The eight-day Festival of Sukkot begins this year at sundown on October 16 and concludes with Simchat Torah, on October 25.
“Simchat Torah” — “The Joy of Torah,” is meant to be celebrated as the most jubilant day on the Jewish calendar. It comes after the intense High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and marks the completion of the annual Torah-reading cycle. But last year, the joy was woefully disrupted when Simchat Torah coincided with the October 7 massacre.
This year, with the war in Israel and Jews worldwide feeling besieged, Chabad will invest greater effort to raise Jewish awareness of the Festival of Sukkot and present Jews everywhere with opportunities to celebrate with pride
Chabad rabbinical students and representatives will be easy to spot with the lulav and etrog—the “Four Kinds” of species symbolic of Jewish unity, which are customarily brought together inside the Sukkah.
Pickup-truck-mounted “Sukkah-Mobiles” will be roving the streets of cities and towns everywhere, inviting pedestrians into the Sukkah to shake the lulav and enjoy a kosher treat. Sukkahs will also top trailers, cargo bicycles—even horse-drawn wagons, making the holiday accessible to all.
The largest sukkah-mobile this year will be sailing the high seas.
As the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln continues its mission in the Arabian Sea defending Israel and deterring Iranian aggression, it will have a symbol of G-d’s protection aboard ship as well. Chabad-Lubavitch emissary and Aleph Institute chaplain Lieutenant Yehoshua Rubin, who is the chaplain for Carrier Air Wing Nine, arranged for the construction of a sukkah aboard Lincoln.
Rubin’s first hurdle was finding a spot on the carrier open to the sky, as required for a sukkah. Once he found a spot on the ship’s weather deck, there were forms to fill and permissions to obtain, but it all came together in time for the holiday—as did Rubin’s set of the Lulav and Etrog, flown in from Bahrain on a carrier onboard delivery aircraft with a little help from Aleph, the Chabad organization serving Jews in the military.
For more information and to find a Chabad center near you, visit Lubavitch.com/centers
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