Sukkah: Hut or Hug?
Today was bagel day. Not only did everyone who fasted from Yom Kippur eat bagels, but I got baggeled at least 3x today. Bagelins is when someone wants you to know their Jewish, so they say something like, "How about that fast?"
I had three people I don't know too well ask me, "So how was your fast?" The truth is, fasting is quite hard for me, and the question is always hard to answer, but I think they were also kind of waving their, "Hey I fasted too and survived" flag. For some of them I was shocked to know they were Jewish and for a couple others I was shocked to know they fasted. I don't assume anyone does or doesn't do anything, so I didn't really think much about it at all.
I had one person, who is not Jewish ask me about fasting. When I explained the not drinking part, she almost fell out of her chair.
"I can't imagine most people do that?"
"Well probably just a few million Jews are fasting all at the same time."
"No way," she replied.
"Yes, I'm serious. We take the guilt thing really seriously.
"So what holiday is next?" She asked.
And this is where it gets complicated. Have you ever tried explaining Succot to someone not Jewish? Or Jewish but who hasn't heard of it? I usually start with the "Well we live, well not exactly live, but dwell, well it just depends on how seriously you take dwell..."
"Dwell?"
"Yes, dwell in these huts in our backyard."
"And that's a religious thing?"
"Uh, yes. It's actually a commandment to get a hug from G-d"
"A hug? or a hut?"
"We build the hut. We get a hug."
"Why?"
"We don't ask why but it's like a party with G-d. It's happy season in the Jewish calendar! It comes from these verses (and I don't normally have this part memorized so it comes out quite choppy: “You shall dwell in Sukkot seven days, every citizen in Israel shall dwell in Sukkot, so that your descendants shall know that in sukkot I caused the Children of Israel to dwell when I brought them out of the land of Egypt,” and "Seven days you shall celebrate for Hashem, your God, in the place which Hashem will choose; for Hashem, your God, will bless you, with all your produce and all your work and you will be only happy."
At this point, most people change subjects not knowing what to say or why we are commanded to do the Gilligan's Island thing when we have a nice home to live in.
But honestly, It's awesome! Rain or shine, cold or hot, we do the sukkah thing. We invite guests, some not exactly alive and others are really people. We eat, we sing and we are HAPPY! It's a commandment: BE HAPPY. We don't need one of those Facebook posts that tell us 10 ways to be happy. We just need a hut.
I had three people I don't know too well ask me, "So how was your fast?" The truth is, fasting is quite hard for me, and the question is always hard to answer, but I think they were also kind of waving their, "Hey I fasted too and survived" flag. For some of them I was shocked to know they were Jewish and for a couple others I was shocked to know they fasted. I don't assume anyone does or doesn't do anything, so I didn't really think much about it at all.
I had one person, who is not Jewish ask me about fasting. When I explained the not drinking part, she almost fell out of her chair.
"I can't imagine most people do that?"
"Well probably just a few million Jews are fasting all at the same time."
"No way," she replied.
"Yes, I'm serious. We take the guilt thing really seriously.
"So what holiday is next?" She asked.
And this is where it gets complicated. Have you ever tried explaining Succot to someone not Jewish? Or Jewish but who hasn't heard of it? I usually start with the "Well we live, well not exactly live, but dwell, well it just depends on how seriously you take dwell..."
"Dwell?"
"Yes, dwell in these huts in our backyard."
"And that's a religious thing?"
"Uh, yes. It's actually a commandment to get a hug from G-d"
"A hug? or a hut?"
"We build the hut. We get a hug."
"Why?"
"We don't ask why but it's like a party with G-d. It's happy season in the Jewish calendar! It comes from these verses (and I don't normally have this part memorized so it comes out quite choppy: “You shall dwell in Sukkot seven days, every citizen in Israel shall dwell in Sukkot, so that your descendants shall know that in sukkot I caused the Children of Israel to dwell when I brought them out of the land of Egypt,” and "Seven days you shall celebrate for Hashem, your God, in the place which Hashem will choose; for Hashem, your God, will bless you, with all your produce and all your work and you will be only happy."
At this point, most people change subjects not knowing what to say or why we are commanded to do the Gilligan's Island thing when we have a nice home to live in.
But honestly, It's awesome! Rain or shine, cold or hot, we do the sukkah thing. We invite guests, some not exactly alive and others are really people. We eat, we sing and we are HAPPY! It's a commandment: BE HAPPY. We don't need one of those Facebook posts that tell us 10 ways to be happy. We just need a hut.
I am looking toward this joyful time of sitting in the sukkah. Every year we ask (the workforce being me and any kids who are at home), if we can move our sukka up on our deck where it will have easy access to our kitchen, or get one of those pop-up, instant sukkahs. My husband shakes his head at us.
Our sukkah is a major construction project and this discussion usually occurs as we are heaving large bamboo polls and lattice walls across our backyard and hunting for rusted nuts and bolts to hold the pieces together. Just try getting twin brothers to cooperate while holding two walls together and pushing a nut and bolt through. It may sound simple. Trust me. It's not. After my teen boys have managed to escape several times during the process and my husband has used a plethora of power tools to make the whole backyard scene look much more presentable, it usually occurs to us that a pop up sukkah might not be a bad idea. But this year he has come up with a plan to ease the burden. He has permanently attached our photos to the walls so as to save us time next year. My thought is that the pictures will be ruined by next year as they are exposed to the elements under our deck but not indoors, not saving us anytime or rather costing us time in acquiring new ones. We shall see. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile I'm in the furry of getting enough food to serve 12-14 people meals for a week. How many carrot soufles, kugels, challas, cakes or briskest can one person make? The good news is I'm limited in seating to the size of the sukkah. So three trips to Costco and Kroger has put me back into financial anxiety and not enough room to pack it all into our two refrigerator freezers. Such is a blessing.
But as I just learned over the past 10 days, THIS IS A TEST. So I carry on. I've decided that once its all said and done, it's quite a phenomeal experience that I just cannot explain. Next time I explain to someone about sukkah. I'll say, It's a hug in our backyard? "A what?" "A hug" from G-d.
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