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Like many of you during this time of year, I think a lot about how to engage children in the chagim experience. What programs or activities might help to make these days more meaningful and memorable for kids? What might we do as a family to help them connect? In considering these questions in my preparation for Sukkot, I came across a beautiful commentary in the new Koren Lev Ladaat Chumash (which I highly recommend) which gave me some additional insight into the holiday.
The Shalosh Regalim, Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot, are each mentioned multiple times in the Torah. Each of the holidays has both an agricultural aspect and a historical aspect, which commemorates a significant event in the history of the Jewish people. The first time these holidays are mentioned as a collective unit of the Shalosh Regalim is in Parshat Mishpatim, Chapter 23, where the Torah shares the agricultural and historical elements of Pesach, but only the agricultural aspects of Shavuot and Sukkot.
The second time the Shalosh Regalim are mentioned is a few chapters later in Parshat Ki Tisa, Chapter 34. There the Torah refers to both Pesach and Shavuot by their historical names, Chag HaMatzot and Chag Shavuot, but still shares only an agricultural reference for Sukkot, saying that it is the holiday of gathering.
Finally, in Parshat Emor, Chapter 23, the third time that the Shalosh Regalim are mentioned, there is a far more detailed description of the holidays and Sukkot is listed by its historical name.
The Torah’s method of listing the holidays in this way allows us to see the beauty of the transformation of the holidays from being merely agricultural to becoming opportunities for us to celebrate the milestones of our people and the beauty of the development of a relationship between Hashem and Am Yisrael.
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