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SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN
Staff Writer

ast Friday night, Oct. 13, with the start of Sukkot,
Jews around the world began setting up sukkot
(temporary booths) and finding ways to personal-
ize them.
Some tied bumpy, curiously shaped gourds to their
sukkah's ceiling and searched hardware stores for green string
to blend with the scach (evergreen boughs and other natural
materials that top a sukkah).
In our Jewish community, some of us may have called on
Bruce Katz at John R Lumber in Waterford for their pre-cut,
easy-to-assemble sukkah kits, or Alan Wormser at Barry's
Let's Rent It in West Bloomfield for a week's rental of extra
"sukkah chairs."
Each sukkah emanates its own traditions, its own character,
from those with tables pushed against the walls so sleeping
kids don't roll onto the floor at night, to those with plastic
windows and grass-like floor-covering.
At the Feldman home in Huntington Woods, the walls
are painted to represent the city of Jerusalem. "This year I
added to the scene," says Marcy Feldman, who painted
the interior of the sukkah shared with her husband
Michael and children, Ronit, 19; Noah, 17; and Joanna,
14. "I also painted the words of prayers around the inside
of the sukkah."
When the Hebrew calendar placed the Sunday before
Sukkot (Oct. 8) as the day before Yom Kippur, it also marked
the cancellation of regularly scheduled religious-school classes
by congregations. Without the availability of students to dec-
orate that Sunday, members of Congregation Shaarey Zedek's
United Synagogue Youth group instead held a decorating
party in the sukkah on Wednesday evening, Oct. 11.
"The kids from the nursery school and religious school
made the decorations," says Michael Wolf, director of educa-
tion and youth for the synagogue. The kids in the Eugene
and Marcia Applebaum Jewish Family and Parenting Center
decorated the lower half of the sukkah. "Then the USYers
came in with their ladders and did the rest," Wolf says.

Holidays Keep Coming

Just as the paper chains and children's artwork begin to droop
from the inevitable Sukkot rain, it's time to celebrate the sev-
enth day of Sukkot, Hoshanah Rabbah. This year on Friday,
Oct. 20, the day culminates the progression of the judgment
rendered on Rosh Hashanah, sealed on Yom Kippur and
delivered on Hoshanah Rabbah.
On this day, willow branches (hoshanah aravah), a symbol
of rejuvenation and re-awakening, are beaten on the floor,
while reciting the prayer for rain.
On Hoshanah Rabbah, Sukkot symbols are returned to the
house in preparation for Shemini Atzeret, the two-day holi-
day immediately following Sukkot. This brings the spiritual
message of the sukkah into our homes for the remainder of
the year.
Although commonly thought of as part of Sukkot, Shemini
Atzeret, defined as the "assembly of the eighth day," is a holi-
day in its own right and does not involve the special obser-
vances of Sukkot.
The custom on Shemini Atzeret is to eat in the sukkah on
the first day. "On that day you may eat there, but you do not
say the blessing for being in the sukkah or on the lulav and
etrog," says Rabbi Herschel Zaklos, a teacher at the
Lubavitch Cheder in Oak Park.
The second day of Shemini Atzeret is also Simchat Torah
(Rejoicing in the Torah), when the annual cycle of weekly
Torah readings is completed. As the last portion is read, it is
followed immediately by the first chapter of Genesis, remind-
ing us that the Torah is a never-ending circle. For the holiday,
processions take place in the synagogue, with congregants
singing, dancing and carrying Torahs.
"It is a very nice idea that the holiday progresses as the joy
gets greater and stronger and we end with the greatest happi-
ness: dancing with the Torah," Rabbi Zaklos says. "We dive
off into the year beginning with a high of joy. It just takes
off, with a feel of energy. We start off with the introspection
of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and then go into the
happy season of Sukkot, and then the ultimate, Simchat
Torah — into the new year on a joyous note." ❑

O

•

Right: Benji Brown talks to his fellow Shaarey Zedek
USY members who are seated on
bales of hay that decorate the sukkah.

Above left: Marcy Feldman of Huntington Woods
touches up her artwork of the city of Jerusalem.

Above right: Michael and Marcy Feldman of
Huntington Woods with children
Noah, 17, and Joanna, 14.

Opposite page: Atara Krakoff 2 '/2,
of Southfield reaches for the Shaarey Zedek
sukkah ceiling with a bunch of 07-apes.

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