As you read this article, the High Holy Days are over and we are just entering the beautiful holiday of Sukkot. The Holiday services were fantastic and I want to thank everyone who came to Temple to pray to G-d as a community. I also want to thank everyone who participated in any way in our Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur Services. We are a community and we are functioning beautifully as a community and most of all, I am very pleased to see that our membership continues to grow and that the new members are getting involved in the workings of our congregation.

A question often asked: “Why do we build such a flimsy little hut to celebrate Sukkot? Where did this practice originate?” Tradition tells us that the Hebrews as shelter used temporary structures known as sukkot during their trek through the Sinai desert for 40 years. We can easily imagine cloth or animal hide coverings on them as well. In later years, the Jews built temporary structures to live in as they gathered in Jerusalem for the Pilgrimage Festival Holidays of Sukkot, Pesach and Shavout. Surely thousands of Jews walked to the Temple site to celebrate the holidays and since there was no such thing as Holiday Inn or Super 8, these temporary huts were the next best thing.

Most of the people built their Sukkot outside the city walls but some were able to find a level space close to the Temple Mount. It was, and still is, a very joyous holiday celebrating the fall harvest and the beginning of the rainy season in Israel. The holiday concludes with a wonderful celebration of the concluding reading of the Torah and the rerolling of the scroll back to the beginning. Singing, dancing and celebrating accompany this wonderful holiday.

Any building material can be used from bamboo sticks and tree branches to PVC piping and plastic sheets, to cinder blocks and corrugated metal sheeting. Two important rules apply however. First, the structure must be temporary, and second, the roof must have a large opening directly to the sky. Children decorate the Sukkah for the occasion as can be seen in our Sukkah at the Temple so please take the time to stop by and take a look. Better still, come to services this Shabbat and join us as we sit in our Sukkah and celebrate a most joyous and beautiful holiday.

Rabbi Rubovits