No sooner do the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur come and go, than the biblical harvest festival of Sukkot is upon us. Traditionally, some people leave the synagogue at the conclusion of Yom Kippur and begin preparing for Sukkot which begins five days later. Sukkot is a weeklong festival that marks the fall harvest season. We express our gratitude to the Almighty for His bounty and all of the good which we enjoy.
The most distinctive aspect of the holiday is the building of temporary huts (Sukkot, sing. Sukkah) in our yards, on decks, and in some metropolitan areas even on rooftops or fire escapes. These structures are purposely not permanent in nature. While they should withstand an average wind, they should not be so sturdy that they can stand up to a tropical storm. The walls may be made of anything, bricks, board, lattice work or even tied down tarps. The roofing, known as s’chach, however, must be made of material that grows from the ground but is no longer attached to it. Most people use branches or bamboo poles or even specially made mats of bamboo slats. The Sukkah should have more shade than sun and ideally should provide a view of the stars through the roof. However a Sukkah whose s’chach is so thick that the rain cannot get through is not a kosher Sukkah.
A number of on-line companies offer Sukkah kits which provide pre-fab structures to assemble. Other companies provide hardware along with a shopping list of lumber and instructions for building your own hut. There are cloth Sukkot, plastic ones, metal, and wood. Something for everyone. There is a lot of room for creativity, particularly when it comes to decorating the Sukkah. Many folks hang fruit and vegetables from the rafters. Some make chains of cranberries and popcorn. Others put up colored lights, high holiday greeting cards, posters, flags, and artwork done by their kids. One of my congregants says that in terms of decoration, the Sukkah is like her “Christmas tree.”
Temple Israel has just expanded its Sukkah to twice its size and is planning to hold a dinner there on Friday night and other meals during the week. The old Sukkah was not large enough to accommodate tables and chairs for a real meal, but now we should be able to fit in a nice little group for dinner and we are encouraging our congregants to use the Sukkah during the week.
Throughout the days of the holiday, people are supposed to eat all of their meals in the Sukkah, weather permitting. Some people, particularly in warmer climates, even arrange to sleep in the Sukkah. The Sukkah is supposed to take the place of our regular homes during this week to the extent possible. We eat and sleep, read books and entertain guests in our Sukkah. People are encouraged to welcome guests to the Sukkah and, in addition to our earthly visitors, we invite various biblical figures to the Sukkah as well. This Kabbalistic tradition calls for us to welcome Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph, and King David to the Sukkah each night. Each of these figures has a symbolic meaning in Kabbalah, representing some aspect of divinity. In recent years, some have developed an accompanying list of female biblical figures which represent the same qualities and they invite both the men and women to join them in the Sukkah.
The holiday of Sukkot not only has an agricultural significance, but also has a connection with Jewish history. It recalls the wanderings of our ancestors in the wilderness after the Exodus from Egypt when, according to Leviticus, God caused them to dwell in “Sukkot”. Our rabbis question this, for we know that the Israelites of that era lived in tents probably made from goatskins or from cloth made of wool from their sheep. They did not live in little huts with branches on top, what we call “Sukkot” today. What can the Torah mean by saying we lived in “Sukkot”? The rabbis explain that in this case, the word “Sukkot” which means “a covering,” implies that we lived under God’s protecting care, under the clouds of glory that He provided for our ancestors, as He watched over them during their journey. So too God provides for us today in our journey through life. The Sukkah reminds us of how temporary our lives are and how dependent we are on Divine Providence.
The huts with the branches on top actually come, not from the wilderness experience, but they are the harvest huts that ancient farmers (and, actually, some present-day Arab farmers) used while they were bringing in the harvest each year. They slept in the fields in such structures to keep track of the produce until it could be safely brought in from the countryside to the villages in which they lived.
Celebrating Sukkot eighteen years ago in Charleston a couple of weeks after Hurricane Hugo had struck, my family and I came to learn the real significance of the holiday. Most of my congregants in Charleston had significant damage to their homes or at least had to replace their roofs after the storm and we learned firsthand that our large, comfortable homes are really only fragile huts in the face of nature’s powerful winds. Going out into the sukkah, we felt a strong sense of gratitude for our many blessings.
In addition to the Sukkah, since this is the beginning of the rainy season in Israel, Jews around the world offer prayers for rain and prosperity utilizing branches of three trees and the fruit of a citron in our worship. These are known as the four species, the arbaah minim. The long palm branch is known as a lulav. We take it along with three myrtle twigs and two willow branches, the hadassim and aravot. The citron or etrog is held next to the bundle of branches and the four species are then waved in the four directions of the compass and up and down at various times during the Sukkot holiday prayers. We also form a procession and march around the sanctuary once each day of the holiday praying for God’s help during the coming year. On the seventh day, known as Hoshanah Rabbah, we march around seven times and conclude the worship with the beating of willow branches on the floor. As the leaves separate from the branches, some see it as a reminder of God’s renewal of nature each spring. Others speak of it as a symbol of the ultimate resurrection of the dead. Still others see it as a symbol of our ability to separate ourselves from sin as we conclude the high holiday season in triumph.
The four species represent four parts of the body. The etrog is the heart, the lulav is like the spine, the myrtle leaves are eyes, and the willow leaves are lips. Altogether, these parts of the body serve God. Another well-known teaching connects each one of the species with a type of Jewish person. The etrog has a nice taste and a good smell and so it represents the Jew filled with knowledge who uses that knowledge to do good in the world. The date-palm branch has fruit with a sweet taste, but not much fragrance and thus represents the scholar with Torah within, but not many good deeds to his credit. The myrtle has a lovely fragrance, but no taste and thus is the simple person without deep knowledge who nonetheless tries to do good in the world. The poor willow having neither taste nor smell is the Jew bereft of knowledge and deeds, dependent on the community. We take the four together in one bundle and we all serve God together, making up for each other’s shortcomings.
The Torah speaks of the etrog as the fruit of a “goodly tree” and this leads our sages to emphasize the importance of finding a fine quality etrog to perform this commandment in the best manner. A good etrog is one that is least like a lemon. One should seek an unblemished fruit that is intact, has ridges and bumps all over its surface, has nice greenish-yellow color, and is narrow on top and wide on the bottom. The closer to the ideal etrog one comes, the higher the price the fruit commands. For a superior etrog, some people are willing to pay a premium price. Most American Jews order etrogs from major cities like Boston, New York, Miami, where they are imported generally from Israel or other Mediterranean countries. Those who can, like to personally pick out their own four species, to be certain they have found the best available specimens. Others simply place their orders by mail or on-line and hope for the best.
The holiday is known as the Feast of Tabernacles, the Festival of Ingathering and as the Season of our Rejoicing. In ancient Israel, it was the most beloved of holidays and was simply known as “the holiday”. People came up on pilgrimage to Jerusalem and celebrated joyously throughout the week. In our busy American society, it is hard for people to find the time for Sukkot right after taking time for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It, unfortunately, does not always gain the respect it deserves as a full-fledged major biblical holiday. It is our hope that as people come to appreciate the meaning of Sukkot, it will once again gain its place among the major festivals of the Jewish year in the hearts of the Jewish people.
Happy holidays!