A Different Kind of Joy
The holiday of Succot, זמן שמחתנו, is one of the happiest times of the Jewish year. Curious what was the biggest party of the year back in the day? That would probably be t he celebration that occurred in the temple during Succot (Simchat Beit Hashoeiva) for a few reasons. Succot is one of the three pilgrimage festivals of the Jewish calendar so every Jew- your friends, relatives, and fake uncles, were all there for the celebration. Succot is the time for collecting the harvest. If you are a farmer (which many were), you had just received your annual paycheck. All the crops you planted over the year, all the time you spent working the land was finally paying off. It's time to celebrate: So what did the Biggest Party of the Year look like two thousand years ago? Probably not look like this Thankfully the Rambam describes it in full. The description is long so if you do not feel like reading through the whole thing at least skim through the bold