Smaller celebrations will take place at the fall festival this year due to COVID
By Barbara Bayer
Contributing Writer
Sukkot, which begins at sundown tomorrow, Friday, Oct. 2, and concludes at nightfall on Friday, Oct. 9, seems to be the perfect holiday for the pandemic since it takes place outdoors. Still because many sukkahs are small in size it may not be as joyous for those who celebrate as it’s been in the past.
The good news is Sukkot is mainly celebrated at home and not in synagogue where in past years you could potentially come in contact with hundreds of people. According to the Reform movement on its URJ.com website, Sukkot is one of the most joyful festivals on the Jewish calendar. “Sukkot,” a Hebrew word meaning “booths” or “huts,” refers to the Jewish festival of giving thanks for the fall harvest. The holiday has also come to commemorate the 40 years of Jewish wandering in the desert after the giving of the Torah atop Mount Sinai.
The Book of Leviticus (23:42-43) portrays God as commanding: “You shall dwell in booths for seven days … that your generations may know that I made the Children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.” This passage is the biblical basis for building a sukkah.
To fulfill this commandment, many families build their own sukkah at home or visit the sukkah of other families. One such local couple is David and Joanna Slusky of Congregation Beth Shalom, who are carrying on traditions dating back to family sukkot in their childhood backyards.
“We’ve always constructed a sukkah when we could,” wrote the Sluskys in an email. They have been married nine years and have been a part of the Kansas City Jewish community since 2014.
David grew up with stories about his great-grandfather, a Sephardi rabbi. He immigrated to the United States from Salonika, Greece (also known as Thessaloniki), and built a sukkah on the fire escape of their apartment building in Spanish Harlem in the 1920s.
Similarly, when Joanna lived in Stockholm she built a sukkah on her balcony there. She spent four years working as a postdoctoral fellow at Stockholm University.
Unlike David’s great-grandfather, there were years the Sluskys couldn’t build their own sukkah “as we were living on the Upper West Side in New York City or Center City Philadelphia in apartments that didn’t have any outdoor space or balconies.”
“Those sukkot holidays were hard,” they said.
Zach Bassin grew up in the Kansas City Jewish community and has been constructing a sukkah in his yard for about seven years, again following family tradition.
“My parents had one while I was growing up,” Bassin said. “It was always a great event. All the family would come over for a large meal and I’m carrying on that tradition for my children. It’s my favorite festival and the ideals of it and being able to talk about that to my family.”
Kansas Citians for the past 10 years, Eva and Jason Sokol have constructed a sukkah at their home since they’ve been here.
“We have constructed it for the past 10 years,” wrote Eva Sokol in an email. “Before that, we lived in an apartment, so were unable to do so.”
The Sokols construct a sukkah yearly because it “symbolizes the time when the Jews were traveling without a home after they were freed from slavery in Egypt.”
For Eva, a former president of Congregation BIAV, it’s also a family tradition.
“Ever since I was born, I went to visit my grandparents’ house for this holiday and enjoyed spending time with them in their sukkah. I have enjoyed creating similar memories for my family,” she said.
Because of COVID, the Sluskys, Bassins and Sokols will not share the mitzvah of spending time in the sukkah as much as in the past. Just last year the Bassins were able to host about 70 people from The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah Brotherhood at a Sukkot barbecue.
“We’ve normally had large groups of friends and family over. This year will be very different. It’s mainly going to be us and maybe one or two other families that we’ve been outside with in our neighborhood that I would say are in our pod,” explained Bassin, who is a member of B’nai Jehudah’s Board of Trustees.
“It’s the right thing to do based on what’s going on in the world today and especially for our family, but it’s really hard,” he said. “It’s disheartening to have to do this. I look forward to being able to continue the tradition and hope for a larger celebration next year.”
In previous years, the Sluskys said they would entertain in their sukkah “almost every day.”
“During the main festivals family would come to visit from the East Coast and we’d also have friends from Beth Shalom visit. During chol hamoed we had friends from KU come by.” Both David and Joanna are associate professors at the University of Kansas.
This year, the Sluskys plan to build a smaller sukkah and not have any guests.
“At least with the smaller sukkah it will probably look more decorated?” they joked.
Typically the Sokols entertain a few times over the holiday.
“It’s highly unlikely that we can host in our sukkah because it is a very solid wooden structure and doesn’t allow for air flow,” said Eva Sokol, noting they are still considering their options. In the past, out-of-town family have been here to share the holiday but they are not traveling this year because of the pandemic.
The solid wooden structure the Sokols use for their sukkah is a family heirloom that was built by Eva’s grandfather in the mid-1950s.
“I love seeing his handiwork and the decorations that have survived through many rainstorms that were hung by my father and his siblings,” Eva said. “Each year we add some new decorations created by our children (Ruby, 11; Madeline, 8 and Samson, 2). We enjoy having family visit us during the holiday and hosting friends for festive meals.”
The Sluskys favorite thing about Sukkot is “eating in the sukkah and welcoming guests to our sukkah.”
“It’s a joyous time where we experience what it feels like to be more vulnerable and yet still protected,” they said.
Every year Zach and Lindsey Bassin enjoy the opportunity to be able to invite others over to share in the joy of Sukkot.
“I also enjoy being able to talk to my boys (Judah, 11; Asher, 8; and Naphtali, 2) about being able to give to those that don’t have — we do some work with Harvesters around that time as well,” Zach Bassin said.
The custom of assisting others who are in need goes back to Maimonides, who said proper observance of Sukkot requires that we feed those around us who are in need. ( www.urj.org )
