wo.1630. JEWISH COHREMONIALS—ADLER AND CASANOWICZ, 725 
istic feature of the celebration of this feast is the dwelling in booths 
or tents, whence is derived its Hebrew name, Sukkoth, or, more fully, 
hag ha-sukkoth, the feast of booths. The booth has three sides of 
wood, usually boards or planks, while the fourth side, on which is the 
entrance, is hung with a curtain. It must be erected in the open air 
and covered with green branches and leaves, affording protection 
against the sun by day, but permitting a small portion of the sky to 
be seen and the stars to show at night. Inside it is usually adorned 
with draperies and garlands. Being the “ dwelling place ”¢ during 
the festival, the meals are taken in the booth, and especially pious 
people even sleep in it. Sick and feeble people, however, are exempt 
from the obligation of ‘‘ dwelling in tents,” and the precept is gen- 
erally suspended in inclement weather. Length, 10 feet 2 inches; 
width, 6 feet 4 inches. (Cat. No. 154590, U.S.N.M.) 
Lent by Hadji Ephraim Benguiat. 
106. Curran Tirn.—Linen, with edges embroidered in gold and silk. 
Made by the Jews of Smyrna, Asia Minor, in the seventeenth century. 
Length, 8 feet; width, 84 inches. (Cat. No. 154617, U.S.N.M.) 
Lent by Hadji Ephraim Benguiat. 
107. Fourrren TABLers, USED FoR THE DECORATION OF THE BooTu.— 
The tablets are manuscripts on paper inscribed partly with passages 
from the Bible, partly with original Hebrew compositions bearing on 
the feast of Tabernacles and the residing in the booth. One con- 
tains, in addition to the tables of the Law, surmounted by the three 
crowns of the Law, Priesthood, and Kingdom, the whole of the book 
of Ecclesiastes, which is the roll (megillah) read on the feast of 
Tabernacles. It is artistically written to form various geometrical 
figures and shapes of birds and flowers. Another is inscribed in the 
same manner with portions of the book of Proverbs and Canticles, 
etc. (Cat. Nos. 217679-685, U.S.N.M.) 
108. Lunas anp Ernroe 1n a Sttver Box.—The lulab and ethrog, 
the former being the shoot of the palm bound up with myrtle and 
willow branches, the latter the fruit of the citron tree (a variety of 
the Citrus medica), are used by the Jews at the feast of Tabernacles 
(15-22 of Tishri=September-October) in pursuance of Leviticus 
xxill, 40: “And ye shall take unto you, on the first day, the fruit of 
goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and 
willows of the brook, and ye shall rejoice before the Lord, your God, 
seven days.” At certain stages of the liturgy the lulab and ethrog, 
the former being held in the right hand, the latter in the left, are 
waved up and down and to all points of the compass, in acknowl- 
edgment of God’s sovereignty over nature. After the additional 
service (musaf) each day a processional circuit (hakkafah) is made 
“Leviticus xxiii, 42. 
Proe. N. M. vol. xxxiv—08——_47 
