FILL OUT THIS FORM TO SUBMIT! DEADLINE 4 PM 10.9.20
Then either show off your Sukkah live during our October 9 ShaSimKot or you may submit photos and we will show your sukkah for you. ShaSimKot- is a celebration of Shabbat, Sukkot and Simchas Torah all “rolled” into one. Join us from your home or your sukkah via Zoom as we virtually tour community members’ sukkot (or you may submit photos instead), we welcome Shabbat and we virtually unroll the scroll. Check the calendar for the Zoom link.
• Two categories: Family Division or Open Division
• What: Create a sukkah in your back yard
• When: it needs to be complete with pictures and/or video sent to [email protected] with your names and a sukkah title by 10/9/20
• For What: So you can celebrate the mitzvah of eating meals, praying and sleeping in the suukkah.
• Winners: The winner of each category will have a catered meal for up to six people delivered to them to eat in your sukkah during sukkot.
Get some ideas from this incredible 2020 Sukkah Competition in New York City HERE.
Here’s what you need to know about the Sukkah gleaned from myjewishlearning.com and the JHJC:
1. According to Bet Shammai, the sukkah must be large enough to contain a man’s head, most of his body, and his table (Talmud, Sukkah 2:7).Needs to be big enough for kid(s) to fit inside comfortably to eat a snack or meal – extra credit if adults in your family can too.
2. The walls of the sukkah may be made of any material, but must be sturdy enough to withstand an ordinary wind (Code of Jewish Law, Orach Chayim 630: 10). Make sure it doesn’t fall down on anyone once it’s built.
3. It is meritorious to start building the sukkah immediately after Yom Kippur, even if it is Friday, because a chance to perform a precept should not be put off. One should choose for it a clean site. Everyone should build the sukkah,even if one is an eminent person (Code of Jewish Law, Condensed Version, Chapter 134).Get started quickly, because the pictures need to be submitted to be judged by 10/4/20.
4. There are many different opinions regarding the roofing of the sukkah. However, since we generally cover it with the branches of trees, or with reeds, which are detached products of the soil and not subject to defilement and are not tied together, there is no cause for scruples (Code of Jewish Law, Condensed Version, Chapter 134). Make a roof, and use some vegetation you have close by – with stuff that wouldn’t hurt if it falls. It’s extra nice if you can see the stars at night through the roof. Super fancy!
5. Enough boughs shoulds be placed upon the Sukkah so as tto have more shade than sun. If it has more sun than shade, is is invalid. It is therefore necessary to put on enough branches, so that even if they should dry up, there would sttill more shand than sun. (Code of Jewish Law, Condenced version, Chapter 134). Make the roof filled enough with branches so you’ll be comfortable with shade on a hot sunny autumn day (we can hope for one of those in Wyoming, can’t we).
6. A sukkah that is erected underneath the branches of a tree is invalid. Even if the branches by themselves would provide more sun than shade, and the sukkah has been adjusted by means of putting there on extra branches, it is, nevertheless, invalid (Code of Jewish Law, Condensed Version, Chapter 134).Try not to connect it to an existing tree in your yard…but really…if you want to for this experience….go for it.
7. The obligation may be fulfilled with a borrowed sukkah but not with one that is stolen. Hence, a sukkah may not be erected on a public place. In an emergency, however, when one has no other sukkah available, one may sit in such a sukkah and say the prescribed benediction (Code of Jewish Law, Condensed Version, Chapter 134). Indeed – don’t steal. And don’t make it randomly on someone else property – unless they want you to 🙂 And if you need help, we have the following architects on call to consult with design principles. For sukkah questions, email our JHJC member and architect Larry Thal at [email protected] or Rachel Ravitz at [email protected].
*A Special Note: As you join for any of our virtual High Holiday services, consider making it a special experience for your family and children. What can this look like: If it’s your custom to get dressed up fancy for High Holidays – do the same even if you’re just joining in person. Consider creating a special and sacred space in your house to “attend” virtual high holiday services. Maybe it’s not at your office desk – but in a different spot in the house. Consider working with your kids to figure out how to