- .11v aboiftiort011,11146‘04141461 ■4 10f Keeping Up With The Millers ERICA RAUZIN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS uring Sukkot; we replicate the experience of the chil- dren of Israel in the desert by "living in booths." This al fresco adventure is one thing when you build a sukkah like our friends, the Millers', deluxe ver- sion, and another thing alto- gether when you build a sukkah like ours. The Millers' sukkah is, first of all, immediately outside the slid- ing French doors from their kitchen. Right outside our kitchen door are three steep steps that lead to a narrow walkway shaded by the neighbor's fence and filled with recycling bins. The only sukkah you could build there would be one chair wide and ten chairs long. The Millers' sukkah, built on their back patio, has a view of their swimming pool and, beyond that, the blue waters of Biscayne Bay. Some Sizes Special Order SIMON PEAR Handblown in Vermont N&Sib.A. 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Our sukkah, built on our dri- veway — the only level, dry, hard floored outdoor surface we own — has a view of the neighbor's driveway. We are more seen than seeing, being right out in front of the house. I sympathize with the proverbial deer caught in the headlights: that's how I feel in the sukkah. We are a backlit tableaux for passers-by. I suppose we offer a demonstration of celebration in progress for those who know what Sukkot is and provide total bewilderment for those who do not. Uninformed members of oth- er religions must drive by and wonder why in the world a fam- ily of five would take to eating dinner in the driveway. I can't imagine what possible explana- tions they arrive at: are we nuts? Is our kitchen on fire? Are we weird cultish back-to-nature freaks? I'd like to hear a few of the conversations in those cars, particularly in the car that backed up one night to take a sec- ond look. They stared so long we almost offered to sign auto- graphs. The Millers' sukkah is private and sits about three feet from their kitchen, so their carrying distance is nil. Hot dishes arrive hot; cold dishes arrive cold and the refrigerator is at hand. Our sukkah seems miles from our door, although the actual dis- tance is probably no more than 50 feet. Our lot just isn't big enough for the schlep to be as long as it feels. By the time I've carried tablecloths, napkins, plates, silverware, glasses, drinks, serving dishes, and as- sorted condiments to the sukkah, I'm worn out, the hot food is cold, and the cold food is hot. We've become very proficient at minimizing the carrying has- sle. My husband can get an en- `-\ tire breakfast for five onto a single plastic tray, as long as no- body wants fruit on their cereal (and there's no big menu; you eat Cheerios or you carry your own). Guests who come for a lunch or dinner in the siikkah pay for their meals in hard labor. I often wonder if our Sukkot visitors — people supposedly involved in sharing a spiritual, meaningful religious event — feel more like Sherpas toting provisions for a Himalayan expedition. Every year, we visit the Millers for a meal in their sukkah, and we express our green-eyed envy of their proxim- ity, their convenience, their view. But we notice that our viewless, inconvenient sukkah and our dear friends' scenic, handy sukkah share some very impor- tant things in common. We all enjoy each other's corn- pany. We all eat heartily, whether or not the food has held its ideal temperature. And, we all reach for that moment of con- nection with the first booth dwellers: the ones who carried the newly-given Torah. We try to understand the view they had: the endless desert, the clus- tered tents, the Ark of the Covenant. When we think how large that sweep of desert is, that sweep of time, we realize how small and temporary our shel- ters are. And that is the point of Sukkot, viscerally sharing the experience of those ancient desert nomads, the experience of having to rely utterly on di- c-/-\ vine protection, because man's structures can blow away in a minute, just like our sukkah and, yes, the Millers'. I confess, though, that it is easier to think of our driveway sukkah as tern- porary than it is to regard theirs in the same way. I don't know exactly why, but I suspect it must be the French doors.