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Spirituality

Traveling Sukkah Project

Two portable sukkot spend the holiday at new homes each year.

Shelli Liebman Dorfman
Senior Writer

R

achel and Nathan Bloch consid-
ered building their first sukkah
this year, but after checking out
prices of prefab structures, they decided
not to pursue it.
"But the kids really wanted a sukkah,"
Rachel Bloch said.
In previous years, they'd placed sticks
over the roof of the playhouse in their
Farmington Hills back yard and pretended
it was their sukkah. So when they learned
that Congregation Shaarey Zedek of
Oakland County (CSZ) was offering two
families the use of a sukkah for the Sukkot
holiday, Rachel said, "I made a beeline for
the box set up during Rosh Hashanah ser-
vices for entries. The kids were so excited
when we won:'
The other winners were Lisa and
Daniel Findling of Huntington Woods
and their children Charlie, 7, Ethan, 5
and Ivy, 2.
"These two families had the pleasure
of experiencing Sukkot in their homes for
the first time," said Megan Rappaport, CSZ
Jewish family educator. "But the winners
received much more than the sukkah."
They also received lessons and tools for
observing the traditions and rituals of the
holiday, which CSZ Rabbi Aaron L. Starr
said were "meant to educate, to inspire
and to create opportunities to share one's
learning and joy:'
Each family was given a lulav and
etrog and information to help them hold
a 10-minute daily family activity during
the holiday. That included Sukkot stories,
blessings and making decorations.
"Megan gave us a kit of activities and a
huge poster board with a game and anoth-
er one to decorate," Rachel Bloch said.
The kids — Rozzie, 12, Sam, 11, and 7-
year-old twins Avi and Jared — also made
other decorations, including huge chains
out of pipe cleaners and sparkles.
"Our sukkah is in a perfect place,' Rozzie
said. "We have a big forest in the back yard,
but you can see the stars really clear."
The Findlings' kids decorated their suk-
kah by laminating their favorite art proj-
ects."We laminated pictures of our family
and friends to hang up," Lisa said. "We put
a table and chairs inside with bowls of
fruit on the table. We covered the sukkah
with cornstalks to keep all the rain out:'

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October 15 • 2009

Megan Rappaport, Shaarey Zedek Jewish family educator,

Nate and Rachel Bloch of Farmington Hills and their children,

Lisa and Daniel Findlinq and their children, Ivy, 2, Ethan, 5,

Sam, 11, Rozzie, 12, Avi and Jared, 7.

and Charlie, 7, with Shaarey Zedek Rabbi Joseph Krakoff.

An Invitation
'A sukkah is not a showpiece," said Starr,
CSZ director of education and youth. "It is
meant to be used and enjoyed and there is
a special mitzvah, a sacred obligation, on
Sukkot to invite guests into one's sulckah."
So each family hosted a gathering in
their sukkah, which included a visit by a
CSZ educator or rabbi. The Findlings also
invited their boys' soccer teams.
"My family and our friends loved hav-
ing Megan and Rabbi [Joseph H.] Krakoff
do the blessing," Lisa Finding said. "Each
child took a turn shaking the lulav, and
continued to do it after they left. Rabbi
Krakoff asked the children various ques-
tions and they all took turns responding.
The interactive approach made it very fun
and engaged all the kids."
Starr explained how the sukkah can be
experienced by all the senses. "Together
we ate in the sukkah, fulfilling a com-
mandment by tasting wonderful food
therein. We listened to the special prayers
of Sukkot. We smelled the lemony fra-
grance of the etrog and felt the various
textures of the lulay."

A lesson also was in the sukkah itself.
"We learned the various laws for its
construction, reminding ourselves that
the sukkah is in so many ways a meta-
phor for life Starr said.
"Just as it is fragile and subject to
winds and rains, so are our lives. We look
to God, rather than human creations, for
sustained protection. And just as it is a
temporary shelter, so, too, do we remem-
ber that there are those less fortunate
than us who, similarly, have — at best
— a temporary place in which to dwell."

Traveling Memories
"We like to have new family traditions
and make good family memories:' Rachel
Bloch said.
"Having a sukkah is a low-key, positive
way to celebrate our faith and observance.
My husband and I both had sukkahs as
young children so we both had warm,
fuzzy memories that we want our kids to
have, too."
Rappaport said, "We are creating a
special memory book for the families to
insert pictures and record their experi-

ences.
"That memory book will travel with the
sukkah everywhere that it goes, creating a
history that will connect the first winners
of the project to each family that wins in
the future:'
The concept of the first-time proj-
ect came from CSZ Parent Teacher
Organization chair Wendy Arnold and was
developed and coordinated by Rappaport.
The Traveling Sukkah Project — open
to families with children in grades K-
7 who had never had a sukkah before
— was sponsored by the synagogue's PTO
and the Jewish Family Education Project,
which is partially funded by Jewish
Experiences for Families of Federation's
Alliance for Jewish Education.
"The vast majority of our friends have
had sukkahs and we helped decorate
them; we ate with them in theirs and we
really enjoyed it," Lisa Findling said.
"But I think you feel like an outsider
until you have your own. It changes the
entire experience of Sukkot when you have
a sukkah in your own home. We will defi-
nitely have a sukkah next year." I