Source
You shall dwell in booths for seven days; every citizen of Israel shall dwell in booths. So that your generations will know that I housed the Children of Israel in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt; I am the Adonai, your God.
Leviticus 23:42–43
בַּסֻּכֹּת תֵּשְׁבוּ שִׁבְעַת יָמִים; כָּל הָאֶזְרָח בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל יֵשְׁבוּ בַּסֻּכֹּת. לְמַעַן יֵדְעוּ דֹרֹתֵיכֶם כִּי בַסֻּכּוֹת הוֹשַׁבְתִּי אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּהוֹצִיאִי אוֹתָם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם: אֲנִי ה’ אֱ-לֹהֵיכֶם
Foundations for Planning
Essential Questions
- How are symbols used in celebrations and holidays?
- Why are holidays, rituals, customs, important to me, my family, and my community?
- How is the Torah story my story?
Content Questions Related to the Essential Questions
- How do symbols help us to remember things that are important?
- What does the sukkah symbolize?
Background for Teacher
Every year, we are asked to “dwell in a booth (sukkah).” The root of the word סוכה (sukkah) is ס-כ-כ. That root also gives us the word סכך (schach) – the roofing material that shelters and protects us as we sit in the sukkah....
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Every year, we are asked to “dwell in a booth (sukkah).” The root of the word סוכה (sukkah) is ס-כ-כ. That root also gives us the word סכך (schach) – the roofing material that shelters and protects us as we sit in the sukkah. The sukkah itself must be a temporary structure that is rebuilt each year just before the holiday. (However, if permanent walls are to be used, we need only add new schach each year.) The sukkah is built according to detailed halachic rules and, over the holiday of Sukkot, we are commanded to treat the sukkah like our home and carry out our main home activities in the sukkah, with an emphasis on eating and sleeping.
More than anything else, this temporary structure is a symbol which is meant to remind us of the Children of Israel’s wandering in the desert after they left Egypt.
There are two explanations as to how the sukkah reminds us of that wandering in the desert:
– Over the course of their wandering, the Children of Israel lived in temporary structures that they assembled and then took apart at each place they stopped.
– The Torah says that, in the desert, God used Clouds of Glory to protect them from enemies and wild animals:
וַעֲנַן ה’ עֲלֵיהֶם יוֹמָם בְּנָסְעָם מִן הַמַּחֲנֶה
And the cloud of the Lord was upon them during the day when they traveled from the camp. Numbers 10:34
The sukkah reminds us of the Clouds of Glory.
The structure of the sukkah and some of the mitzvot that are associated with the sukkah are meant to help those who sit in the sukkah to connect with this memory of the desert: the memory of leaving Egypt; how God provided food, drink and physical protection for the Jewish people throughout the 40 years of their wandering; and how after all that time living in temporary structures, God brought them to the land of Canaan and gave that land to them.
- Show a short video of some sort of ceremony, for example: the Yom HaZikaron ceremony for fallen soldiers at the Western Wall, the awarding of an Olympic medal to an athlete from your country or the Sorting Ceremony from the Harry Potter movie. Ask the students to each make a list of five symbolic actions or items in the video that you watched. Divide the students into pairs. In the pairs, have each student tell the other about the significance of one of the items from their list. Then, think together about symbolic actions or objects in other ceremonies (ex. school ceremonies, national ceremonies or ceremonies associated with the Jewish calendar). Examples of symbols that appear in the Yom HaZikaron ceremony: the Israeli flag, the Western Wall, a memorial (yahrtzeit) candle, the song Hatikvah, standing at attention, and people who are also symbols, such as the president of the state of Israel and the chief rabbi.
With the whole class together, ask different students to tell about the symbols they noticed and their significance. List the symbols that they mention on the board.
Conclude by noting that the symbols that were discussed are actions or objects that have broad significance, greater than what might be noted at first glance, and that additional knowledge is needed to understand their significance. Explain that today we will learn about another such symbol.
Click here to view our consolidated list of suggested interactive pedagogies for classroom discussion.
- What does the sukkah symbolize for us? What is it supposed to remind us of?
- Why is it important to remember that the Children of Israel lived in temporary structures in the desert?
- In what other ways can we remember the story of the Children of Israel in the desert?
- We could just talk about the wandering in the desert without building a sukkah. Why do you think the Torah commands to sit in a sukkah? What does this experience add?
- Why do you think that we invest so much time and effort in building something that we’re going to need to take down in a week?
- Why is it important to remember events in Jewish history?
- Over the long term, how can we remember events in our own personal lives and collective events experienced by the Jewish people?
- Suggest an additional symbol for Sukkot that you believe would help us to remember the story of the Children of Israel’s wandering in the desert.
- Think about another Jewish holiday. What symbols are associated with that holiday? What do those symbols represent?
- Together, we will try to recreate the national memories evoked by the sukkah; we will try to connect with the story of wandering in the desert. One student will begin by speaking in the first-person about their life as a child leaving Egypt. After one sentence, the next student will continue the story.
- Symbolic actions and objects are part of many important days on the Jewish calendar. Distribute the worksheet detailing symbols of different days in the Jewish year. Have each student choose two symbols and fill in the information about them. You can also make this a homework assignment and ask the students to fill in the missing information with the help of family members or the internet. In the empty space, have them draw an additional symbol and explain its meaning.
- Study the resource The Sukkah – Permanence and Temporariness, which discusses transforming the sukkah from a temporary dwelling into a permanent one.
- The resource “The Sukkah” for young children includes information about the laws of the sukkah.