High Holy Days are chugging right along. Next up this Friday night — SUKKOT!
Sukkot is a joyous, but contradictory holiday. We celebrate the glorious bounty of the fall harvest, enveloped by the warmth of fellowship and good food. But we do so in a structure that is highly fragile, leaving us exposed, vulnerable to the elements. What better metaphor for our current situation? And as I was searching for books to read to the kids, I was overwhelmed by the choices that would speak not only to the holiday, but to the reality of our lives. For more on sukkot, see https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/sukkot-101/ (which includes a Leggo Sukkot movie!)
I began with ENGINEER ARI AND THE SUKKAH EXPRESS by Deborah Bodin Cohen. Engineer Ari is delighted to celebrate sukkot with his good friends at home, but is sad that he cannot also celebrate with friends he’s made on his train’s route. What do his friends do? They turn one of the train’s cars into a travelling sukkah! Now that’s innovative thinking!
With TBI and COM closed for services, it might be difficult for families to perform the mitzvah of the lulav and etrog. So I figured we could go on a SUKKOT TREASURE HUNT by Allison Ofanansky, about a girl and her family who look for the 4 species — lulav (date palm), arava (willow), hadas (myrtle), and etrog (citrus fruit) — tied to sukkot.
For older children (though the younger ones enjoyed it too), I threw in a slightly spooky story by Isaac Bashevis Singer called A TALE OF THREE WISHES — 3 children learn what happens on the last night of sukkot when, according to legend, the sky opens and your wish is granted…but only if you stand in a graveyard!
Oh, how many more books I wanted to read to them! For instance, TIKVAH MEANS HOPE by Patricia Polacco, could have been ripped from today’s headlines — a family in Oakland CA preparing for sukkot just as the wildfires of Oct. 1991 wreak havok.
Or our newest book, HILLEL BUILDS A HOUSE by Shoshana Lepon about a boy who loves to build things and realizes that sukkot is his perfect opportunity!
Please check out our online catalog https://fisherlibrary.rmwebopac.com/, reserve whatever you like, and pick it up from the shul. It’s all waiting for you!
Chag sameach!