The Water Libation in Ancient Rabbinic Texts

A prominent feature of Sukkot in the Second Temple was the water libation ceremony, which rabbinic literature describes as an occasion of elaborate celebration (see “The Water Libation Ceremony”). Although libations were normally of wine, a libation of water was added on Sukkot, the start of the rainy season, in the hope of eliciting rainfall. This ritual, or aspects of its performance, may have been subjects of sectarian dispute: rabbinic literature records that a certain priest, identified as a Boethusian in t. Sukkah 3:16 and a Sadducee in b. Sukkah 48b, poured the water on his feet rather than the altar and that angry onlookers pelted him with citrons. This story has a parallel in Josephus’ account of an episode involving the high priest Alexander Janneus (see “Conflict in the Temple”), although Josephus does not mention the water libation specifically.