Sukkot

An ancient Jewish belief considers the first day of Sukkot to be the day on which a person begins accumulating sins for the next year. To start the new year off right, many people begin building their sukkah right after Yom Kippur (you can also start making the decorations which is fun for everyone).

The sukkah is a temporary house, where you eat (and sometimes sleep) for the holiday. It is a reminder of the forty years we spent in the desert going to Israel.

Sukkot celebrates the clouds that protected Israel in the desert, while they wandered for forty years. These clouds were the Shekhinah (presence of HaShem). The Shekhinah protected Israel from all sides and from above. The tabernacles are also a celebration of the tents the Israelites lived in while they wandered in the desert.

The reason for celebrating Sukkot after Yom Kippur is that after atoning on Yom Kippur we are like a clean slate. With this fresh beginning, we are especially capable of fulfilling the mitzvah of Joy on Sukkot. Joy is an important part of the celebration.

Also, during the fall harvest, farmers would live in Sukkot on the edges of their fields while they completed the harvest.

Our Sukkah is in Georgia, USA. We made paper chains, by cutting multi-colored construction paper into strips, and linking them together. We used Swamp-Black-Eyed Susans on the Sukkah to add…