Rejoice in the CBI Sukkah!
Dear Congregation Beth Israel members and friends,
Four days after Yom Kippur we enter the festival of Sukkot. (Deep thanks to Jen Burt and family for once again building and decorating the beautiful CBI sukkah.) This year Sukkot begins at sundown on Monday, September 20.
The mitzvot of Sukkot include sitting in the sukkah — rejoicing in the sukkah — taking up the lulav and etrog in the sukkah — enjoying the sukkah — communing with the ancestors in the sukkah… reflecting on our impermanence, and on the beauty of our lives, in the sukkah…
The CBI sukkah is open to you at any time during the week-long festival. If others are in the sukkah with you, please keep appropriate physical distance and/or don your mask to help keep others safe (especially if there are children present, since we know that children are not yet able to be vaccinated.)
Feel free to bring a picnic meal with you to the sukkah if that feels safe to you. We still aren’t doing communal meals at the synagogue for reasons of COVID safety, so we will not be having a potluck. (You are welcome to bring food into the sukkah if your risk tolerance permits — we just won’t be hosting a communal meal there.) Or bring a sleeping bag and camp out overnight! Use the sukkah however works best for you. It belongs to all of us.
Shabbat Sukkot
On the Friday night of Sukkot, join us in the sukkah at 5:30pm.
There will be an opportunity to bentsch lulav (take up the lulav and etrog, make the blessing, beckon the flow of blessing in every direction.) If you need a refresher on how to do it, I’m happy to assist!
Enjoy the sukkah and the labyrinth for as long as you would like. Let’s take advantage of the warm weather and be together in the sukkah as a community!
When you’re ready to depart, take a honey packet and an apple with you, so sweetness will accompany you into Shabbat.
Blessings to all as we approach Yom Kippur, then Shabbat, and soon Sukkot!
Rabbi Rachel
