Jews in the D Sukkot
Festival of Huts Metro Detroit families adjust to celebrating Sukkot during the pandemic. BARBARA LEWIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
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OCTOBER 1 • 2020
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OVID-19 has led to creativity and innovation in Jewish observance, and the trend continues with Sukkot. Normally, Sukkot, the Festival of Huts, where temporary structures are built in yards to commemorate the temporary dwellings of Israelites during their 40 years in the desert, is a very social holiday. Celebrants welcome ushpizin — honored guests — into their sukkot and children enjoy “sukkah hopping” from one home to another, collecting treats at each. Congregations build large sukkot and hold communal meals. Social distancing protocol makes these practices difficult, if not impossible, so this year congregations and individuals are improvising. The leaders of Temple Beth El in Bloomfield Township thought about just not building their sukkah this year, but realized there are ways to use it safely. “The very nature of being an outdoor holiday makes Sukkot a perfect opportunity for us to celebrate in a safe way,” said Rabbi Mark Miller. Students who opt for Beth El’s in-person program (others are learning virtually) are meeting outdoors while the weather is still nice, wearing masks and maintaining social distancing; they will help decorate the temple’s sukkah, said Miller, as will preschoolers in the temple’s early childhood center. Congregants will be invited into the sukkah in small groups during the weeklong festival. Blessings over the lulav — the bundle of four types of tree branches — and etrog, a citron, will be posted on the wall where no one has to touch it. Congregants will wear gloves to handle them. Keter Torah in West Bloomfield normally erects a sukkah that seats 85. This year, Rabbi Sasson Natan is building one that will hold a table and four chairs for families that don’t have a sukkah at home. “They will do kiddush on wine and have a small piece of bread or cake — enough to fulfill the mitzvah of eating in the sukkah — and continue the festive meal at home,” he said. No more than four people will be in the sukkah together, and all must wear masks.
