T'Shuva

I thought I would share some Sukkah stories and photos. If you have a great story and/or photos you'd like to share of Sukkot this year, or a past year, please feel free to send them to me.

A Wonderful Story by Nehemia Gordon
(Reposted with permission.)

One of my earliest childhood memories was Sukkot of 1976 when I was 3.5 years old. I remember sitting in the family Sukkah, looking up through the branches that formed the roof, at the clouds as they whisked across the sky. We lived in a 17-story condominium and there was no obvious place to build a Sukkah so my father asked permission to build one in his designated parking space. When his request was turned down by the condominium board, my mother came up with the idea of building our Sukkah on the back of a U-haul trailer. She was inspired by a famous Talmudic ruling that a person traveling in a caravan over the feast is permitted to build a Sukkah on the back of a camel. She noticed many people parking boats and RVs in the outdoor lot and realized the board wouldn't think twice about letting us park a trailer. When our 20th century equivalent of a camel pulled into the parking lot with a Sukkah on the back, the condominium board was livid, but there was nothing they could do about it. My father's U-haul Sukkah didn't go unnoticed. The write-up below appeared in a local Jewish newspaper. The original is posted here.

"Gets Around the Order Against Building Sukka"
The Sukka you see here is not fictitious; it is very real.

When Rabbi "Bob" Gordon, of Winston Towers, was refused permission to build a sukka for the upcoming Sukkot Festival on the grounds of the condominium at which he resides, he refused to be deterred by his friendly neighbors and did something "radical." And, radical, it was. He placed a U-Haul on the parking space allotted to him and constructed a sukka on that U-Haul trailer.

Stare at the sukka! Does it not appear to be different? Is it not unique? Is it not hilarious? A sukka built on a U-Haul, it's for MAD Magazine!!

Yes, at first glance, it may appear to be out of the ordinary. I am sure that even Rabbi Gordon initially grimaced at the thought of observing the laws of sukka in a U-Haul trailer. But, dear editor, stare again at the sukka. This little feeble house has been the cohesive factor of the Jewish people for thousands of years. It is an important part of the "golden chain" that has linked all Jews - however religious or irreligious they may be - together during our courageous history. As the "Four Species" are bound together on sukkot, so have the Jews been bound to one another on sukkot. The sukka has united the Jew of the Western Hemisphere with his brethren of Europe, Africa, Asia and Israel. Thus, the importance of sukka.

Some build their sukka on porches, other on their driveway pavements, while others on their rooftops. But Rabbi Gordon built his on a trailer. He did so not to be comical but out of necessity to properly observe the Sukkot festival and his wish to celebrate and fulfill the holiday precepts.

Now, my friend, stare again at the sukka. Do you see, as I do, a man who is sincere and devoted to his tradition; a man who makes Judaism "live;" a man who sets a fine and positive example for myself and other college students like me. May I publicly say, "Thank you, Rabbi Robert Gordon, for upholding Jewish principles."

by Abraham Isaac Fishweicher
Hebrew Theological College Student
October 28, 1976

Eating our family meals in a U-Haul trailer wasn't without hardship. My mother has been in a wheelchair since the age of two when she was stricken by polio and climbing into the U-Haul Sukkah was an adventure in its own right. Then there was the Chicago weather. Oh, how I don't miss the Chicago weather. Years later when we moved to a 3-story apartment building we built our Sukkah in the backyard. I remember as a teenager waking up one morning in the family Sukkah covered in a thick layer of snow. Yeah, I'll take the Jerusalem weather anytime. I guess all these fond childhood memories are why Sukkot is one of my favorite Torah commandments.

Over the years I have developed a number of personal Sukkot traditions. Those who have been to Jerusalem know the city is plagued with cats. So one personal tradition is that I never sleep in my Sukkah in Jerusalem without my beloved Rhodesian Ridgeback who keeps the cats at bay. Another Sukkot tradition is inviting friends over to the Sukkah to watch the movie Ushpizin. This movie is really clever because it takes one of the classic Hollywood movie genres, the "Christmas Miracle", and transposes it to Israel. Of course, in Israel it does not make sense to have a movie about Christmas, so Ushpizin is about a Sukkot Miracle. The two main characters in the movie are a married couple who were raised as Secular Jews but found religion and became Ultra-Orthodox. The name of the movie, Ushpizin, is an Aramaic word meaning "visitors". It specifically refers to angelic visitors who some rabbinical Jews believe visit Sukkahs bringing blessings on those who fulfill this biblical commandment. The unexpected visitors that arrive in the Sukkah of the newly Ultra-Orthodox couple are far from angelic. Instead, they are a pair of petty criminals who skip out on a weekend furlough from prison and arrive in Jerusalem looking for a place to hide out. I don't want to spoil it, so I won't tell anymore of the story. This is a great movie that is well worth watching. The movie is in Hebrew, with English subtitles available on the DVD. Here is a trailer for the movie.

There is more useful information on the festival of Sukkot on the Karaite Korner website.

Nehemia Gordon
Jerusalem, Israel

Sukkah Sweet Sukkah!

2010 Sukkah

I (Yochana) built my first sukkah in 2008, so 2010 is my third year. It's basically the same as last year, so here it is from a different angle. Last year, I added palm fronds on top of the bamboo roof. This year, I added some olive tree branches as well. Believe it or not, I put this up all by myself. (Not bad for a 62-year-old!) I can't wait to spend my first night of Sukkot sleeping inside. That's tonight! 7-15-5993(?) (or 9/24/10 on the Gregorian calendar).

2009 Sukkah

2008 Sukkah

The first year was a bit of a disaster, as many first-time experiences often are.

Somewhere in the middle of the night, the wind came up and blew the whole Sukkah to the left, and me and my bed wound up against the opposite wall!

My Christian friends are really missing out when they miss this feast of--not of the Jews, but of--YaHuWaH!