Sukkot at Beth Tikvah

     When I was a child, I wanted my family to have a sukkah in the backyard.  I never wanted a Christmas tree, I wanted a sukkah to decorate.  I saw other families in my neighborhood had them and they looked like so much fun.  My parents saw them as symbols of old-fashioned orthodoxy.  They didn't think sukkahs, along with most religious traditional trappings, were necessary.  We knew we were Jewish, we lived in a Jewish neighborhood, listened to Jewish music, and ate Jewish food, therefore, we were Jewish and that was all that mattered.  For me though, it wasn't enough, and I wanted a sukkah.  I didn't get one until I was an adult.  When my children were younger, we would put up a sukkah on the back deck, and make paper chains that could be wrapped around it twice.  Then my husband would re-purpose the sukkah for Halloween into a haunted house.  While the sukkah was fun, it seemed to be missing something, family and friends.  My plan had always been to actually eat in our sukkah, but the weather never seemed cooperate, a trend that you will see continued into this year.

Rabbi Mike explains the holiday while we eat

     After a few years, we stopped putting up our own sukkah, instead, we enjoy the Beth Tikvah Synagogue sukkah.  Every year, David Eagle and his crew put up and take down the sukkah for Beth Tikvah.  For the last few years, Jon Nourse of Nourse farms donates the cornstalks for the s'chach and this year Judy Narod donated grape vines.

Enjoying the ymmy brunch!

     On Sunday morning, September 22, the Beth Tikvah family and friends got together to celebrate Sukkot with a marvelous potluck brunch and fun activities.  The day did not start out so auspiciously however.  The weather had been gorgeous the whole week before the event.  The weather has been beautiful since the event.  The morning of the event, rain.  This meant that brunch needed to be inside instead of in the sukkah as originally planned.  Then the next shoe fell, we had a partial power outage about an hour before the event began.  It was the weirdest outage ever, some rooms had lights, others didn't.  The kitchen had no lights, but the outlets worked.  The community room high hat lights worked, but not the fluorescent lights. Luckily, the media room had full power.

Making decorations

     We quickly adapted and moved activities to spaces with light.  The Boroughs JCC, who were co-hosting this event, were right on top of the power issue.  When the tried and true methods of fixing the lights didn't work, they were on the phone with the power company to get everything fixed.  And the power was fixed that Sunday. It turned out that a squirrel had gotten into a transformer and took down something important.

Enjoying the sukkah

     While the power wasn't fixed in time for the event, it didn't matter.  We all had so much fun!  There was so much food and so many fun activities.  The decorations from recycled materials came out great! The children made hanging decorations from old cds, dvds, plastic bottles and wire hangers.  They began a beautiful mosaic mural from fabric scraps.  Rabbi Mike explained the holiday of Sukkot and how to say the prayers with the lulav and etrog while we ate.  He also explained the significance of the four species that make up the lulav and etrog.  Afterwards, the weather cleared up enough that people could take the lulav and etrog into the sukkah and say the prayers.  By the end of the morning, the sun was shining and the weather was warm.  We enjoyed the last 20 minutes of the program in our beautifully decorated sukkah with Ayal Zingher on guitar leading us in Sukkot songs.  What better way to end a fantastic morning!
     Tomorrow night, Thursday September 26, our synagogue will celebrate the holiday of Simchat Torah.  This is truly one of my favorite holidays.  Come join us and dance with the Torahs while the Beth Tikvah band plays spirited Jewish songs.  Check out the sukkah and see the wonderful decorations before it comes down on Monday.  You can find more information about this event on our website, www.bethtikvahsynagogue.org, or on facebook,  www.facebook.com/BethTikvahSynagogue.