And Ye Shall Dwell in Booths
26 September 2007The Bible tells us that “You shall live in booths seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in booths, in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt” (Lev. 23:42-43). This is a part of Succot, one of the three major festivals of Judaism, the other two of which are Pesach and Shavuot.
When I was a child, we always built a Sukkah. When I moved from my parents house, I never lived anyplace where I could do so, and drifted away from the custom. I always tried to visit a Sukkah during the holiday, and make the blessing concerning “sitting in the Sukkah.”
Last year, we realized we had a novel solution to the problem. We bought a prefab traveling Sukkah and took it to a campground, setting it up next to the trailer. Since the Sukkah celebrates the children of Israel camping out, we are camping out next to our camping vehicle. It’s self-referential.
Anyway, here are a few photos of my Sukkah, set up at Thousand Trails, in Morgan Hill, CA.
We’ll eat our meals in the Sukkah, but not sleep in it, as it’s not as long on a side as I am.
Chag Sameach, everyone.
5 Responses to “And Ye Shall Dwell in Booths”
September 27th, 2007 at 5:24 am
And I thought I was the only Yid that “camped” let alone belonged to Thousand Trails. Who knew?
September 27th, 2007 at 8:20 am
Clicked on your site you posted on ttnmember’s yahoo group.
This is soooo…. cool and creative, Ed! And what a witness/testimony tool to the campers around you! Do you get many curiosity inquirers over this?
Though we are Christian by faith, (hope this does not offend you) we have several Jewish friends and sometimes get the pleasure of celebrating/honoring the Holy Days with them…we have a great love for the L–d’s people! Sometimes we even try to honor these days by ourselves in our travels (though maybe not too good at this…but enjoyed the same).
Thanks for sharing!
May G-d richly bless you and yours and enjoy Succot!
SMILE!
Grays
September 27th, 2007 at 8:56 am
>> And what a witness/testimony tool to the campers around you! Do you get many curiosity inquirers over this? < <
So far, we have had no inquiries as to the nature of our rather odd dining pavilion
Interestingly, we don’t see this as witness or testimony, since the Jewish faith has no imperative to spread it’s teachings to others. The concept of witness and testimony is unknown to us.
If we can educate folks as to the practices of their Jewish neighbors, that’s great, and if we can brings Jews back to Judaism, that’s also very valuable, but we do it to celebrate, to honor our traditions, and to fulfill a Biblical and Rabinnic obligation.
Thanks for visiting, and thanks for posting.
September 30th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
I love it. What a great idea for Jews and non-Jews alike. I’m staying with friends in Los Angeles and getting the full experience this year. I sang with the choir for the High Holidays and last night I sat in the Sukkah at the Temple listening to four different rabbis talk about at least four different meanings of the Sukkah, starting with inviting your guests to share, the symbol of t’shuvah enabling people to reurn to the Sukkah and Judaism no matter how far they have strayed. There is always forgiveness. Another meaning is that the Sukkah is stronger than the most powerful fortress because the enemies can always destroy powerful buildongs but can never destroy the law from the Torah. Another speaker described the mystical Kabbalistic guests who represent the power of Judaism: kindness, strength, beauty, endurance, glory, righteousness, and Divine presence.
Chag Sameach
Alice
October 2nd, 2007 at 12:00 pm
we made a funny little sukkah too