Jewish Holidays | Sukkot
Sukkot has been one of my favorite holidays, ever since I built my first sukkah out of an old shipping crate. It was more like a diorama than a real sukkah, but I loved it and I was hooked.
Sukkot has been one of my favorite holidays, ever since I built my first sukkah out of an old shipping crate. It was more like a diorama than a real sukkah, but I loved it and I was hooked.
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We bought our first real sukkah when we lived in Milwaukee and I’ve never seen another like it. It’s made of plywood panels connected with door hinges; over the years we’ve built additional panels, so we make it small in years when it’s just us or use all the panels in years when we’re having a lot of company.
Back in the day when people sent actual greeting cards, we stapled them right to the panels, along with pictures from Jewish calendars, posters, photos, and later our children’s artwork. So even if we don’t have time to hang all the extra silk flowers, fake fruit, and paper chains, our sukkah is already decorated as soon as it goes up! I love collecting sukkah decorations all year; I find them in the unlikeliest places, including a huge pumpkin light fixture that I found at a garage sale. And I always buy strings of lights when they’re on sale after Christmas.
When my children were young, they attended Jewish day school; we were able to celebrate Sukkot as the true friends and family holiday that it’s meant to be. Elementary school teachers didn’t give homework during the holiday, so families were free to enjoy Sukkah time at home and away. Of course, school was closed the first two and last two days, so we attended synagogue will all their friends and ours too. Every day we either had friends over or visited another sukkah; it was a full week of happy meals and l’chayims.
Back in the day when people sent actual greeting cards, we stapled them right to the panels, along with pictures from Jewish calendars, posters, photos, and later our children’s artwork. So even if we don’t have time to hang all the extra silk flowers, fake fruit, and paper chains, our sukkah is already decorated as soon as it goes up! I love collecting sukkah decorations all year; I find them in the unlikeliest places, including a huge pumpkin light fixture that I found at a garage sale. And I always buy strings of lights when they’re on sale after Christmas.
When my children were young, they attended Jewish day school; we were able to celebrate Sukkot as the true friends and family holiday that it’s meant to be. Elementary school teachers didn’t give homework during the holiday, so families were free to enjoy Sukkah time at home and away. Of course, school was closed the first two and last two days, so we attended synagogue will all their friends and ours too. Every day we either had friends over or visited another sukkah; it was a full week of happy meals and l’chayims.
The most fun day was Erev Sukkot (the first night), when our synagogue sent a busload of day school students and their parents to the Lower East Side of New York City to buy lulavim and etrogim for the whole congregation. Vendors set up tables on the streets, piled high with etrog boxes and lulav branches. As we left the bus, each team was handed cash and tasked with negotiating prices to buy 20 or 30 sets. We hand-picked the etrogim, making sure each one had its pitom intact to ensure it was kosher. (The pitom is the small stem-like tip left at the flower-end of the fruit. An etrog that sheds its pitom while still on the tree is kosher; if it loses it after harvest, it’s not.)
After our shopping mitzvah was complete, we were free to do our own personal shopping, which included visits to the kosher bakery, candy & nut store, the Pickle Man, and of course, Yonah Schimmel’s Knishes. Afterwards, we rushed home to enjoy the first meal in our beautiful sukkah. Sadly, this tradition was suspended in 2001, when Sukkot fell just a few weeks after the attacks on 9/11. The area of the Lower East Side where we shopped was too close to Ground Zero. It was never the same after. One year, the group went to Monsey, NY,but eventually moved the excursion to an area of Brooklyn, crowded with Jewish and kosher stores, where the vendors set up on the street like before. Even the Pickle Man moved to Brooklyn.
After our shopping mitzvah was complete, we were free to do our own personal shopping, which included visits to the kosher bakery, candy & nut store, the Pickle Man, and of course, Yonah Schimmel’s Knishes. Afterwards, we rushed home to enjoy the first meal in our beautiful sukkah. Sadly, this tradition was suspended in 2001, when Sukkot fell just a few weeks after the attacks on 9/11. The area of the Lower East Side where we shopped was too close to Ground Zero. It was never the same after. One year, the group went to Monsey, NY,but eventually moved the excursion to an area of Brooklyn, crowded with Jewish and kosher stores, where the vendors set up on the street like before. Even the Pickle Man moved to Brooklyn.
Another of our family traditions begins on Rosh Hashana, when we have round challah dipped in honey. We continue to use only round challah from Rosh Hashana all the way through the end of Sukkot and we dip in honey instead of salt the whole time. This practice helps cement a feeling of a full “holiday season” of celebration.
If you don’t raise your own sukkah and don’t get invited to one, I encourage you to take a bag lunch (dairy or parve, please) to a synagogue during any day of Sukkot, to enjoy at least one meal surrounded by the trappings of this joyous holiday. Please call ahead for security reasons; another sad consequence of 9/11 and our current social climate.
Although there aren’t any strictly traditional Sukkot foods, many people prepare “stuffed” dishes to represent the full bounty of the harvest season. Stuffed cabbage and peppers are good choices, but you can stuff chicken breasts, acorn squash, ravioli, or strudels. On the first day of the holiday, for lunch after shul, my husband always makes cholent, served with our New York pickles, rye bread, dried nuts & fruit. During the week I like to serve one Israeli-style meal of falafel, with Israeli salad and I often serve duck for Shabbat during Sukkot, if I can get to Brooklyn for a kosher duck. I don’t know what I’m going to do when I finally move to Cincinnati, but we’ll figure that out together next year. Simple meals of bagels with smoked fish and cold cuts platters work well too, because they can be transported to the sukkah easily, without worrying about spilling hot food. At the end of the holiday, it’s nice to get together with friends for a potluck leftovers meal, to help everyone eat up all the goodies from the week.
If you don’t raise your own sukkah and don’t get invited to one, I encourage you to take a bag lunch (dairy or parve, please) to a synagogue during any day of Sukkot, to enjoy at least one meal surrounded by the trappings of this joyous holiday. Please call ahead for security reasons; another sad consequence of 9/11 and our current social climate.
Although there aren’t any strictly traditional Sukkot foods, many people prepare “stuffed” dishes to represent the full bounty of the harvest season. Stuffed cabbage and peppers are good choices, but you can stuff chicken breasts, acorn squash, ravioli, or strudels. On the first day of the holiday, for lunch after shul, my husband always makes cholent, served with our New York pickles, rye bread, dried nuts & fruit. During the week I like to serve one Israeli-style meal of falafel, with Israeli salad and I often serve duck for Shabbat during Sukkot, if I can get to Brooklyn for a kosher duck. I don’t know what I’m going to do when I finally move to Cincinnati, but we’ll figure that out together next year. Simple meals of bagels with smoked fish and cold cuts platters work well too, because they can be transported to the sukkah easily, without worrying about spilling hot food. At the end of the holiday, it’s nice to get together with friends for a potluck leftovers meal, to help everyone eat up all the goodies from the week.