I had not formerly thought of Sukkot as one of the High Holidays, but apparently it is. This is the fun harvest-themed holiday, all physical labor and food and the kind of enjoyment that you are supposed to be especially prepared for after the spiritual cleansing of the Big Two. Last year we had many adventures locating the proper materials and building our first sukkah. This year was much simpler: I preordered the lulav and etrog, and the sukkah was easy to rebuild (you leave the brackets on).
We eat dinner in it whenever we get a chance. The weather has been intermittent.
We did have some friends over for a fun and festive meal (note more challah).
A few days ago, Dale actually suggested to the boys that he and they sleep in the sukkah. Of course they were thrilled. He got them all set up, with the tent inside the sukkah for warmth. Frankly I thought this was a very bad idea. I was sure they would never go to sleep, would be too cold, whatever, and would come stumbling in exhausted and fighting at 11pm.
Not so! They did great, the moon was gigantic, and the whole thing was magical and I think very memorable. I wound up being envious. A few days later, I slept outside with them, but we were rained out. (Rained in?)
It turns out there is a fairly entertaining history regarding the conditions under which one ought to sleep in the sukkah. On the one hand, the instruction is to "dwell" in it; that means treat it like your home, including eating and sleeping in it. On the other hand, one is excused from sleeping in the sukkah if it is going to make one at all uncomfortable. For example, it might be too cold. You might worry about being robbed. You might find it inconvenient to shlep bedding to and from the sukkah every night. You might be so disappointed to miss out on sleeping with your wife that you would be unable to enjoy the experience. All of these concerns were cited by 13th-17th century rabbis who didn't want to sleep in the sukkah.
A (Jewish) friend of mine who was resisting her (non-Jewish) husband's efforts to take the family camping this summer said, "Don't you know Jews don't camp?" Apparently she's right.
It turns out there is a fairly entertaining history regarding the conditions under which one ought to sleep in the sukkah. On the one hand, the instruction is to "dwell" in it; that means treat it like your home, including eating and sleeping in it. On the other hand, one is excused from sleeping in the sukkah if it is going to make one at all uncomfortable. For example, it might be too cold. You might worry about being robbed. You might find it inconvenient to shlep bedding to and from the sukkah every night. You might be so disappointed to miss out on sleeping with your wife that you would be unable to enjoy the experience. All of these concerns were cited by 13th-17th century rabbis who didn't want to sleep in the sukkah.
A (Jewish) friend of mine who was resisting her (non-Jewish) husband's efforts to take the family camping this summer said, "Don't you know Jews don't camp?" Apparently she's right.
No comments:
Post a Comment