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The Shapes and Forms of Sukkot
Sukkot is, without question, the most embodied of Jewish festivals. Yes, we light candles throughout the year, smell sweet spices, bow and bend in prayer, taste sweet things or varied fruits and nuts, and – how could we forget – hear or sound the blasts of shofar. So we are not without sensory experiences in our observances.
Still, Sukkot invites us in, full-bodied, to its shaky and temporary space, to grasp, shake, see, feel, smell, and to sway with the lulav.
Even looking at and sounding out the Hebrew letters for the name of the holiday compels us to consider what our sukkot, our flimsy outdoor shelters, might look like. [h/t/ Rabbi Deborah Zuker for this teaching!]:
The Hebrew letters of the holiday demonstrate the three possible contours of a legit kosher sukkah. These three letters (samech, kaf, heh) spell sukkah, the singular for the huts we build to commemorate both our ancestors’ need to stay in the fields to complete the late harvest as well as the booths we dwelt in as we traveled through the desert.
The first letter, the ס/samech, is fully enclosed, with four “walls” you might say, and this is one option for constructing a sukkah. The second, כ/kaf, has one open side, so yes, a viable sukkah can have three walls and one fully open side. Our third letter ה/hey has, essentially, two and a half “walls.”
Come and see which letter matches our sukkah, outside behind Room 5!
This year we will experience a new take on the other core full-body component of the Sukkot experience by constructing and shaping lulavs, the bundle of four species we bless and shake in six directions, composed entirely of locally-gathered materials.
Truth be told, the “four species” as described in Torah ( Leviticus 23:41 ) are somewhat vaguely described. Last year one of our members shared with us a project that has been spreading in various North American Jewish communities and congregation to interpret the description of the fruit and the branches to match local flora, and we have taken up the challenge.
I’m excited to experience with you the openness to creativity along with the deep traditions and the whole-hearted entering into the space of marking this Season of Joy – for not only is our big full-engagement all-day holy day, it’s the one that is noted in Torah, Deuteronomy 16:14-15, to be celebrated with extra joy / ach sameach.
Bring your whole selves to our beautiful sukkah – chag sukkot VERY sameach!
Rabbi Liz
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