Timely Program Ideas
Timely Program Ideas
Department of Congregational Programming
United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
155 Fifth Avenue,
New York, NY 10010
212-533-7800 ext 2620
TPI 7: Sukkot in July
In July?
While it may seem to be a bit early to begin thinking about Sukkot in the summer, advance planning and teaching can enhance the observance of any holiday or event.
The Autumn is such a busy period in the Jewish year, making early preparation essential. There is no better time than the summer to teach people about the Autumn holidays and to prepare and plan special programs.
The Sukkah: Let's Build it Together
Use the summer to teach, encourage and enable congregants to build their own Sukkot.
Building a sukkah and using it for meals over the holiday is one of the most beautiful observances of the Jewish year and can create lasting memories for the entire family. Sukkot can be a holiday that our members look forward to the entire year.
While many people in our congregations enjoy the synagogue and other members' sukkot, they lack the confidence to build one themselves. They believe that it is too difficult and that they don't have the skill. Yet, this is a mitzvah that every family can observe and enjoy.
The summer provides an ideal time to show them that they can build their own sukkot and that if they do so, the satisfaction will be enormous.
Building a Sukkah is a Class Act
Organize a class during a weekend in July or August to train synagogue members to build their own sukkot. During the class actually build a sukkah (or more than one), letting all the participants help. Distribute blueprints (available from the USCJ Department of Congregational Programming, ext. 2620, and in The Jewish Catalogue.
A Sukkah Kit
If you make the sukkah building as easy as possible, it will encourage members with two left thumbs to have their own sukkot. (These kits could be sold at cost; or as part of a fund raiser; or the profit could be used for tzedakah.) To help encourage people to build their own sukkot your synagogue could buy the materials needed for the sukkot in bulk; in effect putting together kits for "build your own sukkot.
- Organize a committee to put the Sukkah Kits together. These could be sold to congregation members. The committee could help to erect these sukkot.
- In some congregations, upon request, members of USY go around to congregants’ houses and build a sukkah. In this case the home owner is required to cover the cost of the sukkah and to make a donation to the USY Tikun Olam fund.
A Sukkah in the Shul
The rabbi of Moses Montefiore Synagogue in Appleton, WI built a sukkah inside his synagogue at the beginning of the summer. Detailed instructions and blueprints were included with the sukkah showing congregants how easy it was to build.
Building a Sukkah can be a Sharing Experience
Another opportunity for encouragement can be found when families build their own sukkot. Ask the families in your congregation that build their own sukkot to invite another family from the congregation to share in the building process. This will enable the other family to observe the mitzvah of building a sukkah, and will allow them to see that it is possible to do, and can be an enjoyable religious experience for the entire family.
The guest family should be encouraged to bring fruit and other decorations to hang in the sukkah. Their own work will give them a sense of real participation and ownership of the sukkah.
During Sukkot, the families should share a meal (or meals) together in their sukkah so that both families can share the enjoyment and observance of the holiday.
Begin planning this (and all) project(s) well before Sukkot.
Sharing The Experience
Sukkot is also an ideal time for congregants to join together and share in the observance of the holiday. The sukkah lends itself to joint family as well as congregational dinners and many other activities.
A Sukkah Hop
One night during Sukkot plan a progressive dinner from sukkah to sukkah. Members of the congregation are divided into small groups. (Check with the families who have sukkot to see how many people they are willing to accommodate). Each small group will begin the evening at the house of a synagogue family that has a sukkah. At this sukkah they will eat the first course of a meal.
After they finish this course (at a set time) they will then go to another family with a sukkah for the next course of the meal. Each family could be given their own itinerary, so that they will be with a different group of members for each part of the meal.
Continue moving from house to house until dessert. Everyone then joins together for this course in the synagogue sukkah. Conclude the evening with a special program at the synagogue.
Things to note:
- Be sure to distribute kashrut standards so that everyone will feel comfortable during the evening.
- Check to see if anyone has special needs (e.g., a special diet). Take care, if possible, to cater for these needs.
- Families with the sukkot should not have to do all the cooking. Either put together a committee to share the burden or ask all the participants to help with the meals.
Sukkah Outreach
Sukkot can be an excellent time to reach out to less committed or less knowledgeable Jews in the community. Recruit host families from your congregation who have their own sukkot and are willing to host another (or more than one) family during the holiday. Be sure that they understand that their role as hosts is to share their observance and to teach by example.
The host families should invite another family, drawn from a specially prepared list, for a holiday dinner where the host family shares their observance of the Sukkot rituals with their guests.
Some of the people included on this list could be new members, potential members, families with young children entering the Hebrew school, young couples, or long term members who have not been active in the synagogue.
It is best if this list is drawn up by the rabbi and other synagogue professionals. Be sure to train the host families so that they understand their role - to share and not to force. You may also want to re-enforce their understanding of the Sukkot rituals and teach them songs that could be used.
This training is best carried out by the rabbi, cantor, educator or other synagogue professionals.
This type of program will encourage the guest families to take on the observances of Sukkot. It will also help them to feel more comfortable and part of your synagogue.
Remembering the Desert
The sukkot that we build to celebrate the holiday remind us both of the conclusion on the harvest, and of the temporary shelters that our ancestors lived in as they wandered for forty years in the desert. Even as we celebrate the joys of the harvest we are reminded of the pain caused by hunger and homelessness. Just as we remember the homelessness of the desert, so too must we remember the homeless of our own community.
Sukkot's connection with the harvestin the Land of Israel also reminds us that the forty years of wandering had an end, when our ancestors came to Eretz Yisrael. This can remind us of our own wanderings, and the messianic redemption that lies ahead of us. This redemption, however, will only come if we work to bring it.
On Sukkot our ancestors brought offerings to the Temple to thank God for the abundance of the harvest. Now that the Temple no longer stands, we should look for new ways both to thank God and to share the abundance that God has bestowed upon us.
Tikun Olam Sukkot
In years past, the Jewish Theological Seminary’s sukkah was decorated with large amounts of fruit. When the recent homeless crisis hit New York, however, it was realized that food which could be eaten by the poor was going to waste. The Seminary, therefore, invested in plastic fruit and in fruit that would not spoil over the holiday. The money that would have been spent on fruit was used to feed the hungry of New York.
Organize a collection in your synagogue to help the poor and hungry of your community over Sukkot.
- Instead of decorating the congregational and home sukkot with fruit that will spoil, use plastic fruit, fruit that will not spoil, and decorations made by children in the synagogue. People might also decorate their sukkot with cans, bags and boxes of fruit that they intend to donate to the homeless and hungry.
- Ask members to make donations to a synagogue fund for the hungry and homeless with the money that was not spent on fruit. The synagogue also should make a donation to the fund. To identify places to donate the money you may want to contact your local federation or MAZON (or MAZON CANADA) chapter.
- Ask members to bring donations of fruit and food to the synagogue to be given to local soup kitchens.
- To encourage congregants to have Tikun Olam Sukkot, organize a competition, with prizes, for-the most beautiful sukkah which does not use fruit that spoils.
- If you live in a location where fruit will not spoil: When you take the fruit down from the sukkah put it in decorative baskets and have religious school children bring it to local facilities for the elderly, and to local hospitals.
Be sure to include the children in all aspects of this program so that they will understand the importance of personal tzedakah.
Make A Lulav Shake
One of the most beautiful images of Sukkot is the procession of Jews carrying the lulav and etrog after the Torah during the Sukkot morning services. Every additional person, with his or her own lulav and etrog, adds to the color and beauty of the service.
"Make a Lulav Shake" a program developed by Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum of Congregation Beth Israel, Worcester, MA, is now a joint program of The United Synagogue and the Rabbinical Assembly.
"Make a Lulav Shake" is an exciting way to encourage congregants to purchase and learn about the use of lulav and etrog. The program involves a serious advertising campaign including posters, buttons, tape and tee-shirts. It also includes educational material to help congregants understand the mitzvah.
Synagogues that used the material in the past year reported a phenomenal increase in the number of congregants who came to services with their lulav and etrog.
Kits, including all the materials needed to begin the campaign, may be ordered from The United Synagogue Department of Education (ext. 2500).
Ordering a Lulav
You can order Lulav sets from the United Synagogue Book Service. They sell a variety of different qualities at reasonable prices. They are guaranteed to be kosher and Israeli.
Educational institutions and Synagogues receive a special low price, and those who order 25 sets or more will receive a free set.
For more information contact Book Services directly at 212-533-7800 (ext. 2004).
