Dateline Jerusalem – One of my favorite holidays is Sukkot, meaning “booths” in Hebrew. It is referred to as “the time of our joy,” coming just after the solemnity of the Yom Kippur Day of Atonement. The sukkah (booth) is a temporary dwelling commemorating the 40-year exodus from Egypt when the Jews wandered through the desert or wilderness, living in temporary shelters on their way to the Land of Israel. The Torah (Bible) commands us to dwell in these booths just as our ancestors did thousands of years ago. That means we eat our meals in the sukkah and spend most of the day in it during the week-long holiday. Men and boys are commanded to sleep in the sukkah.
Part of the joy of the holiday is building the sukkah and decorating it. Three-sided, most people use recycled wood, canvas, plastic paint drops, sheets, and just about any kind of material that won't blow away. A friend in the States used to build his sukkah from plastic coke bottle crates. Almost anything is acceptable as the wall material and decorations. However, there are absolute specifics with regard to the roof. It must be made of something that grew from the ground, “s'chach,” such as tree branches, palm tree leaves, bamboo reeds, sticks, or a special kind of agricultural mat sold on most streets in Israel. The roof cannot be solid, therefore, the material must be loose and sparse enough to let in the elements, such as rain or snow, and to see the stars at night.
The sukkah is a family affair in Israel. Children make decorations at school to hang from the roof and walls of the sukkah. Usually they are of an agricultural theme, often the seven species innate to the Land of Israel wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates. These grains and fruits were important in ancient times, not only as staples of the Israeli diet, but they were bikkurim or first fruits, tithes brought to the holy Temple. Although today the only remnant of the holy Temple is the Kotel, the Western Wall or Wailing Wall, these grains and fruits play a symbolic role in most of the holidays and Jewish traditions. They are the source of many Israeli dishes.
Difference Between Here and There
In the States, one rarely sees a sukkah unless in a religious Jewish neighborhood. I used to have one in my backyard in the Antelope Valley. Living in the Mojave Desert was like being in a wind tunnel. My sukkah usually could not withstand the winds. One year friends and I were eating in the sukkah, and while we were still at the table, the wind picked up the sukkah and dropped it 10 feet away, leaning against the block wall separating my yard from my neighbor's. It was surreal, a scene from the Wizard of Oz when the tornado lifted Dorothy and houses into the air. I tried keeping the sukkah down with sandbags and other heavy objects. My attempts often were for naught. Friends in New York always had it worse. Their weather was harsh this time of year. Many of them would be eating their soup as the rain would pour down from the sky through the spaces in the roof of the sukkah.
In Israel, a prime piece of real estate means an apartment with a sukkah porch, apartment building balconies where one could construct a sukkah outside the living room and not have the stars above covered by another apartment's balcony. My apartment building has no balconies or sukkah porches. Tenants construct their sukkah in the parking lot or on sidewalks in front of the building. The night Yom Kippur ends marks the beginning of sukkah building in Israel. No one thinks twice about hammers pounding wood late into the evening, excited children laughing and singing, standing great distances from men and teenage boys carrying over their shoulders recently bought 6- to10-feet long roof material from street vendors.
Chag sameach. Happy holiday.
L'hitraot. Shachar