Welcome To My Succah, Just A Little Peak!

Tonight we are ushering in the last day of the Jewish holiday of Succot, a very holy and important day called Hoshana Raba. In our community reading of the Book of Devarim, and the book of Tehillim takes place in the synagogue starting at 2am! The morning prayer service then starts at around 6am followed by a special breakfast in the Succah and then for those up most of the night, a long nap! And then………..because seven days of holy celebrating is apparently not enough, we have another holiday back in our homes, the holiday of Simchat Torah! Here in Israel this is only one day, but elsewhere in the world this is two day holiday, the first day being Shemini Atzeret, and the second day is Simchat Torah.

And then after my house full of guests departs I may just take a few days to recover, though actually what I really want to do right now is to crochet! This need to crochet always happens to me during a time when we are not allowed to make crafts, funny enough.

Ahhh, and my succah this year? I have to say I am quite happy with the results (on account of using many decorations that I made for my son's bar mitzvah) and just wish that I could take better photos of the whole thing. I think this year at some point I am going to treat myself to a wide angle lens, which is really what I need to capture our succah in its entirety, so stay tuned for next year!

There is a tradition to hang representations of the seven holy species (dates, figs, olives, grapes, pomegranites, wheat and barley) in the succah, or some derivitive of them, so those little bottles hold olive oil and wine. Yes, they did hang in previous years from the ceiling, but this year we just ran out of time!

Our sofa is moved from the living room into the succah, and is used for relaxing and sleeping, infact I actually slept here last night, the first time in quite a few years that I had the chance to sleep in the succah. Because the succah you see here is quite small and not really big enough for sleeping and a large table, we are fortunate to have another succah on a larger porch upstairs that is for sleeping exclusively. Most people in Israel do not have such a situation, and beds are exchanged with tables come sleepy time. Folks who do not have porches or back yards, build succahs on the street or on the roof of their apartment building, and have to go up and down the stairs to bring all the food to the succah. We are blessed indeed to have this succah right next to the kitchen.

That is it for a little peak into our succah, which during the year is our entry courtyard and home to quite a few of my plants! But when it becomes a Succah for seven lovely days, this space realizes its true purpose, which is a wonderful thing, and I wouldn't trade it or spending the holiday anywhere else, for the world!

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