In celebration of Succoth, the Festival of Tabernacles, the Sukkah is built. This holiday takes place in the fall at the end of the Jewish High Holidays. It is a temporary structure and must be built with that in mind. The walls are usually made of wood. The roof is made of leaves so that the light of day and the starlight of night peer into this “home.” Meals are taken in the Sukkah.
There are many meanings to this sukkah, this tabernacle. It represents the life of the Jews wandering through the desert for 40 years, learning to become one nation unafraid of freedom. They were transitional homes for a transitional time: A time between enslavement and freedom. A moving forward toward the Promised Land.
So in memory of those precarious times, we live for a week in a temporary home to remind us of the fragility of freedom, the need to refrain from allowing fear to take hold of us and lead us back to enslavement. We think about the fragility of life, of one’s home, of one’s security. At any time we could be in a temporary shelter. It is also a time to remember those who live in temporary homes for too long, or are homeless. It is another moment in the year to remember and be grateful for our blessings and empathize with those who are oppressed and downtrodden.
