Showing posts with label Celebrating Sukkot in Israel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Celebrating Sukkot in Israel. Show all posts

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Sukkot 5773/2012 in Israel - A bit about our palm branch roof

We have been celebrating the holiday of Sukkot this week here in Israel.  Sukkot is really one of those holidays that was designed to be celebrated in Israel.  The festival, which lasts 8 days in Israel (including Simchat Torah) and 9 days outside of Israel, involves putting up a Sukkah and eating meals in the Sukkah for the duration of the holiday.  If the weather is 30 C during the day and still more than 20 C at night, you can have some wonderfully enjoyable Sukkot meals, particularly your evening meals.  These are the conditions that we are enjoying this year.  If you are in Canada and the weather drops down to 10C, you can start to see that the holiday of Sukkot may not be pefectly suited to Canadian weather.  (These are the reports I am getting from family members).

The roof of a Sukkah is supposed to be made out of branches and leaves (as a very general summary description) called schach.  Some people use a reusable bamboo branch roof.  We have one of these but it is not very authentic.  Probably the equivalent of a plastic Christmas tree for people celebrating Christmas.  We decided to build our schach roof this year out of palm branches and leaves, freshly trimmed from palm trees.  As I wrote about last year Sukkot 2011, the City of Ra'anana trims its palm trees each year just before Sukkot and posts information about where and when you can go to collect the freshly cut branches.  However, some "entrepreneurs" arrive early at these sites, collect the free branches and then turn around and sell them later for 10 N.I.S. a branch.  You could easily require 20 or 30 of these branches for a medium sized Sukkah - so this can get quite expensive and leave you feeling very ripped off since the City of Ra'anana was giving it away for free.  But if you don't arrive at the City distribution sites on time - or even before the appointed time - you cannot get the free schach.

So we travelled to the Rehovot area this year to collect some branches from very freshly trimmed palm trees.  Cutting and using fresh palm branches can be very risky business.  The lower parts of the branches have very sharp, pointy, thorns that can cause serious infections.  Some people are highly allergic and have been known to require urgent medical attention after losing a battle with a palm branch.  So the first step after trimming the branches - very carefully - is to cut away the thorns.  Here are some pictures of a palm branch with the thorns and after being trimmed.


Once you have cut away the thorns, you can carry the branches fairly easily without worrying about getting poked since upper leaves are not sharp at all.

To cover the roof of our Sukkah properly, we needed about 25-30 of these leaves.  So we gathered them in a pile and had to figure out how to get them from the Rehovot area to Ra'anana - about 50 km away (highway driving).

We loaded them up...on the roof of the car...(they are too long to fit in a trunk or inside the car) and drove back to Ra'anana.  This might look a bit strange but we were not the only ones on the road driving around with a car covered in schach since so many Israelis build Sukkot. 






Finally, back in Ra'anana, we were able to finish building the Sukkah and get our palm-branch schach onto the roof.  There should be enough schach so that there is more shade than sunlight and that you can see some stars.  But the schach must also allow rain to fall in the Sukkah if it rains during Sukkot.  In fact, it rained a bit the first night.  Here is a view of part of the roof from inside the Sukkah and another view from outside.  Having a freshly trimmed palm branch Sukkah has to be one of the most kosher type of Sukkah coverings.  It is very hard to get fresh palm branches in most places in North America.

The holiday of Sukkot includes a very central concept of "ushpizin" - entertaining guests in your Sukkah, particularly new guests who you have not regularly hosted.  We were very fortunate this year to have some wonderful guests, familiar and unfamiliar, join us in celebrating the holiday, having some wine and enjoying the smell and sight of the fresh palm branches, while sitting the Sukkah enjoying the summer-like termperatures.

Now the festival is almost over and we will have the task of getting rid of this huge collection of palm branches.  But the City of Ra'anana is prepared and will have extra pick ups of branches just after the holiday ends.

For those celebrating the holiday, Chag Sameach!





Saturday, October 22, 2011

Sukkot 5772/2011 in Israel

Sukkot is a holiday that is often neglected in the Jewish community in North America. Though it is considered one of the most important holidays on the Jewish calendar, part of the group of three “pilgrimage” holidays, it has become a holiday that is more likely to be celebrated by Orthodox Jews along with some Conservative and Reform Jews.

Perhaps this is partially due to timing. Since Sukkot arrives only a few days after Yom Kippur, it is difficult for many people to take off days from work for religious observance after having used holiday time for Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashana.

It could also be related to the weather. After all, in many parts of North America, it could be only 10 or 15 degrees Celsius and maybe even very rainy, which makes it a challenge to sit outside in a makeshift hut with a thinly covered roof and enjoy meals for 8 days. Then there is the challenge of procuring a palm branch, some willow leaves, myrtle leaves and an etrog (citron – part of the lemon family) to hold together during morning prayers. Finally, many families simply did not grow up celebrating the holiday in post-war Canada and the U.S. and the traditions were not passed along in the same way as a holiday like Pesach (Passover).

All of this is very different in Israel, which is clearly the best place in the world to be to celebrate Sukkot.

For starters, Sukkot is a national holiday in Israel. Most stores, restaurants, and other businesses are closed on the first and last days of the seven day holiday. Kids are off school the entire time. Many businesses are on lighter work schedules during the intermediary days. For many families, it is a great opportunity to leave the country and go travelling to Europe or some other destination for a family vacation. But for those remaining in Israel, it is a very important and widely celebrated holiday.

Some aspects of the holiday have transcended religious boundaries and become part of a national celebration. Many secular families put up sukkot (temporary booths) even if they only wind up using them once or twice to entertain some guests. Kids have lots of fun making decorations for their family sukkah, in school before the holiday starts, and with their families.

Many Israeli cities have palm trees. In Ra’anana, for example, the city trims its palm trees a few days before Sukkot and posts a schedule of when the trees will be trimmed and where the branches will be available for free pick-up. Residents are able to collect these palm branches and use them for the roofs of their sukkot. Some families have one or more of the required trees on their own property and can collect the proper items from their own backyard.

Cities across Israel have “Sukkot markets” where people can come and buy almost any item needed for the holiday, ranging from pre-fabricated sukkot starting from about $150 for a complete kit (with metal poles, canvas walls and bamboo roofs), to the sets of items needed for the holiday (lulav and etrog sets). With all of the competition, the prices of the various items become much more reasonable. It is quite a bit of fun to wander around in these markets and see what is being offered and the varying price ranges.

Restaurants throughout Israel, even many that are not even kosher, put up sukkot, so that their patrons can sit and eat their meals in the sukkah. This is actually quite the sight. In areas that are densely packed with restaurants, like some parts of Achuza Street in Ra’anana, you can see a whole row of sukkot, one in front of each restaurant. Some restaurants share one sukkah between two or three establishments.

We enjoyed a family dinner at the beginning of the holiday sitting outside with a group of about 30, eating, singing and drinking wine. We could see and hear neighbours on both sides also enjoying the festival with outdoor family meals. We also managed to make it Jerusalem for a bat-mitzvah during the intermediary days of the holiday. There were thousands of people arriving at the Old City of Jerusalem that day with their lulav and etrog sets in hand for the morning prayers. The roads were closed to most private vehicles so we wound up walking for about 40 minutes from the Kotel area to the restaurant for the celebration. The area was simply too crowded to be able to take a taxi.

The weather was beautiful throughout the country for the entire seven day holiday. Israeli and other musicians were performing at clubs and venues all over. There were various indoor and outdoor festivals taking place and many people taking the time to enjoy family outings at many of Israel’s hiking trails, water parks or historical sites.

One of the Hebrew names for Sukkot is “z’man simchateinu” (the time of our happiness). It is a name that is well suited. Sukkot really is one of the happiest times to be in Israel, as a visitor or as an Israeli.