שמחת בית השואבה--Simchat beit Hashoeva

Every year at Yom Kippur I do this: I read the greatest repentance Passage in the Bible, Psalm 51 of course.

When Sukkot arrives I always read John 7. There is, for me, something majestic in this passage. We first read Yeshua's brothers urging Him to go to Judea. They said if you are real, then go up to Judea and show your stuff...His own brothers were skeptical of Him. Yeshua rebuked them and told them His time did not yet come, and yet He went up anyway, in secret. The text then tells us that in the middle of Sukkot He went into the Temple and begun to teach. Didn't He say that His time has not come yet? Refusing to go, going up in secret, coming out in the open to teach....

He kept arguing with the Temple attendees and many wondered at His knowledge. Then came the last day of the Sukkot festival.

Sukkot is called also, Chag Ha'asif-the festival of harvest. It was customary to thank God for the produce of the past year, and also to have prayers for the upcoming winter rains. according to the Talmud, there was a custom developed in the second Temple period which was created to illustrate this truth.
A priest would go down to the pool of Shiloam, fill up a pitcher of water and carry it back to the temple. The crowds lined up behind the priest forming a procession. They were dancing, chanting the Hallel Psalm (Ps. 118) as they enter the temple mount.

On each day of Sukkot the processional would circle the altar one time and then the Priest poured the water at the altar. On the seventh and last day, Hoshanna rabah, the processional would circle the altar seven times to magnify the joy. The response of the crowed as the Priest poured the water was so immense that the Talmud says that whoever has not been in Jerusalem for the ceremony of Simchat Beit Hashoevah (The rejoicing of the house of drawing water) has never experienced real joy.

Such a joy for the hope of the coming rain? Let's hear Isaiah who shows us a deeper truth: " Therefore you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation." (Isaiah 12:3) ושאבתם מים... Simchat beit Hashoeva is pointing to the days of Messianic redemption when the water of the Holy Spirit would be poured out upon all Israel.

So now the reading of John 7 is much more magnified. It happened on the last day of Sukkot, and this young man is confronting all the people and their leaders, speaking of the living water, rivers of living water: " If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water." How meaningful, how profound, how majestic.

May He dwell in your Sukka all seven days.