First, you need the right tools.
A drill, some screws,
wood that isn’t warped
too badly. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
What doesn’t bend,
breaks, Ani crooned.
Next, you need a small crew.
Too many, you’re stepping on toes,
no one listens well.
Too small and it takes longer,
you’ll get crankier.
You need at least one other person
to hold things in place.
Now you’re ready to build.
There’s a sad 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. on Beacon street:
Four plywood walls and a plywood roof.
It looks like a shipping crate.
There’s another on Commonwealth Avenue
that’s more plastic wrap than branches,
twigs, or flowers. Simple bamboo roof
they unroll year after year.
No sukkah should be quite the same
as someone else’s,
or as it was last year.
Why build four walls
when you only have to build three?
Be open to the elements,
let people in.
Would it be so bad
if a raccoon or a homeless person slept here?
When you shake the lulavOn Sukkot, three of the four species (the palm, the myrtle, and the willow)Â are bound and waved together with the etrog. The lulav is said to symbolize the spine, while the myrtle's leaves symbolize eyes, the willow's leaves are lips, and the etrog is the heart. and 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.
don’t forget to take in the sweet citrus smell.
Shake in all four directions,
use your whole body.
