Sukkot and the Environment

by Mimi Plevin-Foust, FaCT Ohio Board Member

Following the Jewish New Year every fall, Jewish people worldwide celebrate a holiday called Sukkot known as the Feast of Tabernacles or Feast of Booths. It grows from the ancient custom of Israelis traveling to leave offerings at the Temple in Jerusalem after the harvest. Once there, they lived in small tents which also recall the years the Hebrews were said to have wandered in the desert after escaping slavery in Egypt.

Personally, I have many fond memories of putting up a sukkah from a kit in our back yard, its walls made of a deep green mesh tarp that glowed with afternoon light and shadows. The sukkah’s roof must be open enough to see the stars so I would buy evergreen boughs or long corn stalks and toss them across the thin boards overhead. My daughter and I decorated by hanging gourds and stringing homemade colorful felt or popcorn chains around the walls. Every sukkah I’ve seen has been a unique creative expression by the family that puts it up. 

These excerpts from an article in the Jewish Journal by Dominik Doehler describe Sukkot’s symbolism and the environmental insights it offers:

Sukkot and the Ecological Crisis

by Dominik Doehler, ZAVIT* Environment and Science News Agency

As one of the most important holidays in the Jewish calendar, Sukkot celebrates the harvest while remembering the Israelites arduous pilgrimage through the desert upon their escape from Egypt. At the same time, it can invite a period of reflection on humanity’s relationship with nature. What does Sukkot tell us in the times of climate change?

By tradition, Jewish people around the world commemorate this cheerful holiday by building a Sukkah, a self-made hut or booth, in which they are required to eat for seven consecutive days. Depending on individual religious practices, some even sleep in their Sukkahs. The walls are often free-standing with an open door to welcome neighbors, family, and other people to join in on the festivities.

While being exposed to the outdoors with only a little makeshift hut to provide shelter from the elements, it becomes hard not to acknowledge one’s own physical vulnerability but also the intrinsic bond between humans and nature.

A separate commandment involves taking and waving the four species – a citron fruit, the frond of a date palm, a myrtle bough, and a willow branch.

Reusing on Sukkot

According to Rabbi Yonatan Neril, founder and executive director of the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development in Jerusalem, there are a number of environmental linkages between Sukkot and ecology. “The four species which are being waved in prayer during Sukkot are all species that remain green during the dry season in the land of Israel. Sukkot comes at the time when the rainy season begins, so waving these four species connects to Jews beginning to pray for rain,” says Neril.

The second environmental linkage Neril mentions relates to the S’chach, which is the covering of the Sukkah that is made of vegetation. Neril says that according to the Talmud, Jewish farmers would use agricultural waste as their S’chach. “There is a teaching of Rabbi Natan of Breslov about the spiritual significance of taking agricultural waste and putting it as the S’chach in order to invite God’s imminent presence into the Sukkah. This teaching relates to reusing something that we otherwise would have thought of as waste.”

Neril refers to the waste of the grape harvest in September, which is followed by the Sukkot holiday. The reuse of the residue of the harvest, such as stems and leaves, instead of discarding them, is a fundamental lesson on reusing. It is especially relevant in today’s societies where use of disposable items is commonplace.

“We need to use everything in our possession to the fullest. This is a deep religious, ecological value. In that, there is a teaching against disposables because to use something once and then throw it out is not to use it to its fullest. We can use a durable cup hundreds of times,” Neril stresses.

Water and Sukkot

The third ecological connection between Sukkot and the environment that Neril discusses refers to the indispensability of water.

According to Neril, on Hoshana Raba, the seventh and last day of Sukkot, it is a religious custom to take five small willow branches and hit them into the earth as part of a prayer for rain.

“In my mind, this is one of the most ecological rituals in the Jewish tradition because willow trees only grow where there is an abundance of water. At this time of the year when the hillsides are dry, the willow tree is still green. Also, the ancient ritual of hitting the branches in the earth, touching the soil with the branches, is a physical act to ask God for rain, says Neril.

“In the society we live in today, where many people are disconnected from the earth, this is a very humbling idea,” he adds.

In Neril’s eyes, Sukkot is the perfect opportunity for everybody to spend time outside in their Sukkah and take a step back in order to reconnect with what society has lost in its relentless ambition to subjugate the natural world.

“We do have the power to degrade our common home, but the question remains, do we have the consciousness and the will to repair it?” he concludes.

Jewish Journal. (2019, October 14). Sukkot and the ecological crisis. https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/blogs/305467/sukkot-and-the-ecological-crisis/