On One Foot: Joshua Hammerman's Blog

Author of "Embracing Auschwitz" and "Mensch•Marks: Life Lessons of a Human Rabbi - Wisdom for Untethered Times." Winner of the Rockower Award, the highest honor in Jewish journalism and 2019 Religion News Association Award for Excellence in Commentary. Musings of a rabbi, journalist, father, husband, poodle-owner, Red Sox fan and self-proclaimed mensch, taken from essays, columns, sermons and thin air. Writes regularly in the New York Jewish Week and Times of Israel.

Friday, October 2, 2020

Shabbat-O-Gram and Sukkot, Oct. 2, 2020

In This Moment

Shabbat and Sukkot-O-Gram, Oct 2, 2020

Yom Kippur + Covid lockdown = Zero traffic. Photo from the Jerusalem Post

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Sukkot!

Our world continues to be topsy-turvy, what with today's news of the Trumps testing positive. We pray for their health - and pray for all who are ill. While we were met with that shocking news, Israelis are now in total lockdown - sort of - with the worst rate of contagion in the world. Read old friend Marc Schulman's detailed report from Newsweek on Israel's decline, and the lessons it can teach us.

Sukkot is a holiday where Jews typically do all the things we can't do as easily right now: congregate in large numbers to sing and dance. But we continue to seek ways to come together creatively. This Sunday, for instance, our 10 AM service will be more informal, and if the weather is good (as it is supposed to be), I'll be Zooming from the TBE Sukkah (thank you, Men's Club, for putting it up, and to all those who decorated it). I'll be there, shaking the lulav and etrog for all to see. If you have a sukkah at your home, Zoom in and give us a tour, so we can have our first-ever TBE virtual Sukkah Hop. Cantor Katie will be Zooming in from hers.

We'll have services tonight and tomorrow as well, of course, with wisdom shared by Rabbi Ginsburg (tonight) and Hank Silverstein (tomorrow).

We were up to the task of reinventing Passover and Shavuot, and even the High Holidays, for this unprecedented year. How can we do Sukkot? Some great recommendations can be found in this article. And check out this Sukkot Kahoot quiz.

We're going to be doing something very special next weekend for Simhat Torah: a Torah drive-by parade in our parking lot, with live music. Don't miss it! And sign up to have a meal in our Sukkah. Slots are still available.

With Sukkot a lonelier enterprise this year, with people lacking we can always find company in words. This inspiring "Sukkah With Words" is the work of old friend David Evan Markus and Rachel Berenblat, with the illustration by Steve Silvert.