All seven days of Sukkot, a person renders his sukka his permanent residence and his house his temporary residence. If rain fell, from when is it permitted to vacate the sukka? It is permitted from the point that it is raining so hard that the congealed dish will spoil. The Sages told a parable: To what is this matter comparable? It is comparable to a servant who comes to pour wine for his master, and he pours a jug [kiton] of water in his face to show him that his presence is not desired. So too, in the sukka, rain is an indication that the Holy One, Blessed be He, does not want the person to fulfill the mitzva of sukka.

From when, i.e., from which date, does one begin to mention the might of the rains by inserting the phrase: He makes the wind blow and rain fall, in the second blessing of the Amida prayer? Rabbi Eliezer says: The phrase is inserted from the first Festival day of the festival of Sukkot. Rabbi Yehoshua says: From the last Festival day of the festival of Sukkot. Rabbi Yehoshua said to Rabbi Eliezer: Since rain is nothing other than a sign of a curse during the festival of Sukkot, as rainfall forces Jews to leave their sukkot, why should one mention the might of rain during this period? Rabbi Eliezer said to him: I too did not say that it is proper to request rain at this time, but it is proper only to mention the phrase: He makes the wind blow and rain fall, in its due time. Rabbi Yehoshua said to him: If so, i.e., if reciting the phrase does not constitute a request for rain, one should always mention rain, even in the summer.

All who survive of all those nations that came up against Jerusalem shall make a pilgrimage year by year to bow low to the King LORD of Hosts and to observe the Feast of Booths. Any of the earth’s communities that does not make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem to bow low to the King LORD of Hosts shall receive no rain.

Rabbi Akiva said, "The Torah tells us to bring (the korban of) a sheaf of barley on Pesach, which is the time of the barley harvest, so that the crop will be blessed, bring the first wheat on Shavuot, which is the time of the fruit (tree) harvest, and bring the water libation on Sukkot, so that the rain water will be blessed.

For the land that you are about to enter and possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come. There the grain you sowed had to be watered by your own labors, like a vegetable garden; but the land you are about to cross into and possess, a land of hills and valleys, soaks up its water from the rains of heaven.

[FOR THE LAND, WHITHER THOU GOEST IN TO POSSESS IT, IS] NOT AS THE LAND OF EGYPT — “but better than it...But know you that it is not like the land of Egypt [where one can find sufficient water] to irrigate it with his feet from the streams and the pools as a garden of herbs. Instead, it is a Land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water as, the rain of heaven cometh down, not in any other way. Therefore it requires that G-d care for it always by giving it rain because it is a very thirsty Land and needs rain all year. If you transgress G-d’s Will and He does not care for it [the Land] with ‘rains of benevolence’ it is a very bad one, it cannot be sown, nor beareth, nor any herb groweth on its mountains.”

He recites a short prayer in the Sanctuary so as not to scare the people, lest they say: "He died in the Sanctuary." He would pray in this manner: "May it be Your will, God, our Lord, that if this year was to be arid, it should be rainy. May the sovereignty not depart from the House of Judah. May Your nation Israel not be in need of sustenance. And may You not accept the prayers of wayfarers."

One who was ritually impure or on a distant journey and did not observe the firstPesaḥ by participating in the offering of the Paschal lamb on the fourteenth of Nisan should observe the secondPesaḥ by participating in the offering on the fourteenth of Iyyar. If one unwittingly forgot or was prevented due to circumstances beyond his control and did not observe the firstPesaḥ, he too should observe the secondPesaḥ. If so, that the second Pesaḥ is observed even by someone who forgot or was prevented from observing the first Pesaḥ, why is it stated in the Torah that the second Pesaḥ is observed only by one who was ritually impure or on a distant journey? These cases were specified in order to teach that these two groups of people are exempt from karet if they do not observe the second Pesaḥ, but those who were not ritually impure or on a distant journey are liable to receive karet, as the Gemara will explain.

When the Paschal lamb is sacrificed in a state of ritual impurity due to the fact that the majority of the Jewish people are ritually impure, zavim, and zavot, and menstruating women, and women after childbirth may not eat it, because the Paschal lamb overrides only ritual impurity imparted by a corpse, but it does not override other forms of ritual impurity. However, if they violated the halakha and ate from the offering, they are exempt from karet.

Hear the word of the LORD,
You chieftains of Sodom;
Give ear to our God’s instruction,
You folk of Gomorrah! “What need have I of all your sacrifices?”
Says the LORD.
“I am sated with burnt offerings of rams,
And suet of fatlings,
And blood of bulls;
And I have no delight
In lambs and he-goats. That you come to appear before Me—
Who asked that of you?
Trample My courts no more;
Bringing oblations is futile,^-c
Incense is offensive to Me.
New moon and sabbath,
Proclaiming of solemnities,
Assemblies with iniquity,^-d
I cannot abide. Your new moons and fixed seasons
Fill Me with loathing;
They are become a burden to Me,
I cannot endure them. And when you lift up your hands,
I will turn My eyes away from you;
Though you pray at length,
I will not listen.
Your hands are stained with crime— Wash yourselves clean;
Put your evil doings
Away from My sight.
Cease to do evil; Learn to do good.
Devote yourselves to justice;
Aid the wronged.^-e
Uphold the rights of the orphan;
Defend the cause of the widow.

All seven days of Sukkot, a person renders his sukka his permanent residence and his house his temporary residence. If rain fell, from when is it permitted to vacate the sukka? It is permitted from the point that it is raining so hard that the congealed dish will spoil. The Sages told a parable: To what is this matter comparable? It is comparable to a servant who comes to pour wine for his master, and he pours a jug [kiton] of water in his face to show him that his presence is not desired. So too, in the sukka, rain is an indication that the Holy One, Blessed be He, does not want the person to fulfill the mitzva of sukka.

You shall live in booths seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in booths, in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I the LORD your God.