Sukkot 3

Happy Sukkot!

Numbers 29:7-11
“You are to hold a sacred assembly on the tenth day of this seventh month and practice self-denial; do not do any work. Present a burnt offering to YHWH, a pleasing aroma: one young bull, one ram, and seven male lambs a year old. All your animals are to be unblemished. Their grain offering is to be of fine flour mixed with oil, six quarts with the bull, four quarts with the ram, and two quarts with each of the seven lambs. Offer one male goat for a sin offering. The regular burnt offering with its grain offering and drink offerings are in addition to the sin offering of atonement."

Isaiah 57:14-58:14
He said, “Build it up, build it up, prepare the way, remove every obstacle from my people’s way.” For the High and Exalted One, who lives forever, whose Name is holy, says this: “I live in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and lowly of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the oppressed. For I will not accuse you forever, and I will not always be angry; for then the spirit would grow weak before me, even the breath, which I have made. Because of his sinful greed I was angry, so I struck him; I was angry and hid; but he went on turning back to the desires of his heart. I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners, creating words of praise.” YHWH says, “Peace, peace to the one who is far or near, and I will heal him. But the wicked are like the storm-tossed sea, for it cannot be still, and its water churns up mire and muck. There is no peace for the wicked,” says my God.
“Cry out loudly, don’t hold back! Raise your voice like a trumpet. Tell My people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins. They seek me day after day and delight to know My ways, like a nation that does what is right and does not abandon the justice of their God. They ask Me for righteous judgments; they delight in the nearness of God.” “Why have we fasted, but you have not seen? We have denied ourselves, but you haven’t noticed!”  “Look, you do as you please on the day of your fast, and oppress all your workers. You fast with contention and strife to strike viciously with your fist. You cannot fast as you do today, hoping to make your voice heard on high. Will the fast I choose be like this: A day for a person to deny himself, to bow his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to YHWH? Isn’t this the fast I choose: To break the chains of wickedness, to untie the ropes of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, and to tear off every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your house, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not to ignore your own flesh and blood? Then your light will appear like the dawn, and your recovery will come quickly. Your righteousness will go before you, and YHWH's glory will be your rear guard.
At that time, when you call, YHWH will answer; when you cry out, He will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you get rid of the yoke among you, the finger-pointing and malicious speaking, and if you offer yourself to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted one, then your light will shine in the darkness, and your night will be like noonday. YHWH will always lead you, satisfy you in a parched land, and strengthen your bones. You will be like a watered garden and like a spring whose water never runs dry. Some of you will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will restore the foundations laid long ago; you will be called the repairer of broken walls, the restorer of streets where people live. “If you keep from desecrating the Sabbath, from doing whatever you want on My holy day; if you call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy day of YHWH honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, seeking your own pleasure, or talking business; then you will delight in YHWH, and I will make you ride over the heights of the land, and let you enjoy the heritage of your father Jacob.” For the mouth of YHWH has spoken.

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