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Sukkot

From: Mike Freedman [mfreedman@portables1.ngfl.gov.uk]
Sent: 21 September 1999 21:40
To: Bectans
Subject: Mike's First Sukkot Message

Now that Yom Kippur is over (I fasted very well, thank you. I didn't even get a headache and hardly felt hungry. I followed the advice of the surviving the fast website, cut down on coffee and drank lots of liquid the day before - perhaps that helped. It was a shame about the weather, though - I didn't go for my usual walk in the afternoon) we are looking forward to Sukkot, an 8 day festival, which begins only five days after Yom Kippur.

Sukkot is the main harvest festival in the Jewish calendar, celebrating particularly the harvest of first fruits (earlier crops are celebrated earlier in the year). Sukkot is one of the so called Pilgrim or "Foot" festivals, when, in biblical times, people would come to Jerusalem with offering to the Temple.

The main feature of Sukkot is the instruction to live, for the period of the festival, in a sukkah (which means "booth" or tent and is usually translated by the fancy term "tabernacle". Each family builds a sukkah which is a temporary structure, lined with leaves and branches and decorated with fruit and vegetables hung from the roof. The roof must be such as to be able to see the sky. In our climate, living in the sukkah is interpreted as having meals in it, and that is interpreted by eating food at least as big as an olive. My grandfather had a garden shed with a roof that could be opened and we did indeed eat our evening meals in there so that we could look up through the greenery and see the stars (when it wasn't cloudy).

Building the sukkah is an activity which is fun for children but needs adult help. At our synagogue there is a Jewish nursery and the children help decorate the sukkah, as do some of the community's retired members (who have time during the working day). It will all be ready in good time for the Erev Sukkot service on Friday evening.

Tonight I have not had time to research websites but am recommending a book. This book is an excellent resource for information, recipes, craft activities and music for the whole Jewish calendar of festivals.

The book is: The Complete Family Guide to Jewish Holidays by Dalia Hardof Renberg, Published by Robson Books ISBN 0-86051-432-3 and may still cost £10.95