THE JEWISH HOLY DAY SUKKOT SOON UPON US

Sukkot next on the lunar calendar, a holy day of living in a tent, a hut, a Festival of Booths, like the booths the Jews lived in as we were traveling 40 years in the desert to the Promised Land of Israel. A tent with a roof of willow and palm branches but to let the rain come in, to know what it is like to live in exposure to the rain and lightening and thunder, like the homeless, to have only the sparsest of material goods, to live frugally, to sleep on a pad on the ground, the ground being stiff and not soft, a place for one's head without a pillow. To eat in this Sukkah, a meal of salads, green items, orange veggies, yellow, and even Kosher Sushi for a meal.

To again sing the Shehekeyanu, the prayer for the newest of our experiences. A new etrog, being a fruit of the most delightful of smells, giving the etrog to a friend, stem downwards for him to turn right-side up. A lulav of tree branches, (Hebrew: לולב‎‎) is a closed frond of the date palm tree. It is one of the Four Species used during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. The other Species are the hadass (myrtle), aravah (willow), and etrog (citron).

Shaking the branches back and forth, shaking away evil out of our existence, a shake in front a shake in back a shake to the side to the other side, a shake to fight and kill wickedness on the sharp sides of the leaves like swords made of plant branches that we dash back and forth.

To afterwards hover together, to try to physically avoid the rain not to get our bodies wet, but to pray for rain for our harvests, to beckon The Lord to water our gardens, enough produce of fruits to last all winter long, deep into the coldest of the winter months, food in jars, to open and digest food everywhere in the world.

Fun and music in a Sukkah as we decorate it with gourds and artistic creations, as God created the world in 6 days with one day of rest, our Shabbat, we too create this Sukkah.

May the spirits of the souls of our Prophets and Prophetesses come inside our Sukkahs as we invite them to dine with us, to party with us, to protect us, to love us as we feed them and love them and they return the favor to us all year round.