Sukkot
Sukkot is a seven day holiday that we celebrate each fall from the 15th of the month of Tishrei to the 21st of Tishrei. This year this corresponds to October 5th - 11th, beginning on the evening of October 4th. If you look up at the stars on the first night of Sukkot you will see a full moon. Sukkot is a holiday during which we celebrate the wheat harvest in Israel. For farmers, this was a festive, happy time and everyone would go into the fields to help with the harvest and then sleep in huts, which are called sukkot in Hebrew. These sukkot also remind us of the wandering of the Israelites during their 40 years in the desert before reaching the Land of Israel. Today during the holiday of Sukkot, people primarily eat in the sukkah, but you will find some who also sleep in it! It is supposed to be our temporary home. Sukkot is a holiday like Thanksgiving, during which we express our gratitude for all we have in our lives.
The Holiday of Sukkot is also about fragility. A sukkah is a temporary shelter with a roof that allows us to see the sky and the stars. The house is flimsy, but during Sukkot we try to live in it, eat in it, even sleep in it during the seven-day festival. It presents an opportunity to remember our fragility. Sukkot is said to be an opportunity to recall the time the Jews spent wandering around in the desert after escaping from slavery in Egypt. While on Sukkot we recall our fragility, it is also a time of bounty, a time of harvest, and a time of great blessing. Sukkot is meant to be a joyous and festive holiday. When remembering our own fragility, we are able to be in touch with the temporary nature of all blessings and thus enjoy them even more deeply. It is a wonderful opportunity to teach children that fragility also means good things: not only illness and death, but also blessing and joy.
A few year ago, there was an unique competition, called Sukkah City, during which contemporary artists and architects built modern-looking sukkot following the Jewish laws that the rabbis taught centuries ago. However, they look very different than traditional sukkot. Watch the short video below to see the various structures that they built and learn about the Jewish laws they followed. Write them down and submit them below.
The Holiday of Sukkot is also about fragility. A sukkah is a temporary shelter with a roof that allows us to see the sky and the stars. The house is flimsy, but during Sukkot we try to live in it, eat in it, even sleep in it during the seven-day festival. It presents an opportunity to remember our fragility. Sukkot is said to be an opportunity to recall the time the Jews spent wandering around in the desert after escaping from slavery in Egypt. While on Sukkot we recall our fragility, it is also a time of bounty, a time of harvest, and a time of great blessing. Sukkot is meant to be a joyous and festive holiday. When remembering our own fragility, we are able to be in touch with the temporary nature of all blessings and thus enjoy them even more deeply. It is a wonderful opportunity to teach children that fragility also means good things: not only illness and death, but also blessing and joy.
A few year ago, there was an unique competition, called Sukkah City, during which contemporary artists and architects built modern-looking sukkot following the Jewish laws that the rabbis taught centuries ago. However, they look very different than traditional sukkot. Watch the short video below to see the various structures that they built and learn about the Jewish laws they followed. Write them down and submit them below.
- Following Sukkot is the holiday of Shimini Atzeret on Thursday, October 12th and Simchat Torah, on Friday, October 13th.
During Sukkot, we say these special blessings when we sit in the sukkah and when we shake the lulav and etrog.