By Rita Weinstein, Special to JTNews
On Sept. 11, the mood in Seattle, as in the rest of the country, was one of somber reflection. Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum, the new senior rabbi at Herzl-Ner Tamid, saw the occasion as an excellent teaching moment to explain the holiday of Sukkot, “the festival of booths.” Celebrated in mid-September according to biblical injunction, Sukkot is a remembrance of the Israelites’ time in the desert after the Exodus, a honeymoon time in their new relationship with the God of their fathers.
Sukkah is the Hebrew word for booth. Sukkahs can be built in any number of shapes and sizes, but each must be large enough to “dwell in.” The Bible states that at least three of its walls must be covered with a material that will not blow away in the wind. The roof is left open, to be covered with branches and greenery so that it is open to the sky.
New to Seattle, Rabbi Rosenbaum saw a class in sukkah building as a great way to meet the new members of his congregation in a more casual setting and to teach them (literally) the nuts and bolts of the religious traditions surrounding the holiday. The project was first done in Sussex, N.Y., by an agency of the New York UJA Federation. He saw an article about it and liked the idea. So, even before arriving in Seattle, Rabbi Rosenbaum took the idea to the leadership at Herzl-Ner Tamid. They liked it for the community-building aspect. He felt that thematically it would create possibilities for the congregation as it began a new mix of people and leadership and would set the tone and atmosphere for the rest of the year.
The group in New York did a video of their event, so the chair people of the Men’s Club — Robert Peha, Jack Goodstein and Louis Hammer — took the video to the Bellevue Home Depot to explain what they wanted to do. Home Depot agreed to sponsor two events.
Rabbi Rosenbaum explained, “The purpose in staging these two events was to promote the mitzvah of sukkah building. If we want to encourage Jews to be more involved in Jewish life, we must address what is blocking the way. In terms of building a sukkah, people need to be shown an easy way to do it and to learn that it isn’t costly. The principle applies across the board to any Jewish practice, since there are many aspects of Jewish life that seem strange or unfamiliar.”
Home Depot assigned an employee, Averill, to teach the class. Averill was not familiar with the holiday, but understood one aspect of the sukkah when Rabbi Rosenbaum explained that it also functioned as a hut for harvesters out in the field at harvest time. Averill had seen similar structures in the fields in Guatemala, where he was an educator for 10 years, so he made a personal connection to one of the meanings of the holiday. He also made a religious connection to the meaning of the holiday he’d read about in his own Bible throughout his life and was enthused at the prospect of participating in the ancient practice.
The first event was great fun for everyone who attended. Rabbi Rosenbaum enjoyed the chutzpah of doing so Jewish an event out in public. Part of his purpose of doing the event at Home Depot was that he felt it would be “neat” to be out in public with Jewish practice, to show that Judaism is engaged in the world at large, not just at the synagogue or in the home. He wanted it to be a way of connecting to the larger world while using all of our knowledge in service to something spiritual. He also saw it as a way of showing Jewish pride. He wanted to demonstrate that one can be a fully practicing Jew and be accepted. “Growing up the 1950s and ‘60s, we were skittish about putting up a sukkah in a public place. Now we’re not afraid to ask the outside world for help.”
Word of how much fun the first event was spread through the community, and the response for the second class was even better than the first one. About 40 enthusiastic people showed up, some from other congregations, some from out of town. Allen and Tama Wolf of Seward Park had been building sukkahs for years, but wanted to find a new, easier way to do it. Others who had never attempted to build one came with their families to learn how to begin a new tradition.
Before the demonstration began, Rabbi Rosenbaum took note of the date, Sept. 11, and explained how the holiday was applicable to what that date now commemorates. The transience and vulnerability of the little booth is symbolic of our own lives, especially when even so massive a structure as the World Trade Center could be destroyed so quickly. As we remember our vulnerability while enjoying the sukkah, we remember our dependence on God, not only for all the blessings in our lives, but for our very lives. And we remember our ancestors who first knew in a very literal and concrete way how our survival requires that dependent relationship with God.
Jack Goodstein, member of the Men’s Club and engineer by training, created a simple, easy-to-follow design for building an 8-foot-by-8-foot-by-8-foot structure, complete with a list of necessary materials. With a package of cable ties, some 1-inch-by-3-inch strips of wood, screws, twine and tarps, it took less than an hour for three people to put together and erect a sukkah that could be easily stored and would last for years. The cost at Home Depot for the materials (which were packaged as a take-home kit) was $62.77.
For Herzl-Ner Tamid, the community- building aspect of these events has already born fruit: the USYers are going to build a sukkah for a family that needs help in building one, and the Women’s League is making baskets of decorations for all the families who are building their own sukkahs. Ten families will open their sukkahs for newcomers during the week of sukkot. The Men’s Club intends to make this a yearly event and to include other congregations in years to come.