In Israel, the first day of Sukkot and the holiday of Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah bookend the 8 day festival of Sukkot. Those days are "holy days," much like Shabbat - on which a wide variety of activity is restricted or prohibited. The in-between days (This year, Sunday Sep 27 to Friday Oct 1) are in-between days, which are essentially part of the festival but not in the same category of "holy days."
As a result, many (but certainly not all) Israelis are off work for the week. Many families use the Hol- Hamoed days to travel around Israel. There are festivals all over the country - children's festivals, music festivals, wine festivals and all kinds of other celebrations.
Outside of Israel, in the Diaspora, the first two days of Sukkot are observed as "chag" or "holy days." As well, the last two days - Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah are separated and are also chag. So the 9 day festival in the diaspora includes 4 holy days, while in Israel it only includes 2.
Incidentally, the proper response to "Mo'adim L'Simchah" is "Chaggim u'zmanim l'sasson" - which is roughly - "yes, holidays and times of rejoicing!". But if it is Chag, or right before Chag - the proper greeting is just Chag Sameach ("Happy holyday"). There will be a test on all of this later....
On Thursday, we visited the Sukkah-mart in Ra'anana. This is an annual outdoor market, at which vendors have set up booths and tables and are selling all sorts of Sukkot related products - sets of the four species (a Lulav (palm frond), Etrog (citron - looks like a lemon), haddas (myrtle branches) and arava (willow branches). They are also selling pre-fab sukkot kits, lighting, decorations, decorative items including all sorts of hanging items, posters of famous rabbis, and all of other tchatchkas that you might use in a Sukkah. Markets like this take place all over Israel during the week leading up to Sukkot. It is actually quite a cool thing to attend.
It reminds us how unique it is to be in Israel - a country in which Sukkot is widely celebrated as a major holiday - with such vibrancy, joy and, I suppose, accompanying commercialism. But it is really a bustling, happy, holiday.
In any event, we picked up our set of the four species (we couldn't wave it around until today since you don't wave the lulav around on Shabbat) and we also added some new decorations to our Sukkah. Now we just have to add in the guests (various nights this week) and perhaps find time to have a glass of wine or two - or a whiskey or two in the Sukkah to help "rejoice."
Sports and Politics
I usually leave the sports news to the end - but this one is a bit interesting. The Israeli national men's' football (soccer) team is participating in the Nations League tournament. They are playing Ireland tonight at 9:45 p.m. Israel time (2:45 p.m. EST) at a stadium in Debrecen, Hungary.
The match has been attracting all sorts of attention due to calls in Ireland to boycott the match. Some players have threatened not to play - and the Irish government has been pressured to cancel the match.
Ireland, for some reason, has become one of Israel's most strident critics. The country has no problem with so many other countries in the world that have far worse human rights' records, yet it has singled out Israel for a unique level of hatred. Ireland has been boycotting the Eurovision contest (this will be the second year in a row) because of the inclusion of Israel - but so far, the country is still planning to play tonight's match. Recently, the Irish team played a friendly against Qatar and the only protestors were those protesting against Israel - even at a Qatar-Ireland match.
Hopefully, Hungary will provide proper security arrangements and keep our Israeli players safe. It should be quite a scene. I expect that the players will be booed by Irish fans that travel to the match and others - with all kinds of anti-Israel chants - but hopefully the Israeli side will respond successfully to the pressure. Since it is Hungary (Israel's designated neutral site under EUEFA rules, perhaps some Israeli football fans will be in attendance. The second match of the "home and home" series will take place in Serbia. It seems to have been deemed unsafe to allow Ireland to host a match against Israel.
Incidentally, in "apartheid" Israel, the current leading scorer on the Israeli team is Sayed Abu Farchi, a 20 year old Israeli Muslim player, who has played for Maccabi Tel-Aviv and now plays for the Colorado Rapids in the MLS. Farchi is a regular player on the Israeli national soccer team (along with a number of other Muslim-Israeli players as well as a number of Jewish Israeli team members).
Since the Blue Jays are officially out of contention, my baseball watching season is mostly over - I might watch the odd playoff game if something looks interesting. Instead, it is now NFL football and, soon, ice hockey. I'll have to switch back and forth tonight between the soccer match and the Bills vs Chargers game (Bills are off to a great start so far).
Yom Kippur News
Lots of news from all over the world from Yom Kippur, which was observed on Monday September 21, 2026.
In Toronto, Jews who were attending services at the Song Shul, which uses the North York Meridian Centre for its annual high holiday services, were met with a couple of dozen pro-Palestinian demonstrators screaming insults at them as they arrived to attend services. The police apparently stood by smiling, at least according to some reports.
The claim is that they were protesting because Mark Regev was going to speak during the service. Regev is a former Israeli ambassador to the UK (2016 to 2020) and a former spokesperson for the Israeli Prime Minister's office (2007-2016).
Regev has not been a member of the current Israeli government though he has publicly defended Israeli actions in response to the October 7, 2023 massacre and has publicly denied that Israel's actions can be labelled a "genocide."
The craziest thing is that a CBC reporter, Neil Herland, was on his way to attend this service at the Song Shul. As he arrived at the shul and saw this mob of protesters, he decided to pull out his phone, collect some video footage and post it on-line, with some of his thoughts. Incredibly, the CBC apparently suspended him because of this, in response to pressure from so Pro-Palestinian groups. I suppose it did not fit the CBC's well documented anti-Israel programming directives. The event is shocking (the protest and the suspension of Herland) and has made the news here in Israel as an example of the complete craziness that is taking place in Canada.
It seems to me that at a very minimum, the police should have put up a barrier some reasonable distance away from the entrance and kept the protesters away from the arriving worshippers. Moreover, the CBC should have showed the protest on-line including broadcasting the types of anti-Semitic comments that were being hurled - rather then shooting the messenger.
There was also a shooting at a the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville. A police offer was shot and injured while protecting the Synagogue. The shooter was shot by police and later died. That also took place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year on the Jewish calendar.
These are frightening incidents for Canadian Jews, who are not being helped by the increasingly shrill anti-Israel rhetoric coming from Prime Minister Mark Carney and his Federal Liberal cohorts and from Toronto's Mayor Olivia Chow. Looking at events over the past three years - including the vandalism campaign against Indigo Books led by York University professor Leslie Wood (criminal charges were eventually dropped), the months-long encampment at the University of Toronto targeting Jewish students and a wide array of other incidents, there is certainly a palpable sense that the Toronto Jewish community is far less safe than it once was.
On the other hand, there are extremists in Israel as well. In Jerusalem, a reform congregation, Kol Haneshama, was attacked just before Yom Kippur and just after - and was egged on Rosh Hashanah. The congregation has a wide array of video surveillance equipment (since it has been attacked several times in the past). It promptly turned the footage over to police and the Times of Israel reported that three minors were arrested. The perpetrators were dressed as observant orthodox Jews, though further information about the suspects has not been released. Reform and Masorti (Conservative) shuls across Israel are often subjected to attacks and vandalism.
I guess the difference is that here we have a government and police force that are often (though not always) willing to take steps to arrest the perpetrators and take appropriate legal action.
Politics Update
Israeli political news continues to fascinate. As we get closer to the election - which is exactly one month away, I will include a rundown of the various parties and their respective positions.
As of today, there are some interesting developments.
Prime Minister Netanyahu's own party, the Likud, seems to be losing popularity. Five recent polls have shown Likud winning between 18 and 21 seats. Two polls, commissioned by more Likud-friendly pollsters have the Likud at 27 to 31 seats. I suppose we won't really know who is right until we get the actual election night results.
The same polls that show Likud at the lower numbers - indicate that his current coalition could be at 45 to 49 seats in the Knesset, 12 to 16 seats short of the 61 needed to form a government.
The opposition party led by Gadi Eisenkot, Yashar, has been polling at 22-23 - in all of the polls, including the Likud-friendly polls. The party led by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennet is polling at 11-13 in some polls - but only 7-9 in the more "Bibi-Friendly" polls. Overall, the anti-Likud coalition, made up of the various opposition parties is polling at 52-56 in one set of polls and 45-47 in the Bibi-friendly polls.
So one take-away is that neither coalition seems poised to form a government. If these results turn out to be accurate, we could wind up with a stalemate and perhaps another election.
A second take-away is that the voters moving away from Bibi are moving, generally, to other right wing parties - that are still willing to support Bibi as the Prime Minister. Overall, the anti-Bibi coalition does not seem to be picking up traction from undecided or other voters who might be willing to shift between Likud and one of the more centrist parties
All that being said, a month is a lot of time in politics and I am sure we will see lots of interesting developments.
October 7th
We are approaching the three year anniversary of the horrible October 7, 2023 massacre by Hamas of Israeli civilians and concert goers and the attacks on some military bases. A major memorial event will be taking place in Tel-Aviv this year and will feature a who's who of Israeli musicians. The organizers have indicated that they are focusing on running the event as a memorial event and not a political event - even though it is just three weeks before the election. I am not sure if people in North America will be able to watch it easily but it may be broadcast on N12.co.il which is a good site for watching live Israeli news (in Hebrew). That will probably start at about 1 p.m. EST or perhaps as early as 12 p.m. Details to follow.
I think that is about it for now. Need to start thinking about what to eat for dinner tonight in the Sukkah, how to watch the Israeli national soccer team play Ireland and the Buffalo Bills play the Chargers at the same time - and how many guests we can squeeze into the Sukkah over the next few days - while also getting some work done. Mo'adim L'Simchah!
