Okay, a few more thoughts to bring the relevance of "the Feast" to the time of Jesus.
In John 7, Jesus goes to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. It is there, on the last and great day of the feast, that Jesus declared the promise of living water - the Holy Spirit - to those who believe in him (vs. 37-39).
Two themes were strongly associated with the Feast during Jesus' day: (1) water, and (2) light. The priests ritually poured water on the altar as a kind of prayer to God for the rain to come in its season, and on the last day they would really douse it so that water would even start running out of the temple. And there were huge menorahs standing in the temple courts that were lit all through the Feast and lit up the whole area. John picks up on this light theme as well, in chapter 8 and 9, as Jesus twice says "I am the light of the world" and enlightens darkened eyes.
We see these themes in Zechariah and Isaiah as they point to the Day of the Lord and even to the Feast of Tabernacles in the age to come.
In the first post I quoted some from the Jewish Prayer Book for Sukkos. As I was looking for a closing prayer(s) to end this series of posts I saw again how many pages including various litanies of pleas that God would "please save, now." This is also a prayer that we Christians pray a lot, in short it's the prayer "Hosanna!" (Hoshana in Hebrew)
I'll close with this prayer called "Farewell to the Succah:"
"May it be Your will, LORD, our God and the God of our forefathers, that just as I have fulfilled [the mitzvah, or "commandment"] and dwelled in this succah, so may I merit in the coming year to dwell in the succah of the skin of Leviathan. Next year in Jerusalem."
[here's the commentary on this strange and interesting petition... "The Leviathan was a monstrous fish created on the fifth day of Creation. Its story is related at length in the Talmud (Bava Basra 74b), where it is told that the Leviathan will be slain and its flesh served as a feast to the righteous in Time to Come, and its skin used to cover the tent where the banquet will take place."]
Christians say it this way: "Maranatha." "Come quickly, Lord," and make all things right and all things new. By the grace of God in Messiah, may all God's people dwell with him in the new earth.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place (tabernacle) of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
(Revelation 21:1-4)
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