LDS Feast of Tabernacles Program by Avraham Gileadi and Robert Kay Welcome—Opening Prayer—Musical Number

“Glad Tidings of Great Joy!” Narrator: Israel’s feasts consist of a cycle of types and shadows that reveal God’s redemptive plan from the fall of man to the flourishing of his kingdom in the earth’s millennial age of peace. Called “holy convocations” or “sacred gatherings” (Leviticus 23:2, 4), they were appointed by God to be observed from generation to generation, throughout all time. By solemnly rehearsing his saving acts in the past, his people would understand what God would do in the future. Israel’s forty-year wandering in the Sinai wilderness to inherit the Promised Land became a type of humanity’s journey through life on the earth to inherit a heavenly glory. The feasts God appointed through the prophet Moses provided signposts along the way. Using the natural to explain the spiritual, they occur in agricultural settings so that God’s people can relate them to the growth cycle of the seasons of the year, and the seasons of the year to man’s path to eternity. Instructor: Three times per year, Israel observed the appointed feasts and made a pilgrimage to the place where God put his name: First, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, or Passover, before the spring planting; Second, at the Feast of Weeks, after the grain harvest; and Third, at the Feast of Tabernacles, following the fruit harvest. The place where God put his name was the temple in Jerusalem, which took the place of the Tabernacle, God’s temporary dwelling in the wilderness. The Feast of Tabernacles is preceded by a forty-day period of preparation called Teshuvah, or “Repentance.” This concludes on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, five days before the Feast of Tabernacles, which is called Sukkoth. During the forty days of repentance, we recite Psalm 27: Musical Number—Psalm 27: “The Lord is my light and my salvation.” “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom be afraid? The wicked come to eat up my flesh, but stumble and fall. Something I requested of my Lord—the thing I desire: To dwell in the house of the Lord, my whole life long. To gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, to visit his house. His shelter will hide me, in a time of woe; His tent will conceal me, high upon a rock. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom be afraid? The wicked come to eat up my flesh, but stumble and fall. Though armies besiege me, my heart will not fear, though wars break upon me, my confidence holds. Something I requested of my Lord—the thing I desire: To dwell in the house of the Lord, my whole life long. To gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, to visit his house. His shelter will hide me, in a time of woe; His tent will conceal me, high upon a rock. He lifts up my head above my foes, who lie round about. In his tabernacle I make my off’ring of joy. I sing and make music to the Lord, with shouts of joy, with shouts of joy.” Instructor: The thirty-first day of the forty-day period of repentance is called Rosh Hashanah, meaning the New Year. Its biblical name is Yom Teru‘ah, signifying “The Day of the Awakening Blast.” Also called the Feast of Trumpets, on that day the shofar or ram’s horn is sounded.

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Reader One: “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the people of Israel and say, “In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing trumpets, a holy convocation”’” (Leviticus 23:23–24).

Sound the Shofar! Instructor: Rosh Hashanah teaches about the resurrection of the dead at the sound of the shofar, about the coronation of Messiah, when he is proclaimed King, and about the marriage supper of Messiah. The ten-day period that starts with Rosh Hashanah culminates on Yom Kippur—the Day of Atonement—the tenth day of the month of Tishri. A day of solemn fasting, the Day of Atonement ends a time of soul-searching, of asking forgiveness of God and of one’s fellow man. Reader Two: “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘On the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall afflict your souls and offer an offering by fire to the Lord. You shall do no work on that day, for it is a Day of Atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God’” (Leviticus 23:26–28). Instructor: The seven days before the Day of Atonement are called “Days of Awe” or “Time of Jacob’s Trouble.” They portend seven years of tribulation that will sweep the earth known as the “Birthpangs of the Messiah.” They will try the faith of God’s people to the utmost, but they will end in a glorious deliverance for those who prove faithful, who will rejoice in Messiah’s reign. The Feast of Tabernacles begins five days after the Day of Atonement, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month—the month of Tishri—at the full moon. It lasts seven days and is the final, most joyful of all feasts of the year. It teaches the joy of Messiah’s reign known as ‘Atid Lavo, or the “Coming Time,” which refers to the earth’s millennial age of peace. The Feast of Tabernacles portends God’s dwelling in the midst of his people as he did in the Tabernacle in the wilderness. Reader Three: “In the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, keep a feast to the Lord for seven days, the first day and the eighth day a Sabbath. On the first day, take boughs from goodly trees—branches of palm trees, the boughs of thick trees, and willows from the brook. Rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. Keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days of the year as a statute forever throughout your generations and celebrate it in the seventh month, dwelling in booths for seven days. All who are born Israelites should live in booths, so that your descendants may know that I made the people of Israel live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 23:39–43). Narrator: During the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, we live in temporary shelters called sukkoth, which are made from the branches of trees in memory of our ancestors who lived in tents and huts on their way to the Promised Land. In them, we read the scriptures, eat meals, entertain guests, and remind ourselves how transitory life is. Just as God’s temporary dwelling in the wilderness gave way to the temple, so we look forward to a permanent, more glorious abode. Among God’s people, there often occurred long periods of time when they failed to observe the Feast of Tabernacles. One such time was among the Jews who returned from exile in Babylon:

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Reader Four: “They found written in the law the Lord had commanded Moses that the people of Israel should dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month, and that they should announce and proclaim in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, ‘Go to the mountain and get olive, pine, myrtle, and palms, and branches of thick trees to make booths, as it is written.’ So the people went and brought them and made booths, everyone on the roof of his house and in their courtyards, in the courtyard of the house of God, and in the street of the Water Gate and in the street of the Gate of Ephraim. So the whole congregation of those who came back from captivity made booths and sat in their booths, for from the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day the people of Israel had not done so. And there was very great rejoicing” (Nehemiah 8:14–17). Instructor: Because the Feast of Tabernacles occurs after the fall harvest, it is also known as the “Feast of Ingathering.” In the spring, you cannot yet rejoice because you do not know how the harvest will turn out. Only in the fall can your joy be full, after harvesting all the crops. So are the seasons of our lives as we perform our labors in this transitory world and reap what we sow. Narrator: A custom observed in the Land of Israel today is to gather branches of trees to cover booths built for keeping the Feast of Tabernacles. A small sampling of these trees called lulav or “palms” are bound together in a bundle and waved in the four directions and up and down. King Solomon represented King Messiah to his people when he gathered them to the temple in Jerusalem on the Feast of Tabernacles. To Israel’s Messiah will be a great gathering of people from among all nations when God begins his great harvest of the earth. In that day, Messiah will come to the temple in the New Jerusalem to inaugurate his glorious reign of peace on the earth. All stand and wave the lulav north, south, east, and west, and up and down while saying:

“Come, O King Messiah! Come, O King Messiah! Come, O King Messiah!” Instructor: During the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, the high priest drew water from the Gihon Spring and carried it to the temple in a gold pitcher as a “water libation.” When he poured out the water, the people waved the lulav or palms and praised God. The song “Mayim, Mayim” speaks of their rejoicing while they “draw water from the fountains of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). Dance to the song “Mayim, Mayim” (“Water, Water”) Narrator: The Book of Mormon records a Feast of Tabernacles celebrated by King Benjamin and his people. Before it took place, however, they underwent a time of teshuvah or “repentance” as there was much wickedness in the land. King Benjamin and the prophets of his day labored with their might to put down false prophets and contentions and to establish peace in the land (W of M 1:15–18). When King Benjamin gathered his people to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles in the prescribed manner, the shofar would have rallied them to the place where the Lord put his name—the temple—so that King Benjamin could address his people as was the custom in Israel.

Sound the Shofar!

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Reader Five: “It came to pass that when they came up to the temple, they pitched their tents round about, every man according to his family, consisting of his wife, and his sons, and his daughters, and their sons, and their daughters, from the eldest down to the youngest, every family being separate one from another. And they pitched their tents round about the temple, every man having his tent with the door thereof towards the temple, that thereby they might remain in their tents and hear the words which king Benjamin should speak unto them” (Mosiah 2:5–6). Narrator: It isn’t known whether the cloud of glory rested on the temple in the days of King Benjamin as it did on the temple of Solomon and on God’s Tabernacle in the wilderness. The cloud of glory signified God’s dwelling with his people and it shed forth light to all round about. An angel from God, however, visited King Benjamin and declared to him and his people “glad tidings of great joy” in anticipation of Messiah’s coming to dwell in a tabernacle of clay: Reader Six: “The things which I shall tell you are made known unto me by an angel from God. And he said unto me: Awake, and I awoke, and behold he stood before me. And he said unto me, Awake, and hear the words which I shall tell thee; for behold, I am come to declare unto you the glad tidings of great joy. For the Lord has heard thy prayers and has judged of thy righteousness and has sent me to declare unto thee that thou mayest rejoice; and that thou mayest declare unto thy people that they may also be filled with joy. For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay” (Mosiah 3:2–5). Instructor: The Feast of Tabernacles was also called the “Feast of Lights,” recalling the cloud of glory or pillar of light by day and of fire by night that led the Israelites through the wilderness and that rested on the temple in Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, seven-branched menorahs illuminated the city. On the first night, seven exalted guests, represented by the seven candles, came to visit. Having passed through their refiner’s fire, they became “lights” to God’s people forever after. Seven exalted guests and spouses come forward Instructor: “Behold, we bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people!” Guests step forward while spouses light a candle Guest One: I am Adam, the first man on the Earth—a son of God. Mother Eve and I left our inheritance in Paradise to come to earth so that our children, too, could inherit Paradise. God created us in his own image and likeness—male and female—as exemplars to our descendants. Eve: I am Eve, the wife of Adam, the “mother of all living.” I partook of the forbidden fruit so that our descendants might live in mortality and learn from their own experience to know the good from the evil—that, by choosing the good, they might gain eternal life and exaltation. Guest Two: I am Noah, the ninth generation after Father Adam. In my days, I saw exceeding great wickedness and the earth become full of violence. I built an ark that preserved many species of animals when the floods came and destroyed the wicked from the face of the earth.

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Noah’s Wife: I am the wife of Noah, who built a large ocean vessel on dry land. My husband was a visionary man and my family was mocked during all the years it took to build. But when we saw the animals come into the ark of their own accord we knew that God was with him. Guest Three: I am Abraham, progenitor of God’s covenant people. I turned from the idols my fathers worshiped in Ur of the Chaldeans and sought after the blessings of my righteous ancestors. I offered up my beloved son Isaac in similitude of God’s sacrifice of his Beloved Son. Sarah: I am Sarah, the wife of Abraham. I lived in sorrow most of my life because I was barren and could have no child. But the Lord and two angels visited us in our tent and partook of our food. They left a great blessing upon us for at about age ninety I gave birth to our only son Isaac. Guest Four: I am Joseph, the son of Jacob and Rachel. My brothers sold me into Egypt, where I worked as a slave for the captain of Pharaoh’s guard. I was falsely accused and put in prison. But God was with me when I interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams. So Pharaoh made me lord of all Egypt. Asenath: I am Asenath, the wife of Joseph. My father was Potipherah, the priest of On. The daughters of Egypt loved Joseph, but I only was chosen to be his wife. Our enduring love for each other was fabled in stories. We served as a king and queen in ministering to our people. Guest Five: I am Moses. Through me, God delivered his people from hard bondage in Egypt. I interceded on their behalf when they provoked God to anger by worshiping a Golden Calf. I was willing for God to erase my name from the Book of Life so that he might not destroy them. Zipporah: I am Zipporah, the wife of Moses. My father was Jethro, the priest of Midian. My six sisters and I were watering our father’s flock in the wilderness of Arabia when shepherds drove us away. But when Moses fled Egypt, he came and watered our flock and dwelt with my father. Guest Six: I am Joseph Smith Jr. Through me God restored his church upon the earth. I came as an angel who had the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth. I offered myself as a sacrifice so that the fulness of the gospel might again be proclaimed to all the world. Eliza Snow: I am Eliza R. Snow, poetess and sister of Lorenzo Snow, fifth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Lord inspired me to write hymns for his church and to minister to Latter-day Saints as second president of the Relief Society after Emma Smith. Guest Seven: I am the angel from the east, who is still to come. In my days, 144,000 servants of God, having the Father’s name written on their foreheads, will go throughout the earth to bring as many as will come of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people to the Church of the Firstborn. Daughter of Zion: I am the daughter of Zion. I am in travail because of the wickedness of my people. My Lord has prepared a safe place for me to dwell in the wilderness for three and a half years. I am about to give birth to my son, the deliverer, and to a nation that will be born in a day. Seven guests and their spouses return to their seats

6 Instructor: It was on the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles, on the 21st of September, 1823, that the angel Moroni visited Joseph Smith three times during the night, quoting scriptures from the books of Joel, Isaiah, and Malachi, and telling him about the Book of Mormon. The next day, Moroni showed Joseph the buried gold plates, although he was commanded not to retrieve them. Joseph received the plates four years later, on the 22nd September, 1827, the Feast of Trumpets. Narrator: When Messiah came to tabernacle among us to atone for our transgressions, it was at the Feast of Tabernacles that he revealed himself as the Light of the World. Just as God’s glory rested on the Tabernacle in the wilderness and on the temple in Jerusalem, giving light round about, so Messiah will come again to light up the world with his glorious presence. Then shall God tabernacle with his people for evermore and there will be no more darkness among them. Reader Seven: “I, John, saw the holy city—the New Jerusalem—come down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away all tears from their eyes. And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away’” (Revelation 21:2–4). Reader Eight: “My tabernacle also shall be with them, Yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore” (Ezekiel 37:27–28). Reader Nine: “Over the whole site of Mount Zion, and over its solemn assembly, the Lord will form a cloud by day and a mist glowing with fire by night: above all that is glorious shall be a canopy” (Isaiah 4:5).

Dinner Musical Number

“Remembering the Past as a Type of the Future!” Narrator: The Israelites often resorted to the nomadic lifestyle of their forefathers by living in tents and shelters during times of political turmoil. They would say, “To your tents, O Israel!” and leave everything behind. One such person was Lehi, who took his family into the wilderness to escape persecution at home. That became a type in the Book of Mormon of what people would do in the “Time of Jacob’s Trouble,” affording them an opportunity to repent and return to God: Reader Ten: “It came to pass that the Lord commanded my father, even in a dream, that he should take his family and depart into the wilderness. And it came to pass that he was obedient unto the word of the Lord, wherefore he did as the Lord commanded him. And it came to pass that he departed into the wilderness. And he left his house, and the land of his inheritance, and his gold, and his silver, and his precious things, and took nothing with him, save it were his family and provisions and tents, and departed into the wilderness” (1 Nephi 2:2–4). All say aloud:

“To Your Tents, O Israel!”

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Instructor: God’s people are again predicted to dwell in temporary shelters in the wilderness to escape calamity in society, there to remember the Lord their God. That will be when the people of Ephraim, becoming preoccupied with riches, see their riches evaporate. Nevertheless, in the coming time of teshuvah or “repentance” they will forsake the riches they have idolized so that, like father Lehi and his family, they may receive a greater inheritance—a new Promised Land: Reader Eleven: “Ephraim said, ‘I have grown rich. I have found wealth. In all my labor they shall find no iniquity in me that can be considered a sin.’ Nevertheless, I, who have been the Lord your God from the land of Egypt, will yet make you dwell in tabernacles as in the days of the solemn feast.” (Hosea 12:8–9) “Then shall Ephraim say, ‘What have I to do any more with idols?’” (Hosea 14:8). Reader Twelve: “I will bring you out from among the people and gather you from the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and with a stretched-out arm and with fury poured out. I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. ‘As I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you,’ says the Lord God. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant” (Ezekiel 20:34–37). Instructor: Life in the wilderness during the prophesied Chevlei shel Mashiach—“Birthpangs of the Messiah”—will mean falling back on our own provisions, as did our ancestors. Like nomadic wanderers, they herded a few animals and learned to identify and live off the plants in the land: Reader Thirteen: “In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and a pair of sheep. And because of their plentiful milk, men will eat the cream. All who remain in the land will feed on cream and honey” (Isaiah 7:21). “To you this shall be a sign: This year eat what grows wild, and the next year what springs up of itself. But in the third year sow and harvest, plant vineyards and eat their fruit” (Isaiah 37:30). Narrator: Before the saints build Messiah’s temple in the New Jerusalem, many ancient events, such as Israel’s exodus out of Egypt and wandering in the wilderness, will repeat themselves. Then shall be the “day of power” when the people will be willing. Those who participate in those portentous events will surely be grateful to God for his wisdom in giving us “holy convocations” like the Feast of Tabernacles that help prepare our hearts and minds to remember who we are: Reader Fourteen: “Behold, I say unto you, the redemption of Zion must needs come by power; Therefore, I will raise up unto my people a man, who shall lead them like as Moses led the children of Israel. For ye are the children of Israel, and of the seed of Abraham, and ye must needs be led out of bondage by power, and with a stretched–out arm. And as your fathers were led at the first, even so shall the redemption of Zion be. Therefore, let not your hearts faint, for I say not unto you as I said unto your fathers: Mine angel shall go up before you, but not my presence. But I say unto you: Mine angels shall go up before you, and also my presence, and in time ye shall possess the goodly land” (D&C 103:15–20). All say aloud:

“To Your Tents, O Israel!”

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Narrator: During the journey to Zion, the elect will sing songs of salvation and dance in praise of the God of Israel. Reader Fifteen: “For you there shall be singing, as on the night when a festival commences, and rejoicing of heart, as when men march with flutes [and drums and lyres] on their way to the mountain of Jehovah, to the Rock of Israel” (Isaiah 30:29). Instructor: The Feast of Tabernacles will continue to be celebrated even in the ‘Atid Lavo—the millennial age—in remembrance of the marvelous works of God in redeeming his people Israel: Reader Sixteen: “It shall come to pass, that every one who is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And it shall come to pass that those who will not come up of all the families of the earth to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, upon them there shall be no rain” (Zechariah 14:16–17). Musical Number—Psalm 121: “I Shall Lift up My Eyes unto the Mountains.” “I shall lift up my eyes unto the mountains from whence comes my help, my help from the Lord. He who made heaven and earth shall not let your footsteps falter, your Watchman shall not slumber. Behold, the Watchman of Israel shall neither sleep nor slumber. The Lord is your Watchman, the Lord is your shade on your right hand. By day shall the sun not smite you, nor the moon by night, the Lord shall preserve you from all evil. Your soul he shall watch over, the Lord shall guard your going out and your coming in from now on and forever more.”

Sound the Shofar! Closing Prayer _____________________________________