Sukkot, National Festival, Part I

This past weekend began the holiday of Sukkot, a week-long festival celebrating the harvest. I always felt that it was difficult to understand why any holiday should be a week long when living in the States. It wasn't until I spent the holiday here 11 years ago that I understood the point of such a length. Sukkot is a great time to be in Israel. You really get a sense of what a week-long festival means. Schools close, most people take off of work, and the whole country is on vacation it seems. Little huts (sukkot) can be seen on many of the porches--regardless of whether the residents are religious or secular. The park is filled with parents and their children. Tourist attractions are mobbed, and the hiking trails are well-trod. Kosher restaurants throughout the country erect sukkot so that you can sit in one even while dining out. Really it's just fun...and the weather is amazing--no huddling in your winter coat dodging rain drops.

We brought our sukkah from the States and were even able to clear the last few things off our porch in time to erect it for the holiday. We brought many of our decorations from the states, but I was charged with the task of getting a few more and of getting new lights as the ones we had were not compatible with the electric here, so I hit the shook last week at the height of Sukkot shopping. The variety of decorations is unbelievable and cheap--everything is made in China and probably will have to be replaced next year but will see. The fashion in sukkah decorations here is cheap metallic/tinsil. Very Christmas tree--in fact, I think that's the intended use for most of the decorations available. I got a few things to hang and then got some great lights--banana and strawberry shaped. Very cute--already half broken, oh well.Friday night was the first night of the holiday and the first night that we sat in the sukkah. Although the night was comfortably cool, it was a little warm in the sukkah. The next day we had Yossi, Jen, and the boys as well as three of Yossi's students from the program that he runs over for lunch. It was stifling hot in the sukkah; although it was completely in the shade. Yossi pointed out to us that we had a sukkah intended for use in the U.S. The "windows" of the sukkah were covered in plastic, intended to keep out the cold and rain. Here in Israel, sukkah windows are made of mesh to allow for air flow. In our American sukkah, we were essentially cooking, so after Shabbat, Josh took a razor blade to the thing and removed the plastic windows altogether. Needless to say, air is now flowing--much better.
Saturday afternoon, Josh took Sidney on our synagogue's sukkah hop for kids. Four families opened their sukkot to the children of the community...and took the opportunity to load them up with sugar. Crembo (chocolate covered marshmallows and graham cookies), shluk (Israeli equivalent to the freeze pop), chocolate cookies, and more shluk rounded out the stops. Josh likened it to trick-or-treating without the costume.
Sunday Sidney woke up not feeling well, and by noon had broken out with a fever. By four her fever was about 102 F and didn't seem to be responding to medicine, so we decided to call a doctor. One problem: We have yet to get her a doctor. I got a recommendation and made a call. The office was closed. In fact all doctor's offices in the city were closed--they only work mornings during the holiday week. So we called the HMO hotline to find out what we needed to do. They gave us two choices: take her to the emergency medical facility or get a private doctor to come to the house. Both seemed like overkill since her fever wasn't rising. We figured a call to the medical facility might be sufficient but no one answered the phone. I was getting frustrated and bit nervous and called a friend to get advice. Here's what we were missing: Our HMO hotline also has an option of 24 hour phone consultation with a nurse--just what we needed! Called them and waited on hold...for 23 minutes...until I gave up because Sidney's fever had already started coming down. At least, we'll know what to do next time.
Oh yes, and all this was happening about an hour before we were expecting 15-20 guest for an open sukkah party. Turned out great. Sidney was better and we got to see lots of old friends from Camp Ramah: Ronnie, Minda, Tova, Jen + kids, Hillary, Alex, Sima, Guy and Dror.
Monday we went to Jerusalem, to the Israel Museum where they had special activities in the Art Garden. We went with Jen, Nadav and Eitan. The kids chose to work with clay. They were charged with sculpting the clay like one of several fruits on the table. After taking on several different fruits, Sidney finally settled on making pizza--one of her favorite things to make with clay. We then stayed for a drumming performance and the kids got to try their hands at the various rhythm instruments. It was a fun event.

Today we did a great thing that I highly recommend to anyone touring Israel. The absorption department of our town scheduled a great activity open to all new immigrants of our town--A trip to Neot Kedumim, a Bibilical nature reserve. They have plants and animals as well as agricultural tools that are described in Biblical texts. It's a really cool place.When we first got off the bus, we were greeted by a deluge of rain. For about 5-10 minutes, it poured. We were soaked. It was interesting to see the reaction of the children in the group. In the States, they would have cried or complained, but here everyone was perfectly happy; it was as if they understood the importance of the rain--and anyway, five minutes later the sun was out, it was hot, and everyone was dry. In any case, we did a short hike through the preserve, stopping to learn about different plants native to the area and present in Biblical literature (figs, dates, wheat...). Sidney got to try her hand at grinding wheat flour. She made Za'atar from the hyssop plant, perfume from myrtle leaves (hadas)--and even hand weaved a basket. We got to taste date honey--the type of honey described in Biblical sources. They also had a special display of many different types of sukkot. It was a fun trip. We took lots of pics!Tonight, my cousins Ravit and Ariella came to visit. It was so nice sitting with them in the sukkah enjoying the evening air. Looking forward to more sukkot adventures tomorrow. We'll let you know what they are.