Spirituality "'"44,444,404404
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HOLIDAY 101
Sukkot's
Torah Roots
Huts symbolize the Israelites' exodus from Egypt.
Elizabeth Applebaum
Special to the Jewish News
T
he Holiday: Sukkot.
Why We Celebrate: A divine
mandate, as expressed in the Torah:
Leviticus 23:33-43, Numbers 29:12- 38,
Deuteronomy 16:13-15.
Name of the Holiday: In Hebrew, suk-
kot means "booths" or "huts" (sukkah is
the singular form). In English, the holi-
day is called "Booths" or "Tabernacles"
(although "tabernacle" usually refers to
a container for storing ritual objects, the
word ultimately is derived from the Latin
for "little hut").
When It Occurs: The first day of
Sukkot is the 15th of Tishrei, which this
year begins at 7:23 p.m., Wednesday, Sept.
26. The holiday lasts for eight days, but
nine days outside of Israel. For us, that is
until Friday evening, Oct. 5 (which goes
right into Shabbat).
What It Celebrates: Sukkot recalls
the sukkot, or temporary shelters, that
the Israelites used after the exodus from
Egypt and their sojourn through the
wilderness on their way to the Land of
Israel. Some Torah scholars interpret
sukkot" to mean protective, divine
clouds that enveloped the Jewish people
on their journey.
"
How We Celebrate: Strictly speaking,
we must live for the entire holiday in a
temporary dwelling called a sukkah. A
sukkah consists of at least three walls and
a permeable roof. The walls can be many
of almost any material and can be tempo-
rary or permanent.
The key feature of the sukkah is the
roof. It must be made of harvested plant
material not still connected to the soil.
This is known in Hebrew as s'chach.
The material can be dried or fresh.
Examples include corn stalks, tree branch-
es, evergreens, bamboo poles or slats,
36
September 27 * 2007
unfinished wooden furring strips, vines,
grass or leaves.
The material must be laid across the
top of the sukkah so that it provides more
shade than light, but not so thick that a
hard rain could not penetrate it. (There is
a widespread, but mistaken, idea that one
must be able to see the stars through this
s'chach.)
Because it may not be possible to live
in the sukkah as thoroughly as one would
live in a house, the rabbis ruled that if
at least we have our meals in the suk-
kah, we have fulfilled the commandment
(since one cannot survive without eating).
Nonetheless, one should try to spend as
much time in the sukkah as possible, be
it reading, studying, having a coffee break
or a nap.
God also commands us to take "the
fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm
trees and boughs of thick trees and wil-
lows of the brook" (Leviticus 23:40) to
use to "rejoice before the Lord." This is
known as the arba'ah minim or "four
species:' Our practice is to bind together
a date-palm frond with willow and
myrtle branches. This bundle is known
as the lulav (from the Hebrew for "palm
branch"). The fourth element is the etrog,
or citron, a very fragrant fruit which looks
like a lemon.
The lulav and etrog are held together
and waved in four directions, the order
of which varies between the Ashkenazi,
Sephardi and chassidic traditions. The
lulav and etrog also are waved during the
Hallel prayer.
The holiday service in the synagogue
includes a procession of the worship-
pers around the sanctuary, each holding
a set of etrog and lulav while reciting the
Hoshanah prayers, a different prayer for
each day. Ashkenazi and Sephardi rites dif-
fer as to when in the service this is done.
Hoshanah Rabbah and Shemini
Atzeret: The seventh day of Sukkot is
Hoshanah Rabbah, both a festival and a
day of judgment. According to tradition,
on Rosh Hashanah God made his deci-
sion regarding our futures. He sealed it on
Proud And United
T
he festival of Sukkot is as
much a time of transition as
it is a season of promise. It
begins on the 15th day of Tishrei, the
fifth day after Yom Kippur, the Day of
Atonement, one of the most solemn
of Jewish holidays. Yet, the eight-day
festival marks one of the happiest
of our celebrations as Jews. It's so
unabashedly joyous that we often
refer to it as Z'man Simchateinu, the
Season Of Our Rejoicing.
The holiday has historical roots in
that it commemorates the 40 years
that the Israelites wandered in the
desert and lived in sukkot — in tem-
porary huts — following the Exodus
from Egypt. There's agricultural sig-
nificance, too. Sukkot is a harvest fes-
tival commemorating when the Jews
of ancient Israel thanked God for the
rain and sunshine that had ripened
their crops.
During Sukkot, we remember the
long, hard journeys the Israelites
made from their fields to the Temple
in Jerusalem. We also remember the
flimsy huts they slept in during har-
vest time. Today, we also take stock in
our collective journey as Jews against
the ravages of terror, violence, hatred
and anti-Semitism threatening us
worldwide.
When we sing, dance and pray this
Sukkot with lulav and etrog in hand,
let us not only harken to our ances-
tors who made it to the Promised
Land. Let us also understand that
by embracing such joyful moments
despite the mists of danger lurking
Yom Kippur. Yet we have until Hoshanah
Rabbah to mend our ways before God
makes His judgment final.
In the synagogue services on Hoshanah
Rabbah, the worshippers, holding an etrog
and lulav, make seven circuits around the
sanctuary, during which all of the previ-
ous days' Hoshanah prayers are said, hence
the name of the holiday, which in Hebrew
means "many Hoshanahs."
The last day of Sukkot is Shemini
Atzeret. Known as "the festival of con-
clusion," it is mentioned in the Tanach
(Leviticus 23:36, Deuteronomy 16:8, and
Isaiah 1:13) as "a holy convocation."
Shemini Atzeret has the distinction of
being both part of Sukkot and a separate
holiday.
The davening (prayers) for Shemini
Atzeret is the standard holiday service.
There are no special rituals for Shemini
Atzeret, but the davening includes Yizkor
and the prayer for rain, called Tefillat
Geshem. This is rainfall season in Israel,
and we wish for farmers all that they will
need.
all about us, we remind ourselves and
the world that Jews are a determined
and hardy people — united by a corn-
mon identity, common heritage and
common values that we proudly pass
from generation to generation.
Therein lies the beauty of Judaism.
Our will, perpetually threatened, has
proven unshakable for 3,300 years.
Chag sukkot sameiach. Rejoice in
Sukkot, but don't let down your guard.
The Jewish journey, though amazingly
unbroken, is ever so fragile, like the
huts of the Israelites. So on Sukkot,
shake the lulav, smell the etrog and
reinforce your neshamah, the inner
chamber of your soul as a Jew. Fl
Shabbat shalom!
Robert A. Sklar, editor