HOLIDAYS

1

STAY IN STYLE!

Always a Fresh Look at
Greis Jewelers

Sukkot Holiday
Has Three Names

LEONARD WINOGRAD

Special to The Jewish News

O

32940 Middlebelt Rd.
855.1730
(At 14 Mile Rd., in the Broadway Plaza)

JEWELERS

HOURS: Mon.-Fri. 10.6
Thurs. 10-8, Sat. 10.5

Custom Designed Jewelry to Your Taste

Works Of Art
Filled C Personalized
For Your Baby 6 Children's Gifts

\,tn er.pitl etW

$169 U.S.

A
FRAME

Price includes 6" • cotton
& foam core futon

•

Removable cover
$17 with purchase &
this ad.

(313) 683-3999

Toy & Gift Bottoms
Filled With Fun & Function

r UNLIMITED
- COATS

Local and Nationwide Delivery

3 POSITIONS

We deliver

519-255-7660

475 Wyandotte St. E. Windsor, Ont.
2 minutes from the tunnel
Hours: Mon-Fri:10-8, Sat:10-6, Sun by appt.

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Sterling Heights
Sterling Place
37680 Van Dyke at 16 1/2 Mile
939-0700

tunriel

Goveau

Oak Park

5

Lincoln Center, Greenfield at 1C% Mile

968-2060

West Bloomfield

Orchard Mall, Orchard Lake
at Maple (15 Mile) • 855-9955

ur fall holiday season
continues on the 15th
of Tishrei with the
festival of Sukkot, a festival
with three names (Sukkot,
or Tabernacles, Chag
He'asif, or Ingathering, and
Chag, or Festival) and em-
phasis on two different
themes.
The name Tabernacles is
because we are indeed com-
manded in Leviticus to dwell
in booths for seven days. It is
also known simply as Chag,
festival, meaning that this is
the festival. In ancient
times, it was probably the
most major of all festivals,
because unlike Pesach and
Shavuot, when the pilgrims
to Jerusalem had to hurry
home to their farms to con-
tinue the work of the early
harvest, the farmer at
Sukkot had nothing better to
do than celebrate the bounty
of God.
That is why in ancient
times there was so much
pageantry and dramatic
ceremony. Like a modern
light show, so many par-
ticipants carried torches
that we are told there was
not a courtyard in Jerusalem
which was left dark. In those
days, Jerusalem was a city
the size of McKeesport, Pa.,
about 50,000 people.
With the third name, Chag
He'asif, the Festival of the
Ingathering, we have the
idea of a harvest festival, the
end of the work year, a time
for celebration of one's ma-
terial well-being.
The command to dwell in
booths speaks to this mate-
rialism, saying, "Notice that
you can exist with only a
fragile booth to protect you
from the elements. Air con-
ditioning and central
heating is nice, as is wall-to-
wall carpeting, but notice
how well you can get by in a
Sukkah for seven days."
The lesson is then ham-
mered home as we proceed
through the Megillah for
this holiday — the book of
Kohelet, or Ecclesiastes. It is
ascribed to King Solomon,
written when he was an old
man who had tasted all the
material pleasures of the
flesh and found that they
(wine, women, and song) did
not bring everlasting con-
tentment or permanent joy.
"Vanity of vanities, all is
vanity," he says. I remember
having learned that the
word which we translate as

vanity is based on another
Semitic root meaning vapor,
or, as we would say, it is all
hot air. The book of Ecclesi-
astes is recommended at a
time of death, for its mes-
sage is "You can't take it
with you."
We are commanded to
wave the four species of
plants in the four directions
of the compass as well as
skyward and down to the
earth, to symbolize our con-
victions that God's bounty is
everywhere and comes from
everywhere. The four species
are the lulav, or palm bran-
ch; the etrog, or citron; the
hadasim, or myrtle bran-
ches; and the aravot, or
willow of the brook.
Each of these four species
symbolizes a different kind
of person, according to a
midrash found in Leviticus
Rabba:
"Just as the etrog has
taste and pleasant
fragrance, so in Israel there

The command to
dwell in booths
speaks to this
materialism,
saying, "Notice
that you can exist
with only a fragile
booth to
protect you."

are men who are both learn-
ed and strictly observant.
Just as the lulav has fruit
that is palatable but without
fragrance, so there are men
who are learned but not fully
observant. The myrtle has a
pleasant odor but is
tasteless, like men of good
deeds who are without learn-
ing. The willow of the brook
is neither edible nor
fragrant, like a man who is
not learned and has done no
good deeds."
The four species symbolize
the four types of people who
make up society. A hand —
yad — is needed to bring
them all together with a
blessing just as a Yid, a real
Jew, will strive to bring
them together to demon-
strate that just as a hand has
five fingers, so fellowship,
unity and cooperation in
services of God is a mitzvah.
Chag sameyach. Moadim
l'simcha, chaggim uzmanim
l'sasson! ❑

Rabbi Winograd is a retired
rabbi residing in Pittsburgh.

