Vayikra 23:4-37 records the laws of five festivals, mikrei kodesh: The festivals of Matzot, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. This list does not include the holiday of Pesach since this is not a mikra kodesh because in the Torah there is no prohibition of work on the day when the korban pesach is offered. This list also excludes Shemini Atzeret, which is subsumed under the festival of Sukkot, the “eighth day of Sukkot,” see our discussion “Shemini Atzeret: A separate holiday?”
Three of the five mikrei kodesh, are in the seventh month (starting from Nisan), Rosh Hashanah (23:24), Yom Kippur (23:26) and Sukkot (23:34). Sukkot is in the seventh month since it is at the time of the harvest, which is in the fall. However, why are Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur also in the seventh month, as presumably they could have been celebrated any time during the year?
One possible answer is that the date of Yom Kippur was chosen to correspond to the day when Moshe came down from Mount Sinai with the second set of luchot. Yet, the Torah never makes this connection, and this fact cannot be known from a simple reading of the Torah.
Hoffmann (1953, p. 175) suggests that Yom Kippur is on the tenth of the month to prepare for Sukkot. The idea is that due to Yom Kippur everybody will be pure, which enables them to fully celebrate the happiness of Sukkot. Hoffmann notes that this approach does not negate the independent importance of Yom Kippur, but rather it is appropriate that Yom Kippur is before Sukkot. Yet, according to this rationale, Yom Kippur could also have been before Pesach, when all Jews have to bring the passover sacrifice, the korban pesach.
My thought is that the five festivals encompass two sets of mikrei kodesh, and Sukkot is the culmination of both sets. One set includes the festivals, Matzot, Shavuot and Sukkot, while the second set comprises Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. The first set is based on the timing of the rationale of the holiday: The festival of Matzot has to be in the first month since that was when the people left Egypt, the festival of Shavuot is the time of the first reaping, and the holiday of Sukkot is the time when the harvesting is completed. On the other hand, the mikrei kodesh of the second set are connected through the seventh month, and then Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur had to be in the same month as Sukkot. Sukkot fulfils both criteria, and is part of both sets.
Why are there two sets of mikrei kodesh? My guess is that there are different themes to the two separate sets of mikrei kodesh.
The first set of mikrei kodesh begins with the holiday of Matzot, where G-d showed his acceptance of the people by taking them out of Egypt. One can even include the holiday of Pesach, which while not a mikra kodesh, is referred to in chapter 23, 23:5, as the introduction to the holiday of Matzot since this holiday re-calls the people showing their acceptance of G-d when they offered the korban pesach in Egypt. Shavuot, the second holiday in the first set of mikrei kodesh, signals the people thanking G-d, the bringing of new crops as sacrifices, which is in response to G-d taking the people out of Egypt by the holiday of Matzot, see our discussion on Shavuot. “To thank G-d” in the file a commentary on Jewish holidays and custom. The main motif of the third holiday in the first set of mikrei kodesh, the holiday of Sukkot, is to be happy, see our discussion on Sukkot in the file a commentary on Jewish holidays and custom, “Be happy.” This happiness signifies that the person is truly thankful to G-d.
The second set of mikrei kodesh, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot, relate to renewing the covenantal relationship with G-d. Rosh Hashanah with the blowing of the shofar is to remind one to prepare for Yom Kippur, see our discussion above on 23:23-25, “Rosh Hashanah.” The following mikra kodesh, Yom Kippur, is the day man is closest to G-d. The high priest enters the Holy of Holies, Vayikra 16:12, and Vayikra 16:30 records that on that Yom Kippur man is considered before G-d. The service by the high priest on Yom Kippur purifies the ohel moed/ Bet ha-Mikdash and the people, which enables the people to start again their covenantal relationship with G-d. Sukkot, the festival of happiness and celebration, signifies not just the joy of people for their harvest, but also the happiness of the people with the renewal of their relationship with G-d after Yom Kippur.
Maybe the sacrifices brought on Sukkot indicate the duality of holiday. With regard to the number of lambs and rams offered on the various special days, all the days have exactly the same number of sacrifices, seven lambs and one ram. However, on Sukkot, there are double the number of lambs and rams, fourteen lambs and two rams, which are brought as sacrifices. Maybe this doubling of sacrifices demonstrates that Sukkot functions as a double holiday since it concludes both sets of mikrei kodesh.
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