On the first day of SukkotLit. Booths or huts Sukkot is the autumn harvest Festival of Booths, is celebrated starting the 15th of the Jewish month of Tishrei. Jews build booths (sukkot), symbolic of the temporary shelters used by the ancient Israelites when they wandered in the desert. Traditionally, Jews eat and sleep in the sukkah for the duration of the holiday (seven days in Israel and eight outside of Israel). The lulav (palm frond), willow, myrtle, and etrog fruit are also waved together.
I hold the four species before me,
ready to shake.
The straight, strong spine of the date palm
mocks my own,
curved like an S since puberty,
two vertebrae fused in recent years.
The eyes of the myrtle leaves,
slightly out of focus this close to my face,
remind me of the seven pairs of reading glasses
strewn about my house,
never on me when I seem to need them.
The lips of the willow,
are so smooth,
not like the fine lines that are beginning to surround my aging lips.
I squeeze the etrogA lemon-like fruit (citron) used at Sukkot as one of the four species. Women desiring to get pregnant were given the pitom (stem) to eat after Sukkot. and smell it,
and my heart aches.
Then, like hearing an angel whisper in my ear, the words surface—
z’man simchateinu.
This is the season of our joy.
I laugh. How can joy be commanded?
It hides from us, around corners of fear,
and across chasms of grief,
sometimes completely out of reach.
Suddenly, I hear this commandment as a dare.
“I dare you to be happy.”
On the next day of Sukkot
I hold the four species before me
ready to shake.
The straight, strong spine of the date palm
reminds me
of all the times I’ve held my head high
while walking into the unknown.
The eyes of the myrtle leaves
awaken me to the blessings of fall colors—
crimson leaves, orange gourds,
the yellow cornstalks crisscrossed atop my sukkahLit. hut or booth A temporary hut constructed outdoors for use during Sukkot, the autumn harvest festival. Many Jews observe the mitzvah of living in the Sukkah for the week of Sukkot, including taking their meals and sleeping in the Sukkah..
The lips of the willow call to mind so many kisses,
lovers’ mouths,
the downy crowns of my newborns’ heads,
the brow of my dear friend’s body
just moments after her soul has left it.
I squeeze the etrog and smell it,
and my heart swells.
The mitzvahLit. Commandment. It is traditionally held that there are 613 mitzvot (plural) in Judaism, both postive commandments (mandating actions) and negative commandments (prohibiting actions). Mitzvah has also become colloquially assumed to mean the idea of a “good deed." is to take the dare.
