sukkah

We recently had dinner in our friend's sukkah. For those of you who don't know, a sukkah is a structure built during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Here's Wikipedia's quick definition, one that is far better, luckily, than my own Sunday School recollections.

"A sukkah (Hebrew: סוכה‎, plural, סוכות, sukkot; sukkoth, often translated as "booth") is a temporary hut constructed for use during the week-long Jewish festival of Sukkot. It is topped with branches and often well decorated with autumnal, harvest or Judaic themes. The Book of Vayyiqra (Leviticus) describes it as a symbolic wilderness shelter, commemorating the time God provided for the Israelites in the wilderness they inhabited after they were freed from slavery in Egypt. It is common for Jews to eat, sleep and otherwise spend time in the sukkah. In Judaism, Sukkot is considered a joyous occasion and is referred to in Hebrew as Yom Simchateinu (the day of our rejoicing) or Z'man Simchateinu (the time of our rejoicing), but the sukkah itself symbolizes the frailty and transience of life and its dependence on God."

I am particularly grateful for the reminder of the frailty and transience of life.

I am also grateful for friends who continue to carry on these age-old Jewish traditions and who invite us to participate.