A FAMILY LEGACY—My family still treasures the remaining portion of s’vach, the sukkah roofing, made by Minnie and Isaac Rosenthal of blessed memory in 1905. Standing with this remaining portion are members of my family. In upper left is Rachel Lachover Sadoff, a great-grandchild of Minnie and Isaac. Rachel’s father—Leonard Lachover of blessed memory—was a grandchild. Beside Rachel is Cookie Lachover, Leonard’s wife. Standing in front are Asa and Sloane Sadoff, great-great grandchildren of Minnie and Isaac. Sloane is also proudly holding the Hebrew alphabet that she made at school to decorate the sukkah. (Photos with this story courtesy of Rusty Rosman.)

Gathering Symbols of Our Jewish Culture—Young and Old

SUNSET, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16—Sukkot is the holiday of temporary booths or huts that the Jewish people erected in the desert on their way to the Promised Land.

Why in the world would we celebrate little huts? Just as we tell the story of going out of Egypt at Passover and celebrate the receiving of the Ten Commandments at Shavout, we erect sukkahs in the fall as we celebrate our ability to live freely and move about as we harvest what we planted to feed our families.

So what does a sukkah look like? It’s a temporary structure so it’s usually made out of boards that are latched together. Since we eat in it for only 7 days, it’s not too big but not too small. Big enough for a table to eat at with family and guests. Some very religious people choose to sleep in the sukkah.

The most important feature of every sukkah, wherever in the world it’s located, is a roof that you can see through to appreciate the stars in the sky at night. The roof is made of s’chach—or as we pronounce it s’vach—material from plants, which varies from palm fronds to bamboo to pine to reeds—laid out in a way that they will hold up during rain as well as sunshine.

Having your own sukkah at home is a thrill as well as an opportunity to pass down family traditions.

In my family, our most precious Sukkot memory is the roof covering. My grandparents, Minnie and Isaac Rosenthal of blessed memory, were a brand new husband and wife when they made their first sukkah in 1905. They went from the area they lived by the Eastern Market (in an area that is now part of I-375 in Detroit) to the Clinton River in Mt. Clemens. At that time, they rode the Detroit Urban Railway up the Gratiot line that ran from downtown Detroit all the way to Port Huron. They specifically went to the river in Mt. Clemens to gather reeds that they wove into a square grid. It took days to make quite a few grids to cover their sukkah.

Remember, this is a temporary structure used for only seven days so they had to be able to put it up, take it down and store it easily.

Today, 105 years later, only one grid remains of the roof covering but my family takes great care to preserve that section so lovingly made by Minnie and Isaac—a constant reminder of our family’s long legacy in southeast Michigan. Now, I am thankful that the preservation of that hand-woven s’chach is in the hands of my second cousin and that part of our family tree.

Each year, it’s fun to decorate the sukkah with pictures, fruits and vegetables hanging from the roof supports. When I was a child, I loved making pictures to decorate the walls—and the same when I was a parent—and, this year, I was so pleased to see little Sloane with her Hebrew alphabet all ready to display in the sukkah.

When I was young, I remember my grandmother teaching us how to make birds out of eggs! First, you blow out the insides of a raw egg—you twice poke a needle into it across from each other—and gently blow the insides out. Then very carefully, we’d glue feathers on to make a bird and even more carefully, paint the egg blue like a robin’s egg. If we were lucky and didn’t break it, we were so proud to hang our birds in the sukkah!

When Sukkot is over after 8 days, it’s time to put everything away until next year. The trick for us was saving our egg-birds in one piece!

Minnie and Isaac Rosenthal in 1905.

In this photo you can see more detail of this remarkably resilient grid that Minnie and Isaac assembled 120 years ago. They knew what they were doing to have it survive more than a century!

AFTER SUNSET on WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, the new year 5785 begins for Jewish families around the world. And while Rosh Hashanah always is focused on joy and the richness of God’s blessings—this will be a serious High Holy Day season with global conflicts continuing and a rising tide of antisemitism in the world.

Nevertheless, if you have Jewish family and friends, it’s always appropriate to wish them L’shanah tovah—“For a good year!”

On the first and second days of the Jewish month of Tishri, Rosh Hashanah is celebrated by Jews around the world. In Hebrew, Rosh Hashanah means “head of the year,” or “first of the year,” and many Jews use this period of time to make resolutions and commitments for self-improvement.

‘WE TRY TO REMEMBER, NOT FORGET’

Compared with secular New Year celebrations, writes Rabbi Lenore Bohm in this inspiring reflection on the holiday, “the Jewish New Year, while joyful, is spiritual, thoughtful, and reflective.  We try to remember, not forget.  We visit the graves of loved ones. We look for opportunities to be especially generous and charitable. We gather with close friends and family for delicious, home-cooked meals.  We express hope that we have grown in the year gone by.” (You’ll also enjoy the list of holiday questions Rabbi Bohm lists at the end of her column, which all of us—whatever our faith—would benefit from asking.)

On Rosh Hashanah, work is not permitted and many more traditional adherents spend the day in the synagogue. The shofar, a ram’s horn blown like a trumpet, is one of the holiday’s most famous symbols—but Rosh Hoshanah also comes with special readings and prayers for a good new year.

THE HIGH HOLIDAYS

What are the High Holidays? Sometimes referred to as “High Holidays,” or “High Holy Days,” this is the period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and usually the phrase includes the 10 days in between. One description of this period says, in essence, that G_d opens the books of judgment as the new year begins and finally, on Yom Kippur, the judgment for the year is “sealed.”

Yom Kippur starts at sunset on Friday, October 11, this year.

The popular harvest festival Sukkot, then, starts on Wednesday, October 16.

HONEY, APPLES AND BREAD: A SWEET NEW YEAR

Of the sweet foods consumed on Rosh Hashanah, none is more popular than honey. Jerusalem, biblically referred to as “the land of milk and honey,” is yet another reason to eat honey on this special holiday. Jewish families like to serve apples or bread dipped in honey, or create dishes that incorporate these ingredients.

Sweet recipes: Looking to bake up something sweet and scrumptious this Rosh Hashanah? Try forward.com’s granola baked apples. For an entire menu of Rosh Hashanah recipes, check out AllRecipes, Epicurious, Food Network and Martha Stewart.