It's Here!

Look what was waiting on the doorstep two days after I ordered it! How did they fit our whole sukkah in that tiny box? Oh yeah, we still have to buy the lumber.

Meanwhile, Rabbi Abraham suggested some sukkah-building attire by Jewion Label. I especially like this one. They have kids’ sizes, too! 

Sukkah Shopping on a Sunday

We were pretty much set on a wooden sukkah kit from The Sukkah Project, but when my friend Caren told me that the Lubavich Judaica shop in West Orange had an actual sukkah shop set up out back, I just had to check that out first. I must say, I was impressed with the wood panel sukkahs.

Eric and the kids in front of the fanciest sukkah I've ever seen.



This is not your mother's sukkah. I think the stained glass windows are a nice touch. You order by the panel and, depending on the size you want, you’d probably shell out one or two thousand dollars for one of these. It even has a door that locks! I later joked with Rabbi Abraham that we could just buy a bunch of these and put together Temple Sholom’s new building for a fraction of the cost!

Yaacov, who showed us the two types of sukkahs they had set up (the wood panel and a fancy canvas sukkah I’d also love to live in) told us how, as a kid in Michigan, he used to go on a sukkah hop with his friends all over the neighborhood, visiting sukkahs and stuffing themselves with the candy offered in each one and steering clear of the occasional bowl of potato salad. The experience was much like Halloween. “They were less health-conscious back then,” he laughed.

These days,  he says, he gets a lot of young families like ours shopping for a sukkah for the first time.

Alas, their beautiful sukkahs there were out of our price range, so this morning while the kids were asleep I finally went online and ordered The Sukkah Project's kit. It may be more work and it won’t be as fancy, but I think we’ll like our wooden sukkah just fine.

Deals!

Thanks to everyone for sharing the great deals they found for their sukkahs! Today, my wonderful friend Jennifer told me about Jdeal.com. Who knew? Today's deal is a lulav and etrog plus a lulav holder for $35! Normally you'd pay $60 for just the lulav and etrog.

Thanks also to Caroline for telling me about a 5% discount for anything at The Sukkah Project from a fantastic blog called Kosher on A Budget.

The best deal of all? Last night during his Sukkot class Rabbi Abraham told me how to get sukkah roofing material for free. Every year the temple asks the town for some trimmings and they drop off lovely pine branches at the office for nothing! I asked my friend Barbara, Temple Sholom's office manager, if she could ask them for extra branches for me. Total savings: about $100, if I had paid for a bamboo mat roof.

Does Size Really Matter?

One month to go and we still can’t decide on a sukkah. But I think we’ve agreed that it doesn’t have to be that big, because even if you have a ton of people over (which we won’t do this year, anyway), you don’t have to fit them all in there at once. Smaller also means easier to put up and, let’s face it, smaller is cheaper.

Meanwhile, my four-year-old son received a free copy of Sholom Sesame’s “Monsters in the Sukkah” on DVD today from the PJ Library. How perfect! He got to see what I’ve been talking about and I think he’s starting to get excited about building and decorating a sukkah. It really reminded me of the biggest motivation I have to do this—creating wonderful Jewish memories for my kids.

Back To Nature (But Indoor Plumbing is Still Close By!)

I love camping, which is one of the reasons Sukkot always appealed to me as a kid. It turns out, as I learned at Rabbi Abraham's Sukkot class tonight, that this holiday was one of the original “back-to-nature” events. It came about as a harvest festival (farmers might have lived in temporary shacks in their fields during the harvest so they didn’t have to waste time going back-and-forth). When Jews were exiled from Israel and began to lose their agrarian roots, this became a reminder of those times, as well as how the Jews lived in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt—another instance of temporary dwellings built out in nature.

I also found out that “living” in a sukkah means different things to different people. I was always taught that you should eat a meal in one and, if possible, sleep in one at least once during the week-long holiday. It turns out that Orthodox Jews eat every single meal during Sukkot in a sukkah (which explains why all of the Israeli restaurants build them over their outdoor seating).

It also turns out that we pray for rain on the last day of Sukkot, as this is the end of the dry season and the beginning of the rainy season (and planting time) in Israel. I think we’ve got that covered here in New Jersey, thank you very much Irene, but I’d be happy to pray for some to fall in Texas. (I can hear the politicians now: “Nah, don’t worry about it. I heard the Jews are gonna pray real hard next month, so they’ve got it covered.”)

Shake Your Lulav for Less

Lulav and Etrog available from The Sukkah Project

If we’re going to build a sukkah, we’re going to need a lulav and etrog, the ritual objects used each Sukkot. You’re supposed to hold them together and shake them in every direction, or something like that. I plan to find out at the Sukkot class tomorrow night. Anyway, they’re important.

Wherever I order these from, it’s going to be about $60, or $30 each. (No point in getting one without the other.) I quickly discovered that when the temple orders them, because it’s a religious institution there’s no tax.  I ordered mine through Temple Sholom, so at least I can cross that off my list.

Eric spent an hour looking at sukkahs online last night and we’re no closer to figuring out what kind we’re going to build. Wood’s cheap, but it warps over the years. PVC is expensive, and I don’t love the way it looks. Pretty soon we’re going to have to just order something or else dedicate a weekend to designing it.

Got a suggestion? Please share!

Time To Seek Professional Help

I realize that I have no idea what I’m getting into, so I’m really glad that Rabbi Abraham is teaching a 3-class series on Sukkot starting this Thursday, Sept. 8. We’re going explore the harvest festival’s origins, how it’s celebrated around the world and—thank goodness—how to build your own sukkah. I plan to ask lots of questions. If you live in the Scotch Plains/Fanwood area, come join us at 7:30! It’s free. (Temple Sholom is located in the Fanwood Presbyterian Church at the corner of Martine and LaGrande Avenues in Fanwood, NJ. Class will be held in the Colville room.)

Meanwhile, Eric is now on the fence about designing his own sukkah, because he just realized how much work it is going to be to figure out exactly what he needs and what size everything should be, not to mention what we’ll cover the whole thing with. We’d better figure it out soon. The first night of Sukkot is October 12.