(Written in 2015)
As I mentioned in an earlier post, this Sukkot has been different – the day before Yom Kippur I had to make a sudden trip to the emergency room, and while I was out for Erev Sukkot, putting up my sukkah was pretty much out of the question. Some very kind friends offered to do it, but I felt that since I was the one who knew where “the stuff” was, and who wanted to be engaged with it, it was better to leave it be.
What I didn’t realize until I returned home was that most of the sukkah stuff was in boxes in the living room. I had done lots of the preparation a few weeks ago, and since then had been ignoring the boxes piled in every corner. Now I have all the stuff, but — oh, well, next year, right?
Sukkot, if you really get into it, is the closest Jewish holiday to the decoration-mania we see around us when Dec 25 approaches. A sukkah isn’t just “a booth” – it’s a life size play house which you can decorate as gaudily as you like. Every year I change my garden pergola into a sukkah. The boxes and parcels in my living room contain:
- a rolled-up rug
- marine netting
- a 10×10 bamboo mat
- 125 tiny bungee cords
- several strings of LED lights
- indoor-outdoor extension cord
- ornaments in the shape of fruits, vegetables, and birds
- posters
- a tablecloth
- battery operated “candles”
- and some other stuff.
If any of you are thinking “that sounds a little like Christmas tree decorations” you are quite right. In fact, I’m pretty sure that some of those fruits and veg were designed as just that, but they look wonderful and sparkly in my sukkah, lit by the soft white LEDs.
If at one time you loved decorating a Christmas tree, but you are now a Jew so you don’t do those, consider the sukkah. You can go just as bananas on a sukkah as you can on a tree, and when you finish, you can sleep in it.
Yes, I have chosen my patio furniture with the sukkah in mind. I have a “couch” which I can drag into the sukkah for a comfortable night. I have a card table that fits so we can eat in the sukkah, and comfy chairs so we can hang out.
But this year, I shall go to synagogue and sit in the community sukkah and rejoice. The decorations will keep for next year.
(Photo courtesy of Dawn Kepler. Notice the lights, the ornaments, the decorations…)
I think I want a sukkah for any old time. I can see it in my mind’s eye.
Ahhh, read the story in the next post. For everything there is a season, including a sukkah!