His teaching astonished the crowds, who knew that He had not received formal training in any recognized rabbinic school [John 7:14–15]. His words addressed the gathered worshipers while simultaneously confronting the leadership. This created growing tension, as both the people and the authorities began openly speculating whether He might be the Messiah, leading some of the leaders to attempt to arrest Him [John 7:16–36]. The narrative reflects a complex dynamic: Yeshua did not intend to be arrested or killed prematurely, yet He deliberately stirred discussion among the festival attendees. This tension becomes even more noticeable on the final day of Sukkot.

On the last day of the feast—the “Great Day of the Festival” (Hoshana Rabbah)—Yeshua chose the most symbolically charged moment of the entire pilgrimage cycle to reveal Himself more openly. During Sukkot, the priests performed the water-libation ritual (nisukh ha-mayim) each morning alongside the daily burnt offering. They drew water from the Pool of Siloam (Breikhat HaShiloah) the start of drawing the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) to them. The priests carried it in a golden flask (holding exactly one log roughly 0.3 liters; Mishnah Sukkah 4:9) through the Water Gate. Once there the priests blew the trumpet Tekiah (long blast) Teruah (short staccato blasts) and Tekiah (long again) and poured water onto the altar at the same time with the regular wine libation as the crowds looked on. This ceremony functioned as a dramatic, communal prayer for rain, abundance, and divine blessing and an allusion to the future hope of Ezekiel’s Temple where water flowed out from the altar [Ezekiel 47] or the water that flowed from under the thrones of Yeshua and Yahweh in [Revelation 22].

As the water was poured, the gathered worshipers sang the prophetic words of Isaiah:

“With joy shall you draw water from the wells of salvation.”
-Isaiah 12:3

The Priests performed on the 15 steps separating the inner Court of Israel from the Court of the Women, corresponding to the 15 Songs of Ascents [Psalms 120–134]. This is a scene of extreme celebration so much so that Josephus, Antiquities 20.9.6 says it was city-shaking and the Mishnah calls it peak joy:

“He who has not seen the rejoicing at the Place of the Water-Drawing has never seen rejoicing in his life.”
-Mishnah Sukkah 5:1

Around this time of asking God for rains that give life and celebrating the cohabitation of God and man, Yeshua stands up among them and cries out:

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”
-John 7:37-38

While the crowds debated whether Yeshua could truly be the Messiah—despite coming from Galilee [John 7:40–43]—He slipped away into the multitude and withdrew to the Mount of Olives [John 8:1], waiting for the next major event of the festival: the lighting ritual which continued the drawing of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) to them just by fire this time not water. Each night, this rite unfolded with exuberant celebration in the Temple’s outer court (Ezrat Nashim): music, dancing, torchlight, and great crowds filling the space.

Four enormous candelabras atop four 75 foot poles were lit (with gallons of first pressed temple grade oil) as young men climbed tall ladder-like structures and used torn pieces of their worn-out priestly garments as wicks. Instruments played throughout the night, and the entire city of Jerusalem glowed. The light and sound reached far into the surrounding hills—including the Mount of Olives where Yeshua stood.

From that vantage point, He could look across the Kidron Valley and see the Eastern Gate (Shushan Gate) and the Golden Gate, standing wide open. Their alignment sent a brilliant shaft of light streaming down the valley. The Court of the Women blazed with activity, and the great Nicanor Gate—the massive bronze gate separating that court from the inner courts—reflected the firelight with a brilliance Josephus compared to a golden mirror. Beyond it, the Temple itself stood illuminated, its monumental golden grape vine that adorned the eastern  façade shimmering and scattering the glow. The entire complex would have seemed alive with movement, celebration, and the light of Yahweh.

Yeshua saw it all. He might have looked upon the scene the way a Red Heifer would have been forced to look upon the temple grounds before its sacrifice (the Parah Adumah ritual) in that exact spot—fully aware of what lay ahead. He could have seen the valley He would one day fill with slaughter and blood, now lit by a golden cascade pouring through the open Golden Gate. He could have seen the gate that would later be closed, and that He would one day open again at His second visitation. He could have watched His people—His children—celebrate the light of God upon the Temple, the drawing of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) nearer, and the joy of dwelling with God during this feast. And He knew He would have to die to make this possible, so that multitudes could be rescued from Sheol.

At the crack of dawn after the Cockcrow, in the quiet that followed the night’s great celebration, Yeshua walked down toward the main Temple courts under the candelabras to teach. There the scribes and Pharisees confronted Him, bringing an adulterous woman to secure His condemnation and test him—an act that would have led to her stoning. Yeshua avoided their trap with wisdom and authority. Then, glancing up at the four towering candelabras that were still burning from the night before above him, He declared:

“I am the Light of the world; the one who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
-John 8:12

This and more he declared during the final night of Simchat Beit HaSho’eva and Sukkot, ultimately calling himself the awaited hope of Abraham, the Son of God, and even God himself. This was quite the night.

LONG QUOTE FROM SUKKAH 51a

Talmud Mishna Writings About Simchat Beit HaSho’eva and the Lighting Celebration
In Sukkah 51a it is written about the steps and events of this night that might be of value to people to read in its entirety.

“This was the sequence of events:

At the conclusion of the first Festival day the priests and the Levites descended from the Israelites’ courtyard to the Women’s Courtyard, where they would introduce a significant repair, as the Gemara will explain. There were golden candelabra atop poles there in the courtyard. And there were four basins made of gold at the top of each candelabrum. And there were four ladders for each and every pole and there were four children from the priesthood trainees, and in their hands were pitchers with a capacity of 120 log of oil that they would pour into each and every basin. From the worn trousers of the priests and their belts they would loosen and tear strips to use as wicks, and with them they would light the candelabra. And the light from the candelabra was so bright that there was not a courtyard in Jerusalem that was not illuminated from the light of the Place of the Drawing of the Water.
The pious and the men of action would dance before the people who attended the celebration, with flaming torches that they would juggle in their hands, and they would say before them passages of song and praise to God all filled with the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit). And the Levites would play on lyres, harps, cymbals, and trumpets, and countless other musical instruments. The musicians would stand on the fifteen stairs that descend from the Israelites’ courtyard to the Women’s Courtyard, corresponding to the fifteen Songs of the Ascents in Psalms, i.e., chapters 120–134, and upon which the Levites stand with musical instruments and recite their song. And this was the ceremony of the Water Libation:

Two priests stood at the Upper Gate that descends from the Israelites’ courtyard to the Women’s Courtyard, with two trumpets in their hands. When the cockcrowed at dawn, they sounded a tekia, and sounded a terua, and sounded a tekia. When they who would draw the water reached the tenth stair the trumpeters sounded a tekia, and sounded a terua, and sounded a tekia, to indicate that the time to draw water from the Siloam pool had arrived. When they reached the Women’s Courtyard with the basins of water in their hands, the trumpeters sounded a tekia, and sounded a terua, and sounded a tekia. When they reached the ground of the Women’s Courtyard, the trumpeters sounded a tekia, and sounded a terua, and sounded a tekia. They continued sounding the trumpets until they reached the gate through which one exits to the east, from the Women’s Courtyard to the eastern slope of the Temple Mount.

When they reached the gate through which one exits to the east, they turned from facing east to facing west, toward the Holy of Holies, and said:

Our ancestors who were in this place during the First Temple period who did not conduct themselves appropriately, stood “with their backs toward the Sanctuary of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east” (Ezekiel 8:16), and we, our eyes are to God. Rabbi Yehuda says that they would repeat and say: We are to God, and our eyes are to God.”