The Jewish holiday of Sukkoth, the “festival of booths,” starts tonight and lasts a week.
It is both a harvest festival and a commemoration of the years Jews spent wandering in the desert in Biblical times.
On the first day, you will take for yourselves a fruit of a beautiful tree, palm branches, twigs of a braided tree and brook willows, and you will rejoice before the lord your God for seven days.
-Leviticus 23:40
Jews traditionally build temporary sukkahs, or sheds that recall the wandering period.
These are often decorated with fruits and vegetables celebrating the harvest.
Sukkahs — or a space for a sukkah — are sometimes incorporated into synagogue complexes or private homes, and some are being preserved, either on the spot or in Jewish museums.
Also at Sukkoth, Jews ritually bind together four species of plants — an etrog, or citron (a citrus fruit similar to a big lemon); a lulav, or palm branch; two willow branches (aravot) and three myrtle branches. The lulav and etrog are so identified with Jewish practice that they have been powerful symbols of Judaism for centuries.
We wish you best wishes for a fruitful year!
Here are some images related to the holiday and its symbols — including fruit, whose depiction is frequently used in the decoration of synagogues and in Jewish cemetery art.
The new branch of the Franconia Jewish Museum in Schwabach, Germany is located in a former Jewish home that includes a Sukkah with evocative wall paintings.
