Editorial: Welcome to the Big Esrog

Issue of October 8, 2010/ 30 Tishrei 5771

Sukkot is a sneaky holiday. Every year, just as the Yomim Noraim finish, Sukkot appears, almost out of nowhere, like a guest that you weren’t expecting. In schools, Sukkot is often given short shift, as the first few weeks are dedicated to adjusting from summer vacation and learning about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. For adults, anxious about how many days of work they just lost for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the holiday is spent calculating how many vacation days are left. For non-observant Jews, we imagine Sukkah amnesia is worse.

This year, given the heavy downpour that drenched Nassau County, not to mention the tornado watch, this Sukkot felt like the unwanted son in the family of Jewish holidays. This is a shame, given the chag’s rich significance and multiple meanings. In no particular order these include commemorating the 40-year journey the Bnai Yisroel took from Egypt, an agricultural festival celebrating the season, and reminding us about the transient nature of our lives.

However, this editorial is not intended to somehow mourn Sukkot. That would be a bit much.

Instead, we’d like to highlight something momentous that occurred last month. For two days in September, The Big Apple became The Big Esrog.

The Jewish organization Reboot, along with freelance journalist Josh Foer (profiled in The Jewish Star several weeks ago) decided they wanted to highlight Sukkot. They launched Sukkah City, an architectural contest to design a sukkah in accordance with halacha. The contest attracted hundreds of entries from around the world and the top twelve designs were assembled and kept in Union Square on Sept. 19-20. (The organizers explained that they were only able to keep the exhibit open two days for security reasons.)

The sukkahs were like none you’d ever seen:  “Sukkah of the Signs” was composed of signs bought from homeless people; the sukkah that won the top prize at the contest, “Fractured Bubble,” looked like a run-over lulav

All the sukkahs were made kosher through the work of Dani Passow, a rabbinical student at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah.

Roger Bennet, co-founder of Reboot, said that the project aimed “to bring back Sukkot to its former glory.” He said that while Sukkot is an important holiday for observant Jews, for many Jews, Sukkot has “fallen from its pinnacle.”

“We want to restore it,” Bennet said.

While we can’t say for certain whether Sukkah City accomplished its goal, we can say  that for those two days, the entire New York was a drop more curious about what a sukkah was and what the holiday of Sukkot meant. That is a laudable achievement in of itself.

From Suryah, a three-year-old African American child who said she liked the “Sukkah of the Signs” simply because it was beautiful, to the numerous observant Jews who felt Sukkah City was a good place to take a date, or even the homeless man who, while preaching into his megaphone about the evils of capitalism, took a moment to give a bewildered look at the sukkah; the event was a Kidduh Hashem.

As Mayor Michael Bloomberg explained when he announced the winner of the sukkah contest, it is a great way to bring in the 5771.

Hats off (s’chach off?) to Josh Foer, Roger Bennet, Dani Passow and the entire staff of Reboot that made this event possible.