Sukkot

Sukkot in Jerusalem has also been a very different experience for us.  First of all, the weather here is actually warm enough that eating meals in one's sukkah does not require one to wear heavy sweatshirts and all manners of warm clothing!  Our sukkah is tiny but I prefer to think of it as cozy.  It holds 4 nicely around a small table, has an array of functional and decorative lights that allow us to see when darkness descends, and has views of neighboring sukkot on other balconies above and beside us!  We have been davenning in it, eating in it, studying in it and to be honest the pleasure we are deriving from doing these activities in the sukkah is immense.  Although our son, Yehoshua, would love for us to sleep in the sukkah that Charlie and our grandson built, it is not going to happen.  To get up into our sukkah one must climb a winding, metal staircase which would truly be a night-time night-mare for anyone needing to go down the stairs in the middle of the night!

Sukkot here is only 7 days long.  We are in a lockdown so we are not really going beyond 1000 meters to purchase food and medicine, yet it still manages to have a sense of being a very special time.  In the stores that are open, people say, "moadim l'simcha" and you can seen individuals carrying their lulav and etrog with them when on the street.  Sukkot here is definitely not a forgotten holiday!  May it usher in a time of feeling G-d's sheltering presence in our own lives.