Life According to Lauren.: Time of Our Joy (!)

Art by Kyle Lebell

Sukkot is a Jewish festival (yes, another one!) celebrating the autumn harvest. The word "sukkot" means "booths," and it refers to the temporary huts that the Israelites dwelt in when they wandered in the desert for 40 years.

In contrast to Yom Kippur, Sukkot is meant to be a happy holiday, and is often referred to as the "season of our rejoicing." We are actually commanded to be happy.

During the festival of Sukkot, we build a sukkah in order to dwell in it for 7 days. My experiences with building sukkot in the states have been minimal. The past 3 years, I've helped to build the one at work, which usually resulted in multiple splinters, my boss getting hit in the head with a 2x4, and an article in the campus newspaper making us sound like total weirdos. Happy times, indeed.

But in Israel, the experience is much different. First of all, most schools have off during the festival of Sukkot. Everyone that has the space builds a sukkah. Everywhere you turn, there are people carrying sukkah supplies and the "four species." Restaurants have set up sukkot so that customers can eat in them. In Israel, it's not weird, or odd, or foreign... it's just what Jewish people do.

So, my roommates and I jumped on the Sukkot-bandwagon and built a sukkah. We are actually very fortunate to be able to build one (on our balcony), as many apartments don't have space. We anticipate many good, happy times over the next week...