That’s life 8-26

It's boiling hot outside, I cannot remember the last time I sweated this much, and I saw a sukkah up on Coney Island Avenue last week. No, it was not at a sukkah store. It was at a yeshiva, in their courtyard. And so I am convinced: someone is rushing my life away.

Clothing stores are showing sweaters and the dress shops on Central Avenue display their best (gasp!) wool Shabbat outfits. Wool hats presently adorn the windows of the various haberdasheries and I keep getting emails from department stores that read, "Our boots have arrived!" Something is wrong with this picture.  

My children have been coming home from camp singing, "Dip the Apple in the Honey." With no time for schools to adequately prepare their students for Rosh Hashanah due to the perfect storm that is the academic and holiday schedule, day camps have been taking matters into their own hands. We have recently received honey dishes and sukkah decorations that my children made in the Arts and Crafts room at camp.  Tell me: should I be planning my Yom Tov menus now also? Am I late if I haven't done that already? Or even better: is it too late already to invite company?

I am not out of touch and yes: I understand that the chagim are right around the corner, although buying pomegranates next week is still a little premature.  "Place your holiday orders now" is a sign I have seen all around town. Of course, this need to start preparing for something way in advance is not just a Jewish quirk. I first noticed Halloween costumes in stores back in July. No, that was not a typo. I meant July. And of course, the December holiday season begins in October. It used to be that the day after Thanksgiving was when you could be sure that stores would be covered in tinsel and red fur. That is no longer the case: Break out the eggnog, it's August.

I do not like sweating in my sukkah. To me, Sukkot traditions include the one in which I am bundled in a sweater, eating soup. If I wanted to perspire under my s'chakh I'd move to the sun. The years that I am really lucky, I can see my own breath in my sukkah.  Al Gore would argue that those years have gone away and the planet is heating up at such a rate that a cold Sukkot is all but a thing of the past. I, however, with my extensive training and near-expert status (as a Jewish mother?) sum it up this way: the Yom Tovim are early this year.

Jewish holidays are always late or early, but never on time, the old joke goes. To each their own: I am sure there will be plenty of people in their winter-y finest as they sit in shul in the air conditioning although, clearly, it will too hot to wear wool, despite what the Jewish calendar might read. Admittedly, I know nothing about fashion.  The Target catalogue is my Vogue.  When I bought my first hat as a newlywed, I was told that the seasons were from Rosh Hashanah to Pesach and vice versa. I am not sure who died and made that person the hat police, or who came up with that rule, but now I know that the winter hat season begins with common sense and not with a date on the calendar.

So if you're looking for me in shul, I'll be the one in short sleeves and a straw hat. It's the most wonderful time of the year.

MLW