This past weekend, I went to six different sukkahs. Five on Saturday and one on Sunday. The Saturday excursion was called a 'sukkah hop' because we went from one sukkah to another throughout the area. Each family had decorated their sukkahs differently with corn stalks or branches or dried fruit or gourds or drawings or paintings on canvas walls or paper chains. Each was distinct and beautiful in its own way.
Sukkot is the festival harvest in the fall and is also the holiday that reminds us of the exodus from Egypt. A sukkah is a temporary dwelling place-also known as a booth or tabernacle. In Leviticus, God says that we are to dwell in sukkot (plural of sukkah) as a reminder that God made our ancestors dwell in sukkot during their journeys in the wilderness.
This is contrasted with the fact that sukkot occurs in the fall at the time of the harvest. The first Thanksgiving in America was probably modeled on the festival of sukkot. FYI, Thanksgiving Day in Canada was on October 13, the first day of Sukkot. In any event, we contrast bounty with desert. Even while we enjoy our harvest we must be mindful of those who are not as well off as we are. The sukkah, this temporary structure that is open at all sides and does not have a closed roof, calls to mind how exposed to the elements people who don't have houses to live in really are. We are reminded of the fragility of life.
The evening prayer hashkeevaynu l'shalom (cause us to lie down in peace) asks that God spread over us His sukkah (shelter) of peace. Peace, too, is fragile. Only by working at justice-sharing with the less fortunate-will we have peace.
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4 comments:
Oh my gosh, Leo, that's so cool! =D
Thanks, Lilly!
Yes, it's pretty cool stuff. :)
I thought the booths were more closed in than that! Also, I thought it was a symbol of the temporariness of the flesh and the fact that our life here is only for a short while. Is that merely a newer 'interpretation' for those who are not Jewish? Have you heard of that?
tia,
nope, the booths are definitely fragile. There are all manner of different styles, but you should be able to see the full moon through the roof of the sukkah. You only partially cover the top with branches.
That's a great interpretation and one I haven't heard before. Thank you for sharing. :)
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