If you have not started building your sukkah immediately after Yom Kippur, you may want to get started so you can join in the fun and joyfulness of this holiday without having to scramble.
Many cover their sukkahs with branches and include fruit. Most try to make their sukkahs at least somewhat wind resistant, and people generally avoid building their sukkahs under trees, balconies, or other structures as this defies the point of the temporary structure that is to remind us of the transient homes the Children of Israel used in the desert for forty years.
The Bible describes the holiday of Sukkot and even the building of booths (Leviticus 23:33-44), and this description is helpful in preparing for the holiday and understanding what the Lord has to say about this joyous occasion:
“Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the LORD. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it.
These are the feasts of the LORD which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire to the LORD, a burnt offering and a grain offering, a sacrifice and drink offerings, everything on its day - besides the Sabbaths of the LORD, besides your gifts, besides all your vows, and besides all your freewill offerings which you give to the LORD.
Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the LORD for seven days; on the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest. And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days. You shall keep it as a feast to the LORD for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month.
You shall dwell in booths for seven days.
All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.’ So Moses declared to the children of Israel the feasts of the LORD.”
Written by Erin Parfet
