what is sukkot?Sukkot (Festival of Booths) is a joyful and reflective Jewish holiday that has several meanings. It is first an ancient Jewish festival that commemorates the 40 years that the Jews spent wandering in the Sinai wilderness, living in huts. When we celebrate, we are reminded of our fragile existence and appreciate the security of our shelter. It is also an agricultural celebration, recalling dwelling in the fields at the time of the harvest. We celebrate the Earth’s abundance and surround ourselves in nature. Finally, Sukkot is an ingathering of the community, one of the three times each year Jews are commanded to gather together. (The other pilgrimage festivals are Passover and Shavuot.) Our celebration is an opportunity to rejoice with each other and our community.
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what is a sukkah?A sukkah is a small outdoor structure with temporary walls and a roof made of branches or greens (or corn stalks!). We build sukkahs (or sukkot, which means many sukkahs) in which we eat, sleep and study throughout the holiday. In addition, we gather together four “species” or plants common in biblical times: etrog (citron fruit), lulav (palm frond), hadas (myrtle leaves), and aravah (willow tree branches). Each day during Sukkot, we shake the lulav and etrog while reciting a special blessing for the holiday. We try to “dwell” in the sukkah – eating meals and entertaining guests, and sometimes even sleeping in them. We fill the walls with decorations and symbols of the harvest. For the eight days of Sukkot, this is our home.
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