Taking Down A Sukkah
Our community really took
shape as we build our
communal sukkah together.
But by the end of Sukkot,
our sukkah seemed to have
lost its pull, its
shabbiness more sad than
festive. The decorations
were in tatters, and the
wilted leaves and walls were
damp and musty. As the
holiday was ending, we felt
we needed to mark the last
moments of being in our
sukkah, and to say farewell,
to its shelter, its beauty
and its promise. On the last
afternoon of Sukkot, most of
the folks who had built the
sukkah gathered, and we
drank a toast to our little
group and recited the prayer
for taking leave of the
sukkah. Together, we
imagined our little
courtyard sukkah, covered in
wilted construction paper
chains and worn leaves,
suddenly becoming the
silvery scale of a wonderful
sea monster, and we imagined
all of us transported to
Jerusalem. Bidding farewell
to our sukkah, we imagined a
world ready to greet the
Messiah.
Meditation
May it be your will, Lord
our God and the God of our
ancestors, that just as we
have fulfilled the mitzvah
of dwelling in the sukkah,
may we deserve to dwell in
the sukkah of the Leviathan,
next year in Jerusalem.
Ritual
All who have built the
sukkah together join once
again to say farewell, with
a toast and a blessing.
Blessing
(As you contemplate how
you can continue to bring
the feeling of being
together, sheltered in the
Sukkah, all year round, you
recite for the last time
this year)
We praise you, Eternal
God, Ruler of the Universe,
who has made us holy with
your mitzvot and commanded
us to fulfill the mitzvah of
dwelling in the sukkah.
Ho’shiah et amekha,
u’varekh et nachala’tekha
Bless us and save us and
our heritage; shelter and
sustain us forever.
Teaching
What’s the Leviathan? Our
sages taught that at the end
of days, God will make a
huge sukkah out of the skin
of the Leviathan, an
enormous mythical beast, for
all the righteous in
Jerusalem. (CLAL faculty)
Rabbi Gamliel and Rabbi
Akiva were traveling on a
ship during Sukkot. Rabbi
Akiva took the trouble of
building a sukkah on the bow
of the ship. The next day, a
wind blew and ripped the
sukkah away. Rabbi Gamliel
said, "Akiva, now where is
your sukkah?" (Babylonian
Talmud: Sukkot 23a)
Now the sukkah is taken
apart altogether. Board
after board is pulled off.
The walls are folded up. The
roof of branches falls in,
breaks up underfoot. The
courtyard is filled with
little needles. The sukkah
vanishes as if it had never
been there before…And the
etrog has been forgotten
altogether. The cook has
thrown it into a pan of
boiling water, scalded it
alive…There is a pull at my
heart. The holiday has been
boiled away. May Simchat
Torah come soon….(Bella
Chagall, Burning Lights)
Hoshia et amekha
Bless us, sustain
us
(CLAL Faculty) |
