Dateline Jerusalem — It is that time of year when Jews in Israel and religious Jews in the rest of the world will be celebrating the holiday of Sukkot. Religious and non-religious in Israel observe the holiday also known as “the time of our joy.” Most non-religious Jews in other parts of the world are often clueless as to Sukkot, which means “booths.” During the exodus from Egypt, Jews wandered in the desert for 40 years, living in a temporary booth called a “sukkah,” on their way to the Land of Israel. Just as our ancestors did thousands of years ago, we dwell in these booths today to commemorate the exodus.
Sukkot is a fun holiday. Much of the joy is in the building and decorating of the sukkah, where families eat their meals, where men and boys sleep during the week-long holiday. The sides of the sukkah can be made of any kind of material, but the roof must be covered with something grown from the ground, like tree branches, palm tree leaves, bamboo reeds and sticks. It must be loose and sparse enough to allow one to see the stars at night and the sky during daytime.
In Israel, prime real estate means your apartment has a sukkah porch. My apartment building has no balcony, patio, or porch. Instead, tenants construct their sukkah in the parking lot or on the sidewalk in front of the building. From just after Yom Kippur until just before Sukkot, no one gets any sleep because all we hear are fellow Israelis hammering, pounding, talking loudly while building their sukkahs. Long electrical extension cords are draped across the sides of apartment buildings, spanning the distance from the tenant's individual apartment to his sukkah on the street. This is so that there is light to eat and read by. Everywhere you go in Israel, sukkahs dot the landscape. Because it is a time of gladness and joy, everywhere you hear neighbors laughing, talking, singing holiday songs in their sukkah.
Decorating a Sukkah
Since Sukkot is Thanksgiving for Jews, most sukkahs have agricultural themes. Children decorate them with pictures and crafts representing the seven species inherent to Israel: olives, dates, grapes, figs, pomegranates, wheat, barley. These grains and fruits were important in ancient times because they were the first fruits brought as tithes to the Holy Temple. Although today the only remnant of the holy Temple is the Kotel, also known as the Western Wall or Wailing Wall, these fruits and grains play a symbolic role during the holiday. Many of the dishes served during Sukkot incorporate these ingredients. Blessings and prayers hang from the temporary walls that are often made of sheets, canvas, plastic sheeting, wood or a variety of other materials. Children string colorful streamers and chains of popcorn from the roof and on the walls of the sukkah.
I do not have my own sukkah, but I am usually invited to many unique sukkahs of my friends. However, I have fond memories of the various sukkahs I built when living in the States. I used to live in the desert. Weather during Sukkot was always unpredictable. Often it seemed I lived in a wind tunnel. At least we did not have the rain and snow of my friends in New York. One year while family and friends and I were enjoying our festive meal in my sukkah, the wind picked up the sukkah into the air, and it landed 10 feet away. We still were sitting at the table but no longer in the sukkah. The only thing that kept the sukkah from blowing further was the block wall dividing my property from my neighbor's backyard. A surreal experience, it reminded me of the scene from the movie “The Wizard of Oz” when the tornado lifted Dorothy and several houses straight into the air like a hot air balloon rising. We could not stop laughing at the absurdity. The next year I put sandbags down on the poles on the perimeter of the sukkah. Still, the Antelope Valley wind pushed my sukkah a few feet along. One thing or another happening often happened with my sukkahs. One year we had to sit by candlelight. The light bulb in the sukkah blew out. Then there was the time that the plants and branches from the roof fell on my head as I was reading. Never a dull moment in the sukkah for me.
Wherever I am for the festive occasion of Sukkot, but especially in Israel, I am cognizant of how peaceful and safe I feel sitting in a sukkah. Perhaps it was this peace and protection from G-d that my ancestors also felt during the exodus from Egypt. Chag Sameah, happy holiday.
L'hitraot. Shachar
