Build pleasant memories - without sore muscles
JULIE HILTON DANEN
Jewish Family & Life
The seven-day holiday of Sukkot is Judaism's harvest festival. It's a mitzvah (commandment) to "dwell" (at least to eat, maximally to sleep) in one's sukkah (booth) during the entire week, barring inclement weather.
My family built its first sukkah when I was a teenager. My parents rigged walls out of colorful, batik-style cloth from Kmart, and we hung the leafy roof with fresh fruit. I ate all my meals in our sukkah, including breakfast on some uncharacteristically frosty Texas mornings.
Since then, I've enjoyed many diverse and wonderful sukkot, including a simple wilderness sukkah made of fallen branches; a penthouse sukkah, overlooking the Mediterranean; and a romantic, candlelit sukkah on a hillside deck. Looking back, our first sukkah was a turning point in my family's Jewish life, a sign of intensified interest and involvement in our Jewish roots. Building that first sukkah is a hands-on, holistic Jewish experience that creates magic and memories for the entire family. Here are some tips.
Simple sukkah set-up
A sukkah may utilize a standing wall, such as the side of the house. It must be at least 3 feet high, but no taller than 30 feet. The roof of schach (rhymes with "Bach") or natural materials, is crucial.
There are at least two ways to build a sukkah. The first is to purchase a sukkah-making kit for $36 from The Sukkah Project (c/o Steve Henry Woodcraft, 4 Pine Tree Lane, Chapel Hill, N.C. 27514, 919-489-7325).
The kit includes a step-by step assembly guide and all the necessary hardware. (The lumber, standard two-by-fours, should be purchased locally and will cost about $50.) The makers call it a "klutz-proof" project and emphasize the ease of set-up, which requires "only a screwdriver" and a couple of reasonably energetic people.
For those out there who are even screwdriver-shy, or just too busy to do a real building job, there is a simpler (but more expensive) option. Instant sukkah kits - consisting of a tubular frame, canvas walls and sometimes bamboo poles for schach - are available from some Jewish gift shops and bookstores.
The instant sukkot will set you back at least a few hundred dollars. But if you imagine the amortized cost over many years, and figure in the accrued savings in time, it may be the best real-estate investment you ever made.
The roof
Schach is the Hebrew name for the natural materials used for the roof. One tradition holds that it represents the "clouds of glory" that billowed atop the Israelite camp during their desert sojourn.
The schach must provide more shade than sun, yet allow the sky to be seen peeking through. It must be made of natural items in their natural state (i.e., boards won't do), but cut rather than growing (i.e. Don't train a vine to grow over your sukkah roof or build it right under a tree).
Which type of schach you opt for depends on what is available in your area. In southern locations, there's nothing like palm leaves, while up north evergreen pine boughs might be a more logical pick. Bamboo (fresh with leaves, or smooth and dried) and rushes can also be used.
If you just pile on plain deciduous greens from your lawn or a tree, you may end up with a dry, brown sukkah by the festival's end, which is neither kosher nor aesthetic.
Decorations
Decorating the sukkah is the most fun, especially for children. Set up a table with colored paper, colorful cellophane or mylar wrapping paper, glue, scissors, and glitter, and let everyone's imaginations run wild.
Because the sukkah is an outdoor space exposed to the elements, fragile decorations won't keep too well. Flat creations can be laminated and reused every year. Be careful with materials that run when wet.
Here are a few ideas:
- Display laminated Rosh Hashana cards on a string stretched along a wall of the sukkah.
- To make a chain, fold a piece of construction paper lengthwise. Make straight cuts in the paper about 1 inch apart, alternating from the folded side and then from the open side, always stopping about 1/2 inch from the edge. Open up, and you have a chain.
- For a paper "lantern," start the same way, but make all the cuts over the fold. Then open the paper and attach the ends into a circle with the cuts running vertically, creating a lantern effect.
- Decorate with fresh or artificial fruit. Fresh fruit used as decoration should not be consumed during the holiday. Dried gourds, Indian corn, and miniature pumpkins are readily available in stores at this time of year.
- Hang up last year's calendar pictures with Jewish themes, or make your own pictures of Jewish life.
Mobiles
For an eye-catching decoration, hang mobiles from the roof. These can be made by hanging lightweight objects from clothes hangers, crisscrossed dowel sticks, or even a simple strip of poster board stapled into a circle, with holes for stringing objects punched at even intervals around the circle.
Hang your mobile with plastic fruit, cutouts of the four species (the palm, myrtle, willow, and citron used for blessing during the festival), a miniature sukkah made of popsicle sticks, or other holiday symbols.
Put out the welcome mat
Sukkot is a holiday associated with hospitality. It's a traditional time for inviting guests, and it's a fun and easy venue for a meal with friends or even an open "house."
Put a sign above the sukkah entrance with the words bruchim habaim (welcome). You can make the sign from painted wood, posterboard, or paper that is decorated, then laminated or covered with contact paper.
Another idea is to make a poster with the sukkah and lulav blessings and hang it on the wall for easy reference.
Ushpizin - mystical guests
This Aramaic term means "guests" and continues the hospitality theme. It's a mystical custom to invite celestial "guests" to the sukkah each night: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, and David. Today, many people include parallel female ushpizin, such as Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, Rachel, Miriam, Deborah, and Esther.
It's traditional to hang an ushpizin chart on the sukkah wall, including the names of each of the "guests" and perhaps a symbol associated with each, such as a harp for David or a tambourine for Miriam. You can make your own as a posterboard collage.
You can have family members and friends dress up as the ushpizin, and try to guess whom each person is representing. Another creative possibility is to invite other, nontraditional ushpizin from Jewish history. This can be a great opportunity to discuss your personal heroes with your children.
Go regional
Consider adorning your sukkah with a theme that reflects what's special about your geographical location.
For a Southwestern ambience, use strings of chili peppers, dried corn and squash, and a woven rug. New Englanders might decorate with bright fall foliage, strings of cranberries, pumpkins, and an overflowing cornucopia on the table. Those in tropical climates can go for native flowers, tropical fruits, palm fronds, and sea shells.
Go Israeli
Is your heart in the Middle East? Would you like your sukkah to be a tiny piece of the Jewish homeland?
Decorate with the seven species of produce for which Israel is famous: dates, almonds, pomegranates, figs, olives, wheat, and barley. You could also include the greenery that we put in the lulav: palms, myrtles, and willows. Jaffa oranges or citrons might also be included.
Cover the walls with posters of Israel, particularly sacred sites. You can often get posters from Israeli and Jewish organizations, Jewish book and gift shops, and travel agents; you can also use calendar pictures of Israel. Laminate for future use.
Consider Christmas ornaments
It's ironic, now that I am studying for rabbinic ordination, to admit that as a child I mounted an annual campaign for a Christmas tree. Fortunately, my parents never gave in. But maybe my hunger to decorate something green and impressive would have been satisfied in a Jewish way if we had built an annual sukkah.
If we can provide our children with plenty of fun, involving, and meaningful Jewish experiences before the Christmas barrage sets in, we'll be defining our religious identity by what we do, not by what we don't get to do.
I found it amusing, while living in Israel, to note that the sukkah market in our neighborhood featured what were obviously Christmas decorations, intended to adorn the sukkot of devout Jews. And why not? Many are quite suitable for Sukkot - strings of golden beads, real or artificial cranberries or popcorn, clusters of artificial fruit and foliage, and, yes, those lovely strings of tiny twinkling lights I always wanted as a child.
Light up the night
While on the subject of tiny twinkling lights, it's time to consider how your sukkah will be lit. There are many options, but keep in mind that a sukkah is a flammable environment.
Electric light can come from an outside house light (if your sukkah is close to the house), or from a light bulb with a very long, outdoor-safe extension cord. The latter can even be plugged into a timer in the house if desired.
Camp lanterns or votive candles are other options, but only with maximal care and supervision. Citronella candles, which repel bugs, are a good bet in mosquito-ridden areas.
This article was originally published on the Internet at www.jewishfamily.com. Julie Hilton Danan is the author of "The Jewish Parents' Almanac" (Jason Aronson) and is the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Am in San Antonio, Texas. She is a graduate student in rabbinic literature and is studying for independent rabbinic ordi- nation through the Aleph Alliance for Jewish Renewal.
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