Campus Jewish Fellowship Celebrates the Harvest Season with Sukkah
By Charles Lebovitz ‘10
News Reporter
With its colorful design and easy to find location, the sukkah at Choate has been a hotspot for many over the last couple of weeks. The sukkah is a hut built to help celebrate the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Sponsored by Hillel, the group of Jewish fellowship on campus, the sukkah has been a hallmark tradition on campus for many years.
The sukkah is a central part of the Jewish holiday Sukkot. Sukkot is the harvest holiday of the Jewish people celebrating the 40 years of wandering in the desert during which the Jews used temporary shelters. Jews are commanded to live in temporary shelters, or sukkahs, to experience what the life of the wandering Jews was like. During Sukkot, Jews are also commanded to pray to God with four specific species: the lulav, or a palm branch, the etrog, a citrus fruit, myrtle branches, and willow branches. Jews are supposed to wave these four species to the six directions to show God is everywhere. Sukkot the holiday itself lasts for one week, according to Leviticus, one of the five books of the Torah, the Jewish holy document, Jews are not allowed to do any work on the first two days of the holiday, but are allowed to work for the rest of the week.
Hillel, the group which sponsored the sukkah, is constantly supporting activities which bring Jewish holidays into the spotlight. With the help of facilities, Hillel set up the sukkah and decorated it. Daniel Groberg ‘07 co-president of Hillel said that the Sukkah was constructed for two reasons. One was to help celebrate the holiday, and the other was to publicize the holiday. The sukkah, located to the left of the dining hall near Steele Hall was put there for easy access and because that place is a hotspot on campus. This is not the first time a sukkah has been set up. In fact it has been up every year that Groberg has been here.
The sukkah was truly a happening place. The first night the sukkah was set up, 20 or so people had a special Sukkot dinner, and afterwards according to Suri Krieger, the rabbi at Choate, “children of many religions” visited the sukkah. These people included several faculty members and people from around the world, including people from India and the Philippines. The Hillel students in making the sukkah attempted to “blend traditional and contemporary rituals,” said Rabbi Krieger. Like custom the blessed the traditional four species, and also in a way to connect a real world issue to Sukkot the Hillel group sent postcards to local politicians reminding them that Sukkot and the sukkah” reminds us of the fragile lives of those less fortunate,” according to Rabbi Krieger.
Student opinions varied on the sukkah. Some had positive views like Will Porter ‘10, who thought the sukkah was, “pretty cool.” Others hadn’t noticed the sukkah and were completely ignorant of its presence. Amos Yune ‘09 said, “I didn’t know that the sukkah even existed.” Sam Lloyd ‘10 echoed Yuen’s opinion saying that he too didn’t know the sukkah existed. Finally some people who visited the sukkah were unhappy with the overall experience. Timothy Ibbotson-Sindelar went inside but was upset over the food provided.
Was the sukkah successful? Daniel Groberg thought so. “Yeah, I think it certainly helped publicize Sukkot and spread awareness about the holiday.” To him it achieved one of the major goals of Hillel. Hillel tries to debunk the myths surrounding Judaism and create a forum for discussion. Rabbi Krieger also agreed with Groberg saying that the sukkah was successful.
Choate’s sukkah was a popular spot for many campus students to visit during the week that is was up. But according to Mrs. Krieger, it could have been better. She hopes that next year, “a school wide invitation will be sent out for people to taste the harvest on this special day.”
