Instead of producing a new teaching on Sukkot/Tabernacles, I have chosen to re-publish last year’s discussion on the subject for your review. Because of logistics, I ended up posting that episode of Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections after Tabernacles/Sukkots had concluded. Thus, I felt it appropriate to post it this year ahead of the actual celebration. The content is of course evergreen and is just as pertinent in 2017 as it is this year in 2018.

This year (2018), the Feast of Sukkot/Tabernacles, as always, depending on which calendar you’re using, begins at sundown on Sunday, the 23rd of September, and runs through sundown Monday the 1st of October if using the calculated Jewish Calendar. If you are using the observational calendar, our observance of Sukkot begins at sundown on Tuesday, the 26th of September and extends to sundown on Wednesday the 3rd of October.

Torah stipulates that Sukkot/Tabernacles always begins on the 15th of the 7th month (known in Jewish circles as the month of Tishri) and runs through the 22nd of the same month. As I mentioned in my previous 2-posts that addressed Trumpets/Yom Teruah and Atonement/Yom Kippur, we have to determine when the 1st day of the 7th month begins in order to know, of course, when both Yom Kippur and Feast of Tabernacles/Sukkot will fall. So again, it behooves each of us to align our modern lives with the calendar of our leading and choosing so that we are not caught unaware when these moedim of the Creator take place each year. These are Father’s appointed times that He set and embedded into the earth’s natural calendar when He laid the foundations of this world. He longs to meet with us on these 7-set apart days in Spirit and Truth.

So I will get into the nuts and bolts of Sukkot/Tabernacles in this installment and I trust and pray that the content will greatly enrich and bless your daily walk with Messiah.