Celebrate the harvest with Stephen Wise Temple as we gather in sacred community.
Sukkot for 2024 (5785) begins at sundown on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, and ends the evening of Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024.
Five days after the solemnity of Yom Kippur and the end of the High Holy Days, we celebrate Sukkot, one of the three great festivals (chaggim) of the Jewish year. We erect a hut or booth (sukkah)—a flimsy structure with at least three sides, whose roof is made out of thatch or branches, providing shade and protection from the sun, but also open enough to see stars at night.
Wise constructs several sukkot on campus each year. Decorated by our students and community, with one dedicated to refugees, these structures host services, gatherings, and events throughout the week-long celebration, such as Tot Shabbat, Shabbat services, and more!
About Sukkot
Though it has its ancient origins in the fall harvest festival, with the booths representing the huts farmers lived in during the last hectic days before the winter rains, Bible reinterpreted the festival, imbuing it with an additional later of meaning. The sukkot came to represent the huts the Israelites erected during their wandering in the desert after the revelation at Sinai.
For one week, meals are eaten in the structure, and in a welcoming ceremony— called ushpizin—ancestors are symbolically invited to join us at our table. In commemoration of the bounty of the Holy Land, we hold and shake the lulav (made of four plants: palm, myrtle, and willow) and etrog (a citron) in the four cardinal directions.
Celebrate the harvest with us as we gather together in sacred community!
Visit our sukkot on campus for these events or at any time during the festival.
שִׁבְעַת יָמִים, תָּחֹג לַיהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, בַּמָּקוֹם, אֲשֶׁר-יִבְחַר יְהוָה: כִּי יְבָרֶכְךָ יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, בְּכֹל תְּבוּאָתְךָ וּבְכֹל מַעֲשֵׂה יָדֶיךָ, וְהָיִיתָ, אַךְ שָׂמֵחַ
“You shall hold a festival for God seven days … for God will bless all your crops and untakings and you shall have nothing but joy.”
—Deut. 16:15
Sukkot Festival Schedule 2024
Whether you joined in 1964 or 2024, we have a night just for you!
Please RSVP based on the decade you became a member.
Nothing says Sukkot more than a sukkah filled with friends and family! Come “reel in the years” with us as we celebrate Wise through the decades. Gather with clergy and fellow congregants from your Wise decades, share memories, and celebrate Sukkot in great company!
1960s and 1970s
Thursday, October 17 | 7 p.m.
New Member Dinner 2024
Friday, October 18 | Following Shabbat Services
1980s and 1990s
Monday, October 21 | 7 p.m.
2000s+
Tuesday, October 22 | 7 p.m.
YAD – Shabbat of Sukkot
Friday, October 18 | 7 p.m.
Join Wise YAD our young adults in their 20’s and 30’s in the Sukkah for an evening of food, friends and fun.
Festival Mountaintop Services | October 17 at 9 a.m.
Join us for our annual Sukkot Morning service on the first day of the festival, featuring special liturgy for the change of the season. It will be a wonderful
morning of celebration, study, and song together in our congregational Sukkah.
New Member Dinner | October 18 at 7:30 p.m.
As an official welcome to Stephen Wise Temple, we invite all new members
(those who became members in 2024) to join us for Shabbat services,
followed by dinner. This special Shabbat dinner is an opportunity for you to chat with clergy, meet other new members, and enjoy time with community.
Children are encouraged to attend.
Grandparent and Me | October 19 at 4:30 p.m.
Join us for a Havdalah Service
A special time created just for you and your grandchildren ages 5 and under to connect with each other and your fellow Wise community grandparents. During this hour, you will enjoy music, blessings from our Wise clergy, light refreshments, and activities created by our Aaron Milken Center staff. Interested in helping us plan or have an idea for an event? Reach out to Rabbi Stern: [email protected].
Shemini Atzeret Yizkor | October 24 at 9 a.m.
Gather with us in community as we conclude our holy day season and the festival of Sukkot in a morning of song and remembrance. We will chant our morning prayers, read and study Torah, and join together in memorial prayers for our loved ones as we do on these festival occasions.
Simchat Torah Shabbat Services | October 25 at 6:15 p.m.
Come dance, sing, and celebrate as we end and begin our Torah reading cycle on this special Shabbat Simchat Torah.
Watch Sukkot Services Online
Click the “play” button when we’re live to watch. When we’re not live, you may browse previous broadcasts.
How to Watch Wise:
- Web site: Watch here when we’re live (on Sukkot, Shabbat, for special events, etc.) or check out previous broadcasts when we’re not!
- YouTube: Our channel broadcasts live services and you can also browse playlists for recent videos and highlights.
- Facebook: Chat with friends during services when we’re live and share on your personal feed.
- Roku: To add our channel, search “Stephen Wise Temple.”
- Fire TV and Fire TV Stick: To add our app, search “Stephen Wise Temple.”
- Other smart TVs: If you already have the YouTube or Facebook Watch apps on your Apple TV, search “Stephen Wise Temple” to find our feeds.