September 22, 2010, - 1:22 pm
In Observance of Sukkot (Tabernacles)
Tonight at sundown, the Jewish holiday of Sukkot begins (and ends next week–it lasts seven days). I have a few newsworthy things I’ve written in advance, which will be posted during my absence on Thursday and Friday, and some more stuff I’ll put up, today. Also, my movie reviews will–G-d-willing–be posted on Friday, in my absence.
Although these Jewish holidays are killing me, I love celebrating them, and this one is one of my favorites. Here’s some information about Sukkot, from a previous post:
Sukkot (also called Sukkos, Succos, or Succot) is called Tabernacles in English. It is one of the three Jewish harvest festival holidays, and we commemorate the Jews’ temporary existence (and temporary dwellings), while wandering in the Sinai desert [and subject to the will of G-d and the weather conditions imposed by Him].
Various Versions of Sukkahs/Sukkot
To do so, Jews build temporary huts (called “Sukkot” for plural) outside their homes. They decorate the Sukkah (singular of the word) and eat all meals there during the holiday. (My father used to sleep in it, too.) It is very fun for kids because they help decorate the sukkah, and also visit other Sukkot in the neighborhood, eating candy and other treats there, sort of like on Halloween (but no tricks or treats, and it’s way more spiritual).
It’s a very nature-oriented/outdoorsy holiday: At night, you have to be able to see the stars through the leaves and branches that compose the roof. And many of the traditional decorations are gourds and colored, dried corn.
I miss the Sukkah my father constructed and built every year and the many decorations he put up. As I’ve written before, my favorite was a giant laminated aerial photo of the Old City of Jerusalem with thick white tape my dad affixed to cover up the mosque improperly and illegally built atop the Jewish Temple Mount. I also loved seeing the American and Israeli flags my dad put on the walls of our Sukkah.
Friends of mine invited me for meals in their Sukkot for the next few days. And I’m looking forward to it.
Tags: booths, Jewish Holidays, religious observances, Succos, Succot, Sukkah, Sukkos, Sukkot
Let us remember that Sukkot is one of our three harvest festivals. Yes, Jews are farmers. To Deb’s non-Jewish readers, Jews had an ancient tradition of farming. Unfortunately, with the rise of Christian Anti-Semitism in Europe from the 10th Century onward, Jews were not permitted to own land, and were restricted to being merchants, moneylenders, and tax collectors.
Jews were finally allowed to own land in many (but not all) Western European countries in the latter part of the 19th Century. Germany took away that right.
Jews in The Promised Land always farmed, except when forbidden under periods of Islamic rule.
In the United States, some Jews farmed in the South (particularly in South Carolina and Mississipi) and in Northern New Jersey (chicken farms), parts of New England and and some places in the West. However, most Jews had lost their farming skills for over a thousand years, and went into the trades.
Jgrant on September 22, 2010 at 1:40 pm