Sunday, / July 6, 2025
Home / news

Sukkah Hopping Round the World

By , LUBAVITCH WORLD HEADQUARTERS

It’s that time of year when those odd looking, ramshackle huts appear on every other porch and yard in Jewish neighborhoods around the world.

The Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkot, is the eight day festival when all meals are taken in these makeshift abodes. Constructed out of wood, fiberglass, cloth or every which material, but sized according to rabbinic specs, the Sukkahs are topped by bamboo and pine-thatched roofs sparse enough for the stars to peek through at night.

Sukkot begins tonight (Wednesday, September 29) and concludes with Simchat Torah which runs into Shabbat, Saturday, October 9. In contrast to the somber high holidays of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, the spirit of this festival is decidedly joyful with lots of mirth and merrymaking.

Another indicator of Sukkot is the prevalence of the lulav, or palm branch bound with myrtle and willow, that is taken with the etrog, the citron–that lemon-look-alike. These four species—symbolic of our embrace of the varieties among our people—are held together and blessed daily during Sukkot.

Sukkahs come in all varieties. There are small, one-person capacity pop-up Sukkahs for the traveling observer who won’t even eat on the run outside a Sukkah, mobile Sukkahs like the one on the Chabad gondola in Venice, Italy, or the largest one we know of, in Kfar Chabad, Israel, big enough to hold 900 people. In the course of the eight-day holiday, Lubavitch.com will feature some of the coolest models constructed by our Chabad centers around the world.

Comment

Be the first to write a comment.

Add

Related Articles
Chabad on Wheels: A Lifeline for Jews in Rural Alabama
Isolation, intermarriage, and evangelical activism threaten to chip away at Jewish identity in America’s Deep South. Chabad on Wheels offers a hands-on solution — bringing…
My Shabbat in Cyprus
When life gives you lemons…find a Chabad House. Let me begin at the end. I have always admired Chabad. Their passion and commitment to every…
Ireland’s Jews Respond to Hate
Over one-third of Irish Christians polled in 2024 believed that Jews “still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust.” The findings,…
Custom Made: What is the Power of the Minhag?
Stranded in the Australian outback, the small team of explorers were exhausted, hungry, and a thousand miles from home.  Robert Burke and William Wills had…
Newsletter
Donate
Find Your Local Chabad Center
Magazine