Chag Sukkot Sameach

The holidays of the Jewish month of Tishrei are racing by. Beginning with Rosh Ha'shana (which is actually just one of 4 Jewish new year celebrations!), and followed ten days later by Yom Kippur, we focused on our connection to God, God's universe and to our Jewish community. These were somber days of reflection about our roles as individuals and as Jews, and how we could work to improve our own lives and, in so doing, help to repair the world.

Now it's time to look around ourselves and appreciate God's universe in a more joyous fashion. Last night, the first of three major harvest festivals began - Sukkot. It's the harvest of the first fruits and a time to look forward to the start of the rainy season both in Israel and in our own California.

I introduced the holiday to the students by asking them to define what a "symbol" is and to name important Jewish symbols. We reviewed what we had learned about the major symbol for Rosh Ha'shana - the shofar (see 9/18 post). We then began to discuss Sukkot and its two major symbols - the lulav (a bundle made of a palm, willow and myrtle branch tied together) and etrog (a citron), and the sukkah (a 3-walled hut with a roof made of branches through which we are able to view the stars in the sky at night).

Showing the students the three types of branches making up the lulav

Discussing the date of the holiday - the 15th day of the month of Tishrei

While still in the classroom, we discussed the meaning of each of the two symbols and how the Rabbis determined the rituals associated with them, based upon the commandments in the Torah to sit in the Sukkah for 7 days and to take the lulav and etrog and be joyous. I shared with the students that the Roman-era Rabbis (at that time new leaders of the Jewish People, who had taken over from the deposed Judean monarchs and from the kohaneem - the Temple priests) were not only responsible for clarifying confusing or missing pieces of information in the commandments (how do we use the lulav and etrog to show our joy, for example), but also took up the burden of keeping the nation together by creating a sense of common history and purpose.

We visited the Sukkah built by the Bonim students and their parents this past Sunday, and continued our lesson about the symbols of Sukkot there.

Thus, the sukkah (plural = sukkot, the name of the holiday) became an important symbol to keep our earliest history fresh in the minds of the people. After we escaped from Egypt and crossed the Reed Sea, we wandered in the Sinai wilderness for 40 years, they taught. During that time, God commanded the ancient Israelites to live in sukkot. At this point, I asked the students to describe what a wilderness (arava in Hebrew) is like. Not surprisingly, they all described a desert. I explained to them that a desert (meedbar in Hebrew) is different from a wilderness in that a desert is land that was once fertile but became barren thanks to humans cutting down trees and never re-planting, and draining the land of all its resources. A wilderness, on the other hand, is land that has always been mountainous and stony, and where only the hardiest of plants and animals can survive. I described how people have drowned in flash floods in the wilderness, and how they have to watch out for snakes and scorpions and other dangerous animals there.

So why did God command the Israelites to build sukkot with only 3 walls and a fairly open roof? A few students realized that it would build faith in the Israelites for a God they couldn't see or hear, but knew only through Moses, their leader. God would protect them from flash floods and other dangers. Thus, the sukkah becomes a symbol of faith in God, even as it's reminding our people of our earliest history as a nation. It's also a reminder of when we finally settled in the Land of Canaan, where many of us became farmers and harvested fruits and grains in their seasons. During the seven days of the harvest, the farmers slept and protected themselves from the harsh sun in sukkot. Here, the sukkah reminds us of a time when we were farmers in our own land. When we are commanded to live in the sukkah for seven days, it is to remind us about what life was like when we were farmers and dependent upon God's nature for our survival.

This is where the lulav and etrog symbol comes into play. How do we show our joy with the symbol? The Rabbis determined we should shake the lulav and etrog in the four directions and up and down. Originally, the shaking was to re-create the sound of rain falling, since the farmers depended upon the rainy season beginning around the time of the Sukkot holiday. But over a period of two or three hundred years, Rabbis who taught both in Roman Palestine (as the Romans had re-named the land) and in Babylonia (where a very large Jewish community existed by Roman times) suggested other reasons behind the symbol of the lulav and etrog.

One Rabbi and his disciples taught that the palm branch represented the human spine, the myrtle leaves represented human eyes, the willow leaves represented the human mouth and the etrog (the citron) represented the human heart. Thus, with all our body we praise God.

Another Rabbi taught that each part of the lulav and etrog symbol represented a geographic area in the Land of Israel, reminding us where we came from and that we would return there once again.

A third Rabbi taught that each part of the lulav and etrog symbol represented a different type of Jew: one who studied Torah but didn't do good deeds; one who did good deeds but didn't study Torah; one who did neither and one who did both. Thus, by shaking the lulav holding all the parts together, we are united as one nation, praising God together.

Different Edot (Jewish Diaspora communities) developed their own customs for following the commandments of living in the sukkah and shaking the lulav and etrog, but these rituals were an annual reminder of who we were, where we came from, and of our role as partners to God in tikkun olam - repairing the world.

As we go through the Jewish holiday calendar during the school year, I'll be sharing other symbols and the rituals associated with these symbols that the Rabbis devised relating to each holiday, all designed to keeping a dispersed nation together by reinforcing a memory of a common history and purpose.

This week, we ended each session with learning songs taught by our new music director, Ben. 

Y'tzira and Shira students joined us in our Edot classroom...

...which filled up very quickly!

Of course, Sukkot songs were on the menu. Ben introduced the students to the songwriter and folk singer Woody Guthrie, and to a song he wrote back in the 1930's. We learned the chorus quickly, and then Ben led us in singing the verses, the lyrics to which he changed to describe the Sukkot holiday:

Then Ben, at my request, taught us a song that many of the students already knew from previous years, but which I wanted to be sure all my Edot students would know - "Am Yisrael Chai." He taught us a version sung in Africa, and I wanted to be sure all my students knew it since we'll be singing it during an Ethiopian Jewish Sigd Festival we'll be re-enacting on Sunday, November 12th on our Isaiah campus. Much more information to come about this event in a few weeks!

I'm looking forward to seeing you all this coming Sunday, when we will have a regular session, but then enjoy a special concert by Rick Recht, from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. (half an hour longer than when our tefillah session usually ends, at 11:00). I hope everyone can stay for the full concert!

And for those students who are participating in the Stumper/Challenge program, I hung up 2 new Sukkot stumpers and 1 Simchat Torah stumper, as well as two worksheets - one for Sukkot and one for Simchat Torah.

    

 Stumpers:
1.) Which American holiday, founded in 1621, is based on Sukkot?
2.) Who is the "Hatan Torah?"  Who is the "Hatan Berayshit?"
3.) What is another name for Sukkot in the Bible?

 CHAG SUKKOT SAME'ACH!

HAPPY SUKKOT HOLIDAY!