Urban dwellers rarely have excuses to skip mitzvot or to shirk tradition. They’re usually closer to synagogues, kosher meat markets and Jewish culture than their rural counterparts.
Sukkot, which begins at sundown Friday, Sept. 27, is an exception.
Many of us live in apartments without balconies or homes with postage-stamp lawns. Many of us can’t spread out lawn chairs, let alone build a sukkah.
But there are many ways to tap into the spiritual and nature-based energy of the holiday, which marks both the wandering of our ancestors during the Egyptian Exodus and the annual fall harvest in our homeland.
If you can’t build a sukkah, track down a friend, relative or acquaintance who has built the symbol of our heritage as wanderers, as farmers, as people connected to the earth. Or visit a synagogue’s sukkah.
When you sit in a sukkah and peer through the tree branches spread across the top, you are gazing at the same stars that guided and awed our ancestors as they trekked through Sinai for 40 years, living in temporary shelters.
You are viewing the same stars Jews in ancient Israel watched as they fell asleep each night after spending the day picking fruits and vegetables.
And if you can’t find a sukkah, spend even just a few moments on each night of Sukkot peering into the dark sky and contemplating our past — just as if you were sitting in a sukkah.
The holiday’s weekend kickoff also affords you the opportunity of attending services for the first and second days of the holiday — without having to take time off from work.
Sukkot is one of the Bible’s three pilgrimage festivals that required Jews to gather at the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. The three festivals, which also include Passover and Shavuot, mark our passage from slavery to freedom.
Attending synagogue connects us to that tradition. It also gives us the chance to shake the lulav and etrog in all directions — a tangible reminder of how nature’s gifts can trigger an awareness of God’s omnipresence.
So take the opportunity to step away from modernity, with its cell phones, car alarms, fast food and endless cement. Join in our fall festival, which marks our path from slavery to freedom and our thanks for the fruits of the earth.