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Sukkot
When the holiday of Yom Kippur ends, materials
began to be gathered for the construction of the sukkah-a
temporary
dwelling in which the seven-day-long holiday of Sukkot is
celebrated. In
Poland, this period is called the holiday of the "Kuczki",
which comes
from the Old Polish word kucza, which means "shepherd's
hut". Sukkot is
also known as the festival of the Booths or Tabernacles. It
is one of
three pilgrimage holidays (shalosh regalim) during which in
Biblical
times one was supposed to go on a pilgrimage to the temple
in Jerusalem
to give offerings from the harvest.
Sukkot is celebrated over the course of seven days, from
the
fifteenth to the twenty-first day of the month of Tishri, in
commemoration of the Jews' exodus from Egypt and their forty
days of
wandering through the desert.
The command to observe this holiday is found in the
Bible, in
Leviticus 23:34 "Say to the Israelites: 'On the fifteenth
day of the
seventh month the Lord's Feast of Tabernacles begins, and it
lasts for
seven days,'" and in Leviticus 23:42-45: "Live in booths for
seven days:
All native-born Israelites are to live in booths so that
your
descendants will know that I made the Israelites live in
booths when I
brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God."
In addition to the symbolic ceremonies connected with
the exodus,
Sukkot is also a harvest festival. Another explanation is
that this
holiday allows people to remove themselves completely from
the troubles
of daily life and civilization, and to return to the
conditions that
make it possible to "touch the earth with one's feet and see
the stars
overhead," which in turn brings people closer to the
presence of God in
their lives.
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Moving for a week to the "booth" that has been
constructed outside is supposed to aid this process. This
booth, or
sukkah, is a building made of boards, or canvas stretched
across boards,
covered with branches and leaves so that sunlight can enter,
and so
that at night the stars are visible. The inside of the
sukkah is heavily
decorated with garlands made of flowers and branches, fruit,
rowan
berries, flowers and also carpets and paintings. They are
built in
courtyards and gardens, although when some people design
their homes,
they construct part of the roof in such a way that a sukkah
may be
erected on top of the house.
One should eat at least one meal a day in such a
"booth", to which
friends are invited, as well as the poor, homeless and
lonely. The
ushpizin are the mystical guests to the sukkah, Biblical
forefathers and
rulers: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron and
David.
During this period, sweet dishes are served, as well as
juicy ones
and stuffed specialities, such as pierogies, stuffed
cabbage, stuffed
fish and all kinds of sweet pastries, cakes and candies.
The festival of Sukkot also has special ceremonies
during religious
services. When the halel is said�Psalms 113 to
118-praising God,
recalling the exodus from Egypt and expressing faith in
salvation, the
arba minim is shaken, a term which means literally "with
four species".
This is a kind of bouquet made up of palm leaves (lulav),
willow sprigs
(arava) and myrtle (hadas), as well as the fruit of the
goodly tree,
which is in the citrus family. This symbolizes the different
kinds of
Jews who make up the Jewish community. The palm bears sweet
fruit, but
has no aroma, and symbolizes the people who study the Torah,
but who do
not follow its commandments. The willow has neither aroma,
nor fruit,
and symbolizes those who have lost their faith. Myrtle has a
nice smell,
but no fruit, which represents those who follow Jewish laws
but are not
learned. The fruit of the goodly tree is aromatic and bears
juicy
fruit, and is the symbol of human perfection. The bouquet of
these four
species also symbolizes the human spine, which must bend
before God.
During the ceremony, it is shaken in all four directions, as
well as up
and down, which expresses one's belief that the Almighty is
omnipresent.
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In the liturgy of the seventh day, Hoshanah
Rabba (Hebrew, "Please save us!"), seven circuits are made
around the
synagogue, holding a lulav. During this joyful procession,
during which
there is also dancing and singing, each time the pulpit
(bimah) is
passed, one Torah scroll is taken back to the ark (Aron
Kodesh). As the
ceremony draws to an end, the lulav is beaten against the
floor until
all its leaves fall off. This "threshing of the leaves" is
supposed to
bring rain, i.e., to be a sign that next year's harvest will
be a good
one, but it also symbolizes that one is being cleansed of
one�s sins,
which have fallen away, just like the leaves from the
branches.
In the Diaspora, an eighth day is added to the seventh
one-shmini
atseret (the eighth day of gathering), which is a summing up
of the
entire period of autumn holidays: from the atonement holiday
of Rosh
Hashanah, to Yom Kippur and Sukkot. In synagogues a prayer
for rain is
said, and also Izkor, a prayer for the dead. The main
ceremony of this
day is the Simchat Torah (Hebrew, "Joy of the Torah"), which
marks the
conclusion of the yearly cycle of Torah readings. Before
prayers begin,
the rolls are raised to the pulpit, and lit candles are
placed on the
ark, as a sign of the eternal presence of God. Men carry the
scrolls
around the synagogue, and children wave colorful paper
banners, the tops
of which have an apple with a candle stuck in them. This
ceremony lasts
many hours, and after it concludes (siyum), all the faithful
are
invited for something to eat.
In keeping with tradition, Sukkot is celebrated in
Poland with great
festivity. Although the booths are no longer erected
individually, for
each family, every year a large sukkah is constructed near
the
synagogue, where the entire congregation celebrates. It is a
chance for
shared prayer and song, and also for a social gathering, to
which women
bring something that they have made to eat.
(kw/cm)
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