A traveller's sukkah which fits in the trunk of your car

You can buy a ready-made sukkah.

Learn something strange every day. You can buy a fold-up safari sukkah which fits in the trunk of your car. I suppose this would be really handy if you were a single son visiting your Auntie Rachel and wanted to put up a two-person sukkah in a hurry. This is from the UK, from a company with offices in three areas of London plus Manchester.

In the USA you can buy a pop-up Sukkah.

Schach - Roof

The website said it comes complete with a schach. I had to look up that word. As I suspected, it is Hebrew and means roof. Now here's the odd thing. It has to be made of something that grows, not a fabric tent. More like twigs. 

After I saw huts at harvest time in India, in the middle of fields, as a temporary shelter for the worker guarding the harvest, the bales of crops, I wondered if a shelter was the idea behind it, or the origin. However, far from protecting you, it has to be open so you can see the sky and it must let in the rain!

I knew it had to be open to the sky. I knew that, because last year I read that if you build one on a balcony, as is done on many apartment blocks in Tel Aviv, it is only authentic, no, that's no a strong enough work, only valid, if  it is open to the sky, not a balcony completely covered by another. 

One year I went to a Sukkah ceremony at the Northwood and Pinner Liberal synagogue in Northwood. I met people who were not Jewish. For example, from the Methodist church next door. The event was also advertised in the local library and assorted free local newspapers and magazines. Other visitors were from multi-Faith organizations such as the Three Faiths organization, uniting Jews, Christians and Muslims. We had honey and apples to eat. Like at Jewish New Year.

Etrog - Citrus

I later visited the Sukkah of a neighbour who was a lay rabbi. He showed me the etrug. (A lemon or symbolic citrus fruit, often in a lemon shaped box.

Lulav

And a frond with four parts. Wave the lulav around, and say a prayer. (In Hebrew.)

You must turn to face north, east, south and west. Not just Jerusalem. Incidentally, Jerusalem is not always east or west. It depends which part of the world you are in. If you are in the west (of Jerusalem), then Jerusalem will be to your East. But if you are East of Jerusalem, then Jerusalem will be to your west. I suppose the same applies to saying prayers, building a religious building, and orienting a gravestone.

What is the difference between a sukkah and Sukkot? A sukkah is the temporary building. Sukkot is the festival.

Useful Websites

https://sukkahmart.co.uk/pages/about-sukkot

https://sukkahmart.co.uk/products/safari-sukkah

https://amenvamen.com/sukkah-kit-reviews

Sukkah kit

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264476751808?chn=ps&norove

Learn about the etrog fruit and hear Sukkoth songs, see booths and mosaics showing etrog - what is it? In the UK, USA and Israel, see harvesters' huts

The fruit is not a lemon but an etrog, the silver box is for the etrog and the lulav is a bunch of four plants including palm.

 Picture from Wikipedia, credit to author Gilabrand.

Sukkoth is a jolly festival, full of surprises, including the etrog fruit which looks like a lemon but isn't a lemon. You can use it to make tea, or jelly. A Californian planted her etrog seeds and grew a tree which attracts bees in the USA. You can use the etrog fruit for cookies, cake, salt, pickles and chutney.

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/433055/jewish/Post-Sukkot-Uses-for-the-Etrog.htm

Problem
What is sukkoth all about?

Answer
Sukkot is the Hebrew plural for sukkah, a booth or tabernacle (a one-room protective building, which can be as small as a cubicle).

Basically it is a Jewish autumn harvest festival or celebration. You build a two or three or nearly four-sided temporary structure, three-sided against the wall of the house. It is built of plants such as palms, with gaps so you can see the sky, with a roof which enables you to hang citrus or other fruit and cereal plants.

Every Jewish (orthodox) home builds one and so do synagogues for communal services and for the benefit of families who cannot (for example, living in a block of flats), away from home in a hotel.

On one occasion I went to a synagogue built in the ground of a London Liberal synagogue. They had invited members of the next door church and members of the UK's Council of Christians and Jews. We had an explanation of the history of the ceremony from the rabbi, food, fruit, wine or fruit drinks, prayers and songs and a get together.

On another occasion I was invited to a neighbour's garden to see their sukkah and learn about it from a lay rabbi. He showed me how you faced in a particular direction to shake a long piece of plant.

The sukkoth, or tabernacle, seemed a relic from the past and I didn't understand it.

See modern ones in Jerusalem during Sukkoth. Photo from Wikipedia.

India
Then I went to India and our long distance taxi took us past fields with little huts in the middle. I asked the driver-guide, "What are those small structures in the middle of the field?"

He said, "They were temporary huts for the temporary workers hired to watch the crops. Somewhere for the guard to rest in the shade and sleep at night. The crops are ready to be harvested and somebody has to stay there 24 hours to protect the crops from potential theft, vandals and marauding animals."

"I thought it was a toilet."

"No. They'd probably go in the fields anyway. Sometimes just a roof, against sun and rain, poles made of branches, and straw."

"Walls against the wind and dust? Woven? Suddenly I gasped, "It's a sukkos!"

Now I could see exactly what the sukkos might have been originally, and how it had evolved into a mandatory religious custom with added prayers and songs. Easy to remember which ceremony is Sukkoth.

When is Sukkoth? Wednesday 4-Wednesday 11 October 2017. Next year Sunday 23-Sunday 30 September.

For dates in the Hebrew calendar look in a diary from a Jewish organization or charity or a website.

However, all year you can see a Sukkah in Paris, France. It's at the
Museum of Jewish Art and History.

Sukkah in Museum of Jewish Art and History, Paris, France. Photo from Wikipedia.

SUKKOTH BOOKS & SOUVENIRS
You can buy books about Sukkot, including some beautifully illustrated and simplified version for children. Books can be bought from Jewish museums, Israeli shops, synagogue bookshops and display cabinets, and borrowed from public libraries, and synagogue libraries, or bought new and second-hand from online book sellers such as Amazon and ebay.


The BBC has a solid analysis and quote from the Bible book of Leviticus 22 :"You shall dwell in Sukkot seven days."

The BBC piece ends with a heartfelt piece by the Chief Rabbi of England who talk about what it feels like to feel close to nature in the age of insecurity, and wartime, recalling wearing masks for protection being attacked my missiles in Israel, looking up to God for protection.

Helpful Websites:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukkot

ww.123greetings.com/events/sukkot/ (ecards for holidays)

https://www.hebcal.com/holidays/2018-2019 (Hebrew calendar)

HAPPY SUKKOTH SONGS
http://metro.co.uk/2017/10/04/today-is-sukkot-2017-the-jewish-harvest-festival-6949981/

The excellent metro article has a link to a video of a song which you can also find on YouTube:
Shakin' The Lulav (a variation on Twist and Shout)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gODQ0pgR64Y&feature=youtu.be

Another modern song with youngsters dancing is
Livin; in a Booth by Fountainheads
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXx5Wp3GcSE

If you were to travel to Israel you might see the Sukkoth in Tel Aviv which has many Bauhaus style blocks of flats.

In Jerusalem you might see ceremonies by the Wailing Wall or Western Wall.

TEL AVIV'S ERETZ ISRAEL MUSEUM - Etrog on Mosaic
Also in Tel Aviv you could see the ancient mosaic from Tiberius synagogue dating from the 7th century ce (common era, to Christians known as AD) showing the etrog (best seen to the right and left of the picture, in the Eretz Israel Museum, Tel, Aviv, Israel. (Eretz means land in Hebrew.)

Also look in this museum and others in Israel and elsewhere for coins from the Bar Kochba era showing the etrog fruit and the bunch of palm and three other plants.

SUKKOT GIFTS
If you are travelling to friends and need a gift websites offer an assortment ranging from an etrog shape candle for just over £14 to etrog silver boxes at all prices.
https://www.judaicawebstore.co.uk/sukkot-C31.aspx

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.



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