The feast of Sukkot is about to end. It has started Friday evening a week ago and will end by tomorrow evening. For most people I know, Sukkot means yet another one of those endless holidays, when thousands of people come and crowd the public places; there is more traffic than usual on the streets in the cities. Every day, when walking around in Hayarkon park between the Tel Aviv harbor area and the Shikun Lamed neighborhood, you can smell day after day the smoke of grilled meet and of nargila water pipes. On the Hayarkon river, where normally only kayakers and rowers rush up and down the river, one can see here and there pedalo boats or slow and frail little motor boats for families - a sure sign that this is a holiday, but not a Shabbat. On Saturdays, all the shops for boat renting are closed and you won't see anybody on the Hayarkon (there is no need to swim in it either, since the Hayarkon is notoriously dangerous and with the seashore at about several hundreds meters distance).
For those who are not religious, Sukkot means, mainly for those who have young children, that if you have ths space for it, you will build a kind of hut or square tent on your balcony or in the garden, for the sake of the children, because it is so exciting, while it keeps you connected to an ancient tradition as well. The kids often craft colorful paper decorations to decorate the inside of the "sukka" and on the first evening, dinner will be served in this hut, and perhaps once more on the next day. If the weather (and the parents too) allows it, the kids may sleep in this hut and be tremendously excited about it. By the end of the 8 days of Sukkot, most families will have lost interest in sitting in their sukka, because it is so fussy and so much work to move the dining table and the chairs in there. When those days will be finally over, many people will feel that at last, now we can resume normal life, as much of the work has been halted during the last few weeks.
For the religious people, this is a totally different story. The first and the last day of Sukkot are feast days, meaning that work is not permitted, like on Shabbat. Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles or Festival of Booths, commemorates the ancient times when the Jews, after the Exodus out of Egypt, became desert dwellers for fourty years. Eating daily in the Sukka is a mitzva. But no less important is the celebration of "arba'at ha-minim", "the four kinds": "lulav", a palm branch, "aravot", willows (two), "haddassim", myrtle twigs (at least three), and "etrog", a citron (looks like a big lemon). Sukkot cannot be celebrated without them. On the market places for the religious people, each one of those plants are offered distinctly. The etrog and the lulav are by far the most expensive. The lulav has to be of good quality; typically, on the days before Sukkot eve, myriads of religious men hang around the lulav and etrog vendors and examine them as if they were diamonds. A good etrog may cost more 100 $ and even more; the expensive ones are kept in cardboard boxes cushioned inside with cotton wool or a rug and the yellowish huge lemon is being treated like a precious gem stone. The specialized vendors even hold an examination glass, like diamond cutters.
Several years ago, an Israeli couple of actors, who had become religious, made a beautiful film about Sukkot and about the mitsva of welcoming guests in the Sukka, even when one is wretched poor - the film's title was "Ha-Ushpizin", meaning "guests welcoming" in Aramaic (see: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0426155/).
During the days in between the first and the last day, the holidays are called "chol ha mo'ed Sukkot", the weekdays of the festival; this means that even the religious people may drive their car, ignite fire and cook. But it is recommended not to go to work during those days, as people should spend their time with their family. The secular people, who all year round feel that they have the countryside, the parks and the cafes 9and even TV) for themselves all year round during Shabbat, all of a sudden see their surrounding invaded by bunches of religious families - and orthodox families have an average of seven children per couple, often all dressed up in a similar way, in dull colors - bluish, grey or black, with white shirts. In public parks one can see groups of orthodox families hanging around together, enjoying the fresh air and the green space, while being surrounded by men and women in tight jogging suits, young women and girls in sleeveless tops and shorts; the religious people seem to superbly ignore all this, as if there was an invisible screen separating between them. I have often heard people around m saying: "On Sukkot, when we actually would have the time to travel around in the country, it is in fact impossible to enjoy it, because the datiim (the religious) are all over the place." Many people choose to use that time to travel abroad: about half a million of Israelis have bought flight tickets and holiday packages for this period, most of them went somewhere in Turkey or Greece.
Chag Sameach! Happy holiday!
