The First Thanksgiving and the Feast of Sukkot

["On Demand" episode. Pre-recorded. Do not call in.] In 1620, 102 Pilgrims, Separatists from the Church of England sailed east across the Atlantic aboard the cramped 100 ft. "Mayflower" in a voyage that if compared with today, would be like a voyage to the moon. For 66 days they lived in an ill-lighted, close-quartered, rolling, pitching, stinking, over-heated "below-decks"; the hatches battened down, the smell of the bilge in their nostrils, and the crew hostile towards Separatists. Cloistered in a space the size of a volleyball court, 102 people with their spiritual leader William Bradford endured the unendurable. Bradford spoke of this voyage in his and Edward Winslow's work: Thanksgiving Readings, also with his first-hand account of the first harvest celebration in America. And in it, he makes a direct connection with the Hebrew experience of the Exodus from Egypt. In his account, he uses the language of Jewish Sukkot:The Feast of Tabernacles. How did Bradford see both events as similar? Tune in and take notes! Your host, Rev. Rick Anderson, on "Jewish Roots", each Thursday at 9:30 pm, EST at www.ScripturesDramatized.com.