The ancient Jewish festival of Sukkot, which begins at sundown on Sept. 18, celebrates a tenuous time in the history of the Jewish people: wandering in the desert.
The eight-day festival has agricultural underpinnings in the harvest. The final day of Sukkot is a mysterious one called Sh’mini Atzeret.
The very next day is Simchat Torah, which celebrates the end of the year-long cycle of reading the Torah. At Simchat Torah, the final words of Deuteronomy eulogizing Moses are read, immediately followed by the first words of Genesis, celebrating the creation of the world.
And, in one of my favorite traditions, everyone who attends synagogue is called up for an honor at the Torah. Children are honored in a particularly beautiful way. They join together under the canopy of a single tallit, or prayer shawl.
Simchat Torah may be the most musical holiday of the year. It is traditional for Jews to dance during both evening and morning services, with Torah scrolls as their partners, and human voices lifted in song as accompaniment.
It can be frenzied, chaotic, noisy, rowdy. There is nothing staid, stodgy or formal about it. This ecstatic celebration marks the culmination of the High Holiday season, which starts with a solemn study and midnight service called Selichot the week prior to the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah, then 10 days later Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
Sukkot follows and is inextricably tied to Yom Kippur, the most acetic, abstract and ethereal time in the Jewish year.
By contrast, Sukkot is about the material world: In order to fulfill the demands of the holiday, one must build a temporary booth and camp out in it for eight nights.
There are exacting specifications about the construction of the booth, or Sukkah, both about its size and materials. When I taught religious school, I formed a lesson plan based on the rules, and had students act as sukkah inspectors to determine whether the synagogue sukkahs were built to specification, or kosher.
It may be the only Jewish holiday that has a prayer associated with sitting: on Sukkot, Jews say a blessing of praise for the commandment to sit in the Sukkah.
Fruit is featured in the sanctuary. The etrog, a citrus fruit, is featured in services, along with fronds from three different species. They are waved in all directions.
If Yom Kippur is about contemplation, Sukkot is about action. It is about trusting the elements. It is also about hospitality. One is supposed to have guests in their Sukkah, and, according to a mystical tradition, those guests aren’t confined to the living. According to Jewish mystical tradition, ancestors are invited as well.
My very first memory of a Jewish celebration is of celebrating Sukkot under a neighbor’s grape arbor. I was 4 years old, and there is a photograph documenting that moment.
I had no idea what the holiday was about, but I was intrigued at eating outdoors in the autumn under a darkening sky. I liked the mystery.
Dinner, I’m certain, arrived long after my usual bedtime, and I was allowed to stay up to enjoy it.
It was Shabbat, and, according to tradition, the head of the household, Eugene Perrin, blessed the wine before we ate.
It all felt mysterious and somehow forbidden, special and intimate.
Jane Kaufman is editor of The Republican's forthcoming book, "Our Stories: A History of Jewish Immigration in Western Massachusetts." It is one in a series from The Republican on different ethnic groups that debuted last fall with "The Irish Legacy: A History of the Irish in Western Massachusetts." Other books due out this fall include "The Struggle for Freedom: A History of African Americans in Western Massachusetts" as well "Nuestra Historia: A History of Latinos in Western Massachusetts."
She can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org