Understanding why Sukkot remains relevant

Pilgrimage festival begins Oct. 16

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The Jewish holiday of Sukkot is often called the “season of our rejoicing.” It commemorates the Jews’ safe passage out of the desert in what is now the Sinai Peninsula, Saudi Arabia and Jordan after fleeing slavery in Egypt three millennia ago. It is the last of what are called the pilgrimage festivals, which include Passover and Shavuot. This year the holiday, also referred to as the Feast of the Tabernacles, is Oct. 16 to 23.

During their time of hardship in the desert, Jews survived in makeshift shelters — in Hebrew, sukkahs. Today they craft sukkahs in remembrance of their deliverance from bondage. Building the shelters is fun for children, who often think of them as tree houses where they can camp out. A sukkah can be any size, and is decorated with children’s artwork and vegetables to commemorate the harvest feast.

No work is permitted on the first two days of the seven-day holiday. 

“It is not about our personal harvest. It is about the fact that there is a harvest in the land that provides us with the natural foods that sustain life. We are grateful for the sun, the rain, the climate, and the farmers who help us keep who all work together with G-d’s help to keep our supermarket shelves filled with goodies of G-d’s world,” said Rabbi Hershel Billet, spiritual leader of Young Israel of Woodmere.

Another component of Sukkot is the four species: the lulav (a palm branch) and etrog (a citrus fruit similar to a lemon), two willow branches and three myrtle branches. As a blessing is recited, the species are waved in six directions –– east, south, west, north, up and down –– symbolizing that God is everywhere.

The four species are also held and waved during the Hallel prayer at services and processions around the bimah, an elevated platform at synagogue where the Torah is read. This commemorates the processions around the altar of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. On the seventh and final day of Sukkot, the ceremony is performed seven times.

Also on the holiday’s last day, Jews strike willow branches against the floor five times, shaking loose some or all of the remaining leaves. The most common reason given for this practice is that Israel’s rainy season begins at this time of year, and the fallen leaves symbolize the hope for rainfall.

Temple of Israel Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum said that the two central messages of Sukkot are “that we are the caretakers of the environment” and “without the State of Israel” the Jewish people “would be living in sukkahs 365 days a year.”

“Sukkot is a holiday of ecology; cherishing the resources we have not wasting them,” Rosenbaum said. “We appreciate what we have basic necessities of life in doing so we are sensitive to the needs of the poor. On the Sukkot service on Sunday, congregants were asked to bring canned goods for those in need. 

The Feast of the Tabernacles is also a reminder, Rosenbaum said, that Jews have a country, and that a large percentage of European Jews are not attending services due to an increase in anti-Semitism. “They are afraid out of fear,” he said, if things, God forbid, could get worse, we have a place a to go,” meaning Israel.