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Sukkot

This is an archive of prayers, prayer-poems, and songs for the pilgrimage festival of סֻכּוֹת Sukkot. (In some older English translations, Sukkot is referred to as the Festival of "Tabernacles"). The seven day festival culminates with Hoshanah Rabba, the last of the three high holy days of atonement preceding Shemini Atseret upon which the Tefilat Geshem (prayer for rain) is offered for the fertility of all life on Earth and the resulting health of all peoples.

The origin of Ḥanukkah underscores the significance of these festivals. During the Seleucid Greek occupation of Jerusalem in the 160s BCE, Sukkot and Shemini Atseret could not properly be celebrated in the second Temple. As a result, when the Temple was retaken by the Maccabees after the rainy season had already begun, the festival of Ḥanukkah was born with many of Sukkot and Shemini Atseret's rain and temple-offering oriented symbolism transformed to that of light and the temple illumination.

Click here to contribute a prayer or a transcription or translation of a historic prayer.

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Resources filtered by TAG: “English vernacular prayer” (clear filter)

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אַאֲמִיר אוֹתְךָ סֶֽלָה | Aamir Otekha Selah, an ofan piyyut for Sukkot by Elazar ben Qallir (rhymed translation by Alice Lucas 1894)

This is the piyyut, “Aamir Otekha Selah” by Elazar ben Qallir for Sukkot, as translated into rhyming English verse by Alice Montefiore Lucas, first published in her anthology of versified translations Songs of Zion by Hebrew Singers of Mediæval Times (1894). Her translation was later set opposite Qallir’s Hebrew text in Maḥzor Avodat Ohel Moed: Avodat Ḥag haSukkot (ed. Arthur Davis & Herbert Adler, 1908).

Categories:

Sukkot

Tags:

44th century A.M., 7th century C.E., acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, English vernacular prayer, ofanim, פיוטים piyyuṭim, rhyming translation

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Alice Montefiore Lucas (translation) and Elazar ben Qallir

How Desolate Thy Fields and Vales, a hymn for Sukkot by Penina Moïse (Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim 1842)

“How desolate thy fields and vales,” by Penina Moïse, published in 1842, appears under the subject “Tabernacles (Sucote)” as Hymn 64 in Hymns Written for the Service of the Hebrew Congregation Beth Elohim, South Carolina (Penina Moïse et al., Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim, 1842), pp. 66-67.

Categories:

Sukkot

Tags:

19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., ABAB rhyming scheme, English vernacular prayer, hymns, South Carolina

Contributor(s):

Ḳahal Ḳadosh Beth Elohim (Charleston, South Carolina), Penina Moïse and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Rude are the Tabernacles Now, a hymn for Hoshana Rabbah by Penina Moïse (Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim 1842)

“Rude are the Tabernacles now,” by Penina Moïse, published in 1842, appears under the subject “Tabernacles (Sucote)” as Hymn 65 in Hymns Written for the Service of the Hebrew Congregation Beth Elohim, South Carolina (Penina Moïse et al., Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim, 1842), pp. 67-68.

Categories:

Sukkot, Hoshana Rabba

Tags:

19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., ABABCC rhyming scheme, English vernacular prayer, הושענות hoshanot, hymns, South Carolina

Contributor(s):

Ḳahal Ḳadosh Beth Elohim (Charleston, South Carolina), Penina Moïse and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Prayer of Thanksgiving for the Feast of Tabernacles (סוכות), by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau (1852)

“Prayer of Thanksgiving for the Feast of Tabernacles (סכות)” by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau was first published in his תחנות בנות ישראל Devotions for the Daughters of Israel (1852), p. 35.

Categories:

Sukkot

Tags:

19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, Jewish Women's Prayers, תחינות teḥinot

Contributor(s):

Marcus Heinrich Bresslau and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Prayer for the First Day of Sukkot, by Rabbi Moritz Mayer (1866)

A prayer for a woman celebrating the first yontef of Sukkot.

Categories:

Sukkot

Tags:

19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, Gratitude, Jewish Women's Prayers, מודים Modim, תחינות teḥinot, thankfulness, thanksgiving

Contributor(s):

Moritz Mayer and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Public Repetition of the Shaḥarit Amidah for Sukkot, by Rabbi Max Landsberg (1884)

This is Rabbi Max Landsberg’s public repetition of the shaḥarit festival amidah for Sukkot as found in his Ritual for Jewish Prayer (1884), pp. 21-28 with a unique prayer for Sukkot found on pp. 48-49.

Categories:

Sukkot

Tags:

19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, Public Amidah

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Max Landsberg

The Pilgrim March, a hymn for Sukkot by Angie Irma Cohon (1921)

“The Pilgrim March” by Angie Irma Cohon is a hymn for Sukkot published in her תפלת ישראל (Tefilat Yisrael) A Brief Jewish Ritual (Women of Miẓpah 1921), p. 22.

Categories:

Sukkot

Tags:

20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, hymns

Contributor(s):

Angie Irma Cohon and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

God’s Bounty, a prayer for Sukkot (CCAR 1923)

“God’s Bounty” is the seventeenth prayer found in ברכה ותהלה Blessing and Praise: A Book of Meditations and Prayers for Individual and Home Devotion (CCAR 1923), pp. 61-63. Unfortunately, we do not yet know of a resource providing clear attribution of authorship for any of the prayers in this volume.

Categories:

Sukkot

Tags:

20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., divine abundance, English vernacular prayer, teḥinot in English

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Unknown and Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]

[A prayer for] Sukkot—Festival of Tabernacles (CCAR 1923)

“Succoth—Feast of Tabernacles” is the eighteenth prayer found in ברכה ותהלה Blessing and Praise: A Book of Meditations and Prayers for Individual and Home Devotion (CCAR 1923), pp. 64-67. Unfortunately, we do not yet know of a resource providing clear attribution of authorship for any of the prayers in this volume.

Categories:

Sukkot

Tags:

20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., divine abundance, English vernacular prayer, teḥinot in English

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Unknown and Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]

Between the Fires: A Kavvanah for Lighting Candles of Commitment, by Rabbi Arthur Waskow (the Shalom Center)

“Between the Fires: A Prayer for lighting Candles of Commitment” was composed by Rabbi Arthur Waskow, drawing on traditional midrash about the danger of a Flood of Fire, and the passage from Malachi.

Categories:

Erev Shabbat, Earth, our Collective Home & Life-Support System, Shavuot, Erev Pesaḥ, Sukkot, Rosh haShanah (l’Maaseh Bereshit), Yom Kippur, Ecotastrophes

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20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., candle lighting, eco-conscious, ecoḥasid, English vernacular prayer, כוונות kavvanot, kindling, North America

Contributor(s):

Arthur Waskow and the Shalom Center

A Prayer before Candle-lighting, by Chaya Kaplan-Lester

Please God
Let me light
More than flame tonight.

More than wax and wick
and sliver stick of wood.
More than shallow stream of words
recited from a pocket book.

Categories:

Erev Shabbat, Shavuot, Erev Pesaḥ, Rosh haShanah (l’Maaseh Bereshit), Sukkot, Yom Kippur, 7th Day of Pesaḥ

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., candle lighting, English poetry, English vernacular prayer, entering, fire, כוונות kavvanot, kindling, Light, potential, Prayers as poems, welcoming

Contributor(s):

Chaya Kaplan-Lester

In the Sukkah At Least, It’s a Wonderful World — a song for Sukkot by Len Fellman

“In the Sukkah At Least, It’s a Wonderful World” by Len Fellman was written for Sukkot in 2015.

Categories:

Sukkot

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, sukkah songs, זמירות zemirot

Contributor(s):

Len Fellman

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Hannah Spiro on 24 September 2018

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 24 September 2018.

Categories:

Sukkot, 🇺🇸 United States of America, Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies

Tags:

115th Congress, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, hakhnasat orḥim, hospitality, U.S. House of Representatives, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, תחינות teḥinot, United States Immigration Policy, welcoming

Contributor(s):

the Congressional Record of the United States of America and Hannah Spiro

Hoshanot Liturgy for the Climate Crisis, adapted by R’ Ezra Weinberg from the words of Greta Thunberg

The words of Greta Thunberg adapted for a prayer for intervention in the anthropogenic climate crisis, for a Honshana ritual for Sukkot.

Categories:

Sukkot, Ecotastrophes, Hoshana Rabba

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., alphabetic mesostic, climate crisis, English vernacular prayer, global climate change, הושענות hoshanot, mesostic

Contributor(s):

Ezra Weinberg

Seven Hoshanot for Creation, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid·org)

A litany of hoshanot for use in a ritual prayer circle march on the festival of Sukkot.

Categories:

Sukkot, Hoshana Rabba

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., eco-conscious, ecoḥasid, English vernacular prayer, הושענות hoshanot, Needing Translation (into Hebrew)

Contributor(s):

David Seidenberg and Neohasid·org

Hosha-na for Our Planet, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid·org)

A litany of hoshanot for use in a ritual prayer circle march on the festival of Sukkot.

Categories:

Sukkot, Hoshana Rabba

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., alphabetic mesostic, eco-conscious, ecoḥasid, English vernacular prayer, הושענות hoshanot, mesostic, Northampton, United States

Contributor(s):

David Seidenberg and Neohasid·org

Prayer for Sukkot 5785, by Rabbi David Seidenberg

This prayer by Rabbi Seidenberg was shared via his English newsletter and social media in the days preceding Sukkot 2024.

Categories:

Sukkot

Tags:

2023-2025 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, United States General Election 2024

Contributor(s):

David Seidenberg and Neohasid·org

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." (Psalms 90:17)

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