MAFTIR FOR FIRST DAY OF SUKKOT, AND SECOND DAY OUTSIDE ISRAEL

On the fifteenth day of the seventh month you shall hold a sacred assembly. You shall do no laborious work, and you shall celebrate a festival to the LORD for seven days. You shall offer a burnt-offering, a fire-offering of pleasing aroma to the LORD: thirteen young bullocks, two rams, and fourteen yearling male lambs; they shall be without blemish. And also their meal-offerings, fine flour mixed with oil, three-tenths of an ephah for each of the thirteen bulls, two-tenths of an ephah for each of the two rams, and an ephah each for every one of the fourteen lambs. And one male goat as a sin-offering, as well as the regular daily sacrifice, its meal-offering and its libation.

HAFTARA FOR THE FIRST DAY OF SUKKOT

Behold, a day of the LORD is coming; your spoil will be divided up in your midst. I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem for war: the city will be taken, the houses will be plundered, and the women will be raped; half of the city will go out into exile, but the remainder of the people will not be cut off from the city. And the LORD will go out and He will fight against these nations, as He has fought on days of battle: on that day, His feet will stand upon the Mount of Olives which faces Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives will split through its middle – in to a very great valley – from east to west; and half the mountain will shift northward and half southward. And you will flee from this Valley of the Mountains – the Valley of the Mountains will reach as far as Atzal – you will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uziah the King of Judah; and the LORD will come, my God, all the holy ones with You. And it will be: on that day there will be neither bright light nor thick darkness. And it will be: this one day will be known as the LORD’s, it will be neither day nor night but at evening time there will be light. And it will be: on that day living waters will flow out from Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea and half to the western sea; in summer and winter it will be so. Then the LORD shall be King over all the earth; on that day the LORD shall be One and His name One. The whole country will be smoothed out like the Arava, from Geva to Rimon south of Jerusalem – and [Jerusalem] will be lifted up, in her place; and from the gate of Binyamin to the site of the first gate and to the corner gate, and from the tower of Ḥananel to the king’s winery, they will inhabit her. There will be no more devastation – and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this will be the plague that the LORD will bring upon all the peoples who fought against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot away as they stand on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets and their tongues will rot in their mouths. And it will be: on that day, the turmoil the LORD brings on them will be great and each man will seize his neighbor by the arm to raise his hand against his neighbor’s hand. And Judah too will fight in Jerusalem and the wealth of all the surrounding nations, great quantities of gold, silver and clothing, will be gathered in. And there will be a plague just like this plague, on the horse, the mule, the camel and the donkey and on every animal in those camps. And it will be: those remaining from all the nations who came up against Jerusalem will go up year upon year to bow down to the King, LORD of Hosts, and to celebrate the Festival of Sukkot. And it will be: those from the earth’s families who do not go up to Jerusalem and bow down to the King, LORD of Hosts – rain shall not fall for them; and if the family of Egypt does not go up, does not come – they will have no [overflow]. This will be the plague that the LORD will bring upon the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Sukkot; such will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations who do not come up to celebrate the Festival of Sukkot. On that day even the bells of the horses will be inscribed “sacred to the LORD”; and the pots in the House of the LORD will be like basins before the Altar. And it will be: every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be sacred to the LORD of Hosts, and all those who come to sacrifice will take them and will cook in them; and on that day, there will be no more need for traders in the House of the LORD of Hosts.

HAFTARA FOR THE SECOND DAY OF SUKKOT

It was in the month of Eitanim, at the Festival (in the seventh month, that is), that all the people of Israel gathered together to King Solomon. All the elders of Israel came; and the Priests were bearing the Ark with them. The Priests and the Levites brought the Ark of the LORD, and the Tent of Meeting and all the holy vessels that used to be in it, up [to the top of Mount Zion]. And King Solomon, and all the people of Israel who had come with him before the Ark, brought offerings from the flock and the herd; offerings that could not be counted or listed, so numerous were they. The priests brought the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant to its place: to the Sanctuary of the House – to the Holy of Holies – to the shade of the Cherubim’s wings. For the Cherubim stretched their wings out over the place of the Ark; and they covered the Ark and its poles above. The poles themselves extended outwards, and their ends were discernible from the Holy Place, the Sanctuary, but they could not be seen from outside; and this is where they remain to this day. The Ark held nothing else but the two stone tablets that Moses had placed there at Ḥorev, that the LORD had hewed out with the children of Israel as they left Egypt. And when the Priests left the Holy Place, the cloud filled the House of the LORD. And the Priests could not stand up to serve because of the cloud – for the glory of the LORD filled the LORD’s House. It was then that Solomon said: “The LORD said His Presence would rest in the darkness. I have built, I have built You a House of Worship;a place for Your dwelling forever.” Then the king turned his face and blessed all the congregation of Israel: “Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, whose mouth spoke to David my father, and whose hand fulfilled; for He said: ‘From the day I brought My people Israel from Egypt I never chose a town in all the tribes of Israel to build My House, to rest My name there; but now I choose David to rule My people Israel.’ And He was with the heart of my father, David, who longed to build a House for the name of the LORD God of Israel, and He said to my father, David: ‘Because it was in your heart to build a House for My name, you pleased Me but by having this in your heart. You shall not build the House – but your son, your seed, will build a House for My name.’ And the LORD has fulfilled the word He spoke, and I have followed my father David, to sit upon the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised. And I have built a House for the name of the LORDGod of Israel. And there I made a place for the Ark with the LORD’s Covenant in it; the one that He hewed out with our fathers, when He brought them out of the Land of Egypt.”