Tastes of Jewish Tradition: Sukkot

By JODY HIRSH, IDY GOODMAN, AGGIE GOLDENHOLZ and SUSAN ROTH

Editor's note: The following Sukkot craft and activity ideas are just a few of the hundreds of clever and creative Jewish holiday suggestions to be found in this wonderful compendium.

TRADITIONS AND TEXT

In Israel, even secular Israelis build a sukkah, those makeshift shacks decorated with fruits. Balconies are full of them. But for many American Jews today, Sukkot is an obscure holiday that is celebrated in the synagogue at best.

In ancient times, however, when the Temple was still standing in Jerusalem, Sukkot was probably the most popular Jewish holiday—so much so that it was called simply "HaChag"—"The Festival." As one of the three pilgrim holidays, it was the one holiday that everyone wanted to celebrate by coming to Jerusalem, even those Jews who lived in Egypt or Babylon. After the seriousness of the high holidays (Sukkot happens five days after Yom Kippur), it was a time of ceremony and Temple sacrifices by day and great frivolity by night. The "Rejoicing at the Place of the Water Drawing" (Simchat Beit HaSho'eva) was a nightly occurrence that is described in the Talmud:

Whoever has not seen The Rejoicing at the Place of the Water Drawing has never seen rejoicing in his life. At the end of the first day of "HaChag," the priests and the Levites went down to the court of the women where they had set up a great structure: there were gold lamps with four gold bowls on top of each one and four ladders to each bowl and four youths from priestly families holding jars of oil…which they poured into the bowls. There was not a courtyard in Jerusalem that was not lit by the light of the Place of the Water-Drawing.

Men of piety and good deeds used to dance in front of them juggling lit torches in their hands, singing songs and praises. And Levites without number with harps, lyres, cymbals, and trumpets and other musical instruments. [Babylonian Talmud Sukkah 51a-b]

Sukkot has Messianic connections as well. According to tradition, the Messiah will come at Sukkot and will usher in a time of peace: "And it shall come to pass that everyone that is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the feast of Sukkot." [Zechariah 14:16]

FASCINATING FOOD FACTS

The Biblical commandment instructs us to "dwell in booths." What does that mean, exactly? Although there certainly have been people that moved their furniture into their sukkah and literally lived in it for the eight days of Sukkot, the rabbis said that all that is necessary is to eat in our sukkah. What holiday would exist without eating (except fast days, of course)? The traditional food to eat on Sukkot is any type of stuffed food: stuffed cabbage or peppers, or more exotic fare such as stuffed zucchini, stuffed eggplant, or even stuffed onions. The rabbis caution us that since we're supposed to be happy at Sukkot, we might not want to eat in the rain. "You don't have to eat in the rain," they tell us, "if the rain is hard enough that it will ruin your soup!"

KIDS IN THE KITCHEN

Graham Cracker Sukkah

During their escape from Egypt, the Jews sought shelter in temporary huts known as sukkahs, the same structures that farmers slept in to be near their crops during the harvest season. If you can't make a large sit-in sukkah, create this small version as a centerpiece for your dining table.

Cooking Equipment Needed:
Plastic knives
Platter

Ingredients:
3 graham crackers (1 for each side of sukkah)
1 container of frosting (white or green)
Fruits, cereal or candies of choice
Pretzels (for twig roof)

Directions:
Cement the house pieces together with icing. When dry, make the roof with pretzels and small pieces of candies. The icing can also be used to attach the trim. Decorate your sukkah with fruit-shaped cereals or candies of choice. Note: Use sukkah as a table centerpiece.

Excerpted from Tastes of Jewish Tradition. Copyright © 2002. Published by the JCC of Milwaukee. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.