 Students circle around for the first night of the Sukkot celebration on Samford Mall. Photo by Zack Wilson | Chief Photographer For the fourth year in a row, Hillel will celebrate Sukkot by constructing a booth called a sukkah on Sanford Mall and sleeping in it.
Sukkot marks the end of the Jewish High Holy Days, which also include Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.
The holiday is meant to be a reminder of the years that the Jewish people wandered in the desert and used temporary shelters, Hillel president Leslee C. Lisnek said.
“It makes us think about how lucky we are to have what we have,” Lisnek said.
Chuck Lieberman, president of the Temple of the High Country, said Sukkot is a festive, casual celebration.
“It’s very much a family holiday,” he said. “It’s not really celebrated in the synagogue.”
Yesterday, members of Hillel decorated the sukkah and slept in it overnight. Tonight, in addition to members sleeping in the sukkah and other traditional observances, the celebration will feature Israeli dancing starting at 1 p.m. and hookah from Koncepts Hookah Lounge at 6 p.m.
“You generally won’t find Israeli dancing and hookah in a sukkah,” Lisnek said, “but we are trying to incorporate fun activities that both Jews and non-Jews can enjoy.”
Tomorrow, there will be pizza at 4 p.m. and a 7 p.m. Shabbat service before the sukkah is taken down at 9 p.m.
Although the traditional Sukkot celebration requires Jews to abstain from work on the first and second days of the holiday, Lisnek said most Hillel members will not use their permitted religious absences to observe Sukkot.
“Some may choose to abstain from work on the holiday, so they will ask for some days off work, as I have done, or walk to school rather than drive or take the bus.
In Judaism, though, the idea of work is specifically defined by a set of deeds that are prohibited, and class work does not fall under that definition,” she said.
Lisnek said for Jewish students, Sukkot would be a difficult holiday to observe individually.
“The custom of building a sukkah can definitely be observed by other students, but it gets complicated when a student has to leave his or her shelter to go to class, and there is the possibility of the sukkah being vandalized by others,” she said.
Michelle Kamen, Hillel’s social chair, agreed the organization offers a religious opportunity students could not have on their own.
“It’s definitely more of a community thing. It’s not something you can really do alone,” Kamen said.
Typically, 60 to 80 students participate in the Sukkot celebration, to varying degrees, and not all of them are Jewish.
“Last year we…had several non-Jewish students who wandered into the sukkah to spend the night with us, which was fantastic,” Lisnek said. “Everybody is welcome to our sukkah.”
Story by: MEGHAN FRICK, Lifestyles Reporter |
