If you’ve been following along with me throughout the High Holidays, I’ve been talking about how I’ve been finding my own ways to find meaning in the Jewish holidays and traditions this year. I took a great class with GatherDC that was a deep dive into the High Holiday season, and we discussed how Sukkot is also included in that time of year.
According to the Torah, Sukkot is a week long festival – the Torah says a few different things about it, including things about living in booths (or sukkah), gathering different kinds of plants, and rejoicing (see Leviticus 23:39-43 and Deuteronomy 16:13-15; and thanks to GatherDC for gathering these resources as part of the class). After the holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, where I know I personally have been contemplating some pretty heavy stuff, I feel ready to celebrate and focus on joy in my life for a bit, too!
Once or twice when I was in college, I had a meal in a sukkah, which is a sort of hut or booth that is typically built outdoors with a roof that can be seen through. According to the rabbis in the Talmud, it’s made so that it can “withstand ordinary wind.” They are also typically decorated with fruit, and, as folks are able, people with eat and even sleep in their sukkah.
This year, I decided I wanted to make my own sukkah at home and indoors for several reasons: 1) I’m trying to engage with Jewish practices I find meaningful (more on that below), 2) I didn’t really want to travel to anyone else’s sukkah because of social distancing issues, and 3) I live in an apartment with none of its own outdoor space, so I had to make it indoors!
So, I first want to note that my sukkah is likely not halachic, meaning it doesn’t meet what is technically required to be a sukkah according to the rabbis in the Talmud and/or the Torah itself. If that’s something that is of concern to you, I would always recommend talking to your rabbi! However, for me, I was more focused on finding meaning in my own practice, and I really felt I was able to do that through creating and dwelling in the sukkah, even indoors.
As someone who lives in an apartment with no outdoor space and who is spending more time indoors than normal because of our COVID situation, time and nature and the seasons feel a little weird right now. It felt especially meaningful to decorate a part of my space based on the fall season. Sukkot was intended partly as a harvest festival as well, so this to me also feels in line with some of the original intention.
I also decided to use tulle for the “roof” and “walls.” Not very sturdy, I know! But the idea I had in mind is the it’s see through like you could be looking up at the stars, and from the right angles, you can see out of the windows of my apartment from the sides of the sukkah to the sky. With the windows open and the breeze blowing in, it sometimes does feel like you’re outside.
Lastly, I used wooden dowels about three feet long and hot glued them together to make them 6 feet tall as the supports for the sukkah. As supports, well, they aren’t all that supportive – I actually had to do a good amount of work to get them to stay. The front two have been staked into plant pots and the back two are weighted down by miniature pumpkins and other gourds. Some have had to be stabilized by being tied to furniture like chairs (I’m a big fan of using what you already have at your disposal).
It all seems like it’s hanging by a thread doesn’t it? Okay, it’s not that fragile, but it isn’t the strongest sukkah there’s ever been. But it reminds me of another quote from my deep dive class written by Alan Lew in his work, “The Stars Are Shining On My Head: Sukkot,” This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared: The Days of Awe as a Journey of Transformation, p. 265-267:
In the sukkah, a house that is open to the world, a house that freely acknowledges that it cannot be the basis of our security, we let go of this need. The illusion of protection falls away, and suddenly we are flush with our life, feeling our life, following our life, doing its dance, one step after another.
That’s what I will be thinking about this year as I spend some time in my indoor sukkah. Sukkot starts tonight (October 2) at sundown and lasts for at least 7 days. Perhaps you’d like to make your own indoor sukkah – you can find instructions for replicating my sukkah below. Or maybe you have other traditions for making Sukkot meaningful – let me know in the comments below or message me at @thejewishvegan on Instagram. And, as always, if you have any questions don’t hesitate to reach out.
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DIY Indoor Sukkah
Equipment
- 4-8 wooden dowels (either 3 ft long [8 of them] or 6 ft long [4 of them])
- hot glue (only necessary if you have 8 dowels)
- materials to stabilize your dowels (I used 2 plant pots filled with dirt and 2 floral foam bricks weighted down with miniature gourds)
- tulle
- string (I used twine because it went with the theme and feel I was going for)
- some chairs to both sit on and stabilize your poles (as needed)
- other decorations
Ingredients
- your favorite challah try my basic challah recipe!
Instructions
- Hot glue your dowels together if needed. I glued the two ends together at the very end and then also placed glue around the outside where the two dowels met to provide extra support. Hold the dowels together until the glue starts to get hard and then let it sit for 30 minutes or so to completely cool and dry before trying to build your sukkah.
- Once all of your poles are created, place them in your stabilizing materials, whether that's plant pots or floral foam bricks or something else you've decided to use. You can now place them where they will stand in the room.
- Once the dowels are in place, tie one end of the tulle to one pole at the top and string it the pole to the left, letting it droop a bit in the middle. Repeat with the pole to the right and diagonally across, until all the poles are connected and you've created a very basic "roof."
- On three sides of the sukkah, drape more tulle over the "roof" pieces so that they touch the ground. These are your "walls."
- Arrange any furniture, such as chairs or small tables, within the sukkah to support the dowels and to use while you celebrate sukkot! You can use the twine to attach the dowels to the furniture as needed.
- Lastly, decorate with any decorations you'd like to use. I used fall produce and fake flower/greenery, leaves, candles (safely!), string lights, ect. The dowels are a little dainty, so I would only recommend trying to stick anything very, very light to them.