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In all its grooves, ridges and creases

I see sukkah after sukkah, and so many of them are so very beautiful. I inherited my eye and appreciation for beauty from my mother’s aesthetic eye and her appreciation of nice design.

Ad hoc dwellings that have the temporary vibe written all over them have morphed into sophisticated sukkahs these days. So many are truly lovely. It can feel like going out to a temporary southern estate, or resort. Maybe an English garden. Or at times a temple of modern art design. Then there are the artiste ones. Some feel like you have been transported to a botanical garden or elegant flower shop.

Like Purim’s mishloach manot, many sukkahs seem to have gone the way of themes. The black and white sukkah. The Under The Sea Sukkah. The Tropical Sukkah.

Others, with no particular theme, simply include layers of such exquisite details, it’s like visiting a design show room replete with chandeliers and floral designs worthy of a lush and extravagant chuppah.

Even the covering s’chach is often clean and elegant these days. Rolls of fine bamboo strung together, perfectly unfurled like a long roll of paper to cover the sukkah. I’ve seen them used as panels for the sukkah walls too. The au natural feel fits so organically with the outdoors sukkah. To me, though, s’chach will always be that pungent scent of pine cone, wildly falling into its own natural organic place and pattern as the branches are laid atop the sukkah — with just enough open spaces for starlight to peek through.

Personally, I have always enjoyed lending special touches of flair to the sukkah. It’s a nice opportunity to express aesthetic creativity and beauty. But the key word here is “touches,” for it’s all interlaced among a sentimental array of old decorations preserved through the sukkah layers of years and memories, such as Rosh Hashanah cards glued with glitter of sweet little kids who are today grown adults. Ditto for the crafts that dot the sukkah’s walls. Many of them are preschool or elementary school hodgepodge style art projects or faux stained glass window style art that a child was once very proud to contribute to the sukkah. We drag it all out. All those heirloom decorations that mix with the new sheer curtains, fairy lights, a fabric wall mural that often gets updated from year to year, and other meaningful framed biblical verses or poems that have made their way onto the sukkah walls that encompass us throughout our seven sukkah dwelling days. Ultimately, though, the sukkah remains a 1970s-, 80s-, 90s-, and 2000’s-time warp. Each child and each generation can point to something from their time and their childhood.

One year, right about my first year of college, I slaved over a statement piece, “Merciful One Who will reerect David’s fallen Sukkah, Harachaman Hu Yakim Lanu Et Sukkat David Hanofalet” in black and gold. I cut each enlarged letter out meticulously and edged each one with multiple layers of metallic. I even went to laminate each letter before I assembled the verse on a large board of fabric. It was so pretty, and defined the back wall of the sukkah. In my mind it was going to be there for the next 10 years — at least. Of course maybe it was three years later that it rained or snowed on Sukkot, and there went the “Harachaman” craft.

Then there are those posters that we see from year to year — the playful illustration of tractate Sukkah delineating what does or does not define a kosher sukkah, a poster that is probably circa 1970s, before today’s Neot Kedumim of said tractate ever came to life with its sukkah-themed semi-amusement park vibe. Neot Kedumim Biblical Park in Israel brings this tractate to life.

Before Dr. Seuss, there was the mishnah in Sukkah. It argues and debates what constitute a kosher sukkah, and cites all kind of wild examples. For example, “a sukkah on a boat, a sukkah on a camel . . . ” There is discussion about a duplex sukkah, a sukkah leaning of the side of a house, a vaulted ceiling sukkah, etc. You an see how the Dr. Seuss playfulness can be gleaned from this mishnah.

Minimalist sukkahs are not just the Old-World Old-School simplicity of years gone by, due to authentic simple living or due to lack of funds and born of necessity or need, but rather they too are executed with a specific minimalist design in mind, evoking a sort of calm zen atmosphere.

Many sukkahs and sukkah decorations often have an interesting story behind them. One year I saw a strikingly beautiful velvet parochet, or curtain, that normally adorns the Torah Ark in synagogue, hanging on a central sukkah panel of a home, lending an extra sacred air to this sukkah. Golden embroidery spelling out the verse “Etz Chaim . . . ” shone on it.

How did this parochet end up in this sukkah? It turns out the owner of the sukkah once did a favor for someone. The person on the receiving end was in the custom-ordered parochet business. There was an unsold parochet he had lying around for years because of a tiny mistake that did not meet the custom specifications. As a token of gratitude, he gifted this parochet to this family’s sukkah, in which it annually and proudly hangs till this day.

It’s an interesting paradox. On the one hand the theme of the etrog — hadar, splendor, as it is known — which in pragmatic mitzvah terms plays a role in etymologically linking hadar to hiddur mitzvah. “the enhancement” or “beautification of a commandment” beyond its basic structure or stricture. So in this sense, going all out and erecting stunning sukkahs can be seen through this prism of hadar-hiddur, thematically intrinsic to the holiday of Sukkot.

On the other hand, Sukkot is about highlighting the temporariness of the world, creating a temporary dwelling, living with the awareness of the ephemeral nature of this life, as King Solomon emphasizes in Ecclesiastes, and as we internalize as Ecclesiastes is chanted on Sukkot.

Hadar is also linked with old age and longevity, ”And you honor the presence of the elder, vehadarta penei zaken,” the commandment to beautify the visage and person blessed with old age. Within impermanence there is youth and there is longevity — but all of it is temporary. I suppose on some level, Sukkot is about enhancing and beautifying the present moment, even when and perhaps even more when things may seem old and no longer the investment. On the contrary, embrace, enhance and beautify with meaningful actions the beauty and blessing of longevity in all its grooves, ridges, creases and challenges.

For all of life is temporary.

Copyright © 2022 by the Intermountain Jewish News



Tehilla Goldberg

IJN columnist | View from Central Park


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