Holidays of Succot Going Out and Simchah Torah Coming In; Time to Rejoice

 Nadene Goldfoot

Holidays of Succot Going Out and Simchah Torah Coming In; Time to Rejoice

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                  

                                                                                                    

We see the end of our holiday of Succot.  This was the time when our ancestors of the Exodus lived in little booths during their 40 year wandering of following Moses to the Promised Land.  It's traditional for the men to procure the Lulav, the palm-branch to be taken on the feast of Tabernacles together with the Etrog, myrtle and willow, called together the 4 Species, and other vegetation which they hold in their right hand and the etrog in their left hand.  They carry them during the time of saying in unison the Hallel ( palms 113-118, used at the time of rededication of the Temple after the Maccabean wars and said at all 3 pilgrim festivals.  It's like a commandment and used in opening and closing blessings.  The people shake these items  in all directions.
                                                                     

In the picture above, this is what all the men are holding in their hands.  They are wearing Israel-styled prayer shawls which are so much bigger than the American conservative style which are more like scarves.  When men pray under their prayer shawls in Israel, it's like they are under a tent and can shut out any visual distractions from what they are doing.  They can really meditate.  On top of their heads they are wearing a kippa (Hebrew) or yalmulke (Yiddish) , which is a skull cap worn for prayer.  Religious Jews wear it all the time.  A religious Jew is one who decides to follow all the rules and you show this by wearing your kippa all the time.  Whether it is knitted or made of satin or some other material also tells what group you belong to; something like the red or blue scarves the Crips and the Bloods wear to tell themselves apart.  Some are white and some are black and some are patterned.

It happened to my conservative husband when we moved to Israel.  The land, the people and the air itself overtakes one and you really start to get into the groove.  It's hard to explain.  After studying for 10 months in Haifa we moved to Safed where it happened.  You see all the cemeteries and visit all the sites and it's quite emotional.   What's thrilling is that this was expected of the people to do 3,000 years ago and we are still doing it.  It connects us to our history and to the land.
                                                                             

Whoever heard of an Etrog other than people living and practicing Judaism in Israel?  It's a citron you don't find in supermarketss outside this tiny state but seems to be found only in Israel.  It was a popular Jewish symbol used on coins, graves, synagogues and other places of Jewish origin.  People had silver boxes to keep the etrog and the boxes themselves became items of artwork.  To me it looks like a large lemon.  Another fruit used in this way is the pomegranate which is used in much art work in designs.  

Thursday and Friday, October 16th and 17th, are holidays for Jews again.  On Thursday we have  a holidy to remember and be happy about having the law of Moses called Shemini Atzores and the next day being called Simchas Torah.                                              

It marks the yearly completion of the synagogue reading of the Torah (Pentateuch) which are the 5 books of Moses.  What they do in the synagogue is take out all the Scrolls of the Law and carry them 7 times or more around the synagogue for everyone to see.  Sometimes some of the synagogues will do with with a dance movement as they go around.  It can go on for hours as they are happy.

All male worshipers are called up for aliyah at the time of reading from the Torah.  It's an honor given to them to be called up to read aloud.  The Torah is written all in Hebrew.  A boy age 13 shows the congregation that he is capable of doing this at his bar mitzvah.  It's like a graduation from a boy to a man.  

The last section of the 5th book, Deuteronomy is read by the Bridegroom of the Law, the Hatan Torah.  He is followed by the Bridegroom of Genesis, the first book of the Law.  Candies are usually given to the children and the "bridegrooms" act as hosts to the people in the synagogue.  

Resource:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etrog            
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia    

from my blog on October 15, 2014 that isn't showing up anymore as I put it on facebook                                       

My visit to Nearby Samaria-1982

Above is a home in Kfar Saba.

Nadene Goldfoot

October 7, 1982

In 1980, my husband and I moved to Israel and went into a 10 month re-training program in Haifa with 40 other people who were all preparing to be English as Foreign Language Teachers. We were hired to teach in Safed "Tzfat" in the northern Galilee, a stone's throw from the Lebanon border. We were on Succot vacation and were able to take an ACI prepared trip to Samaria. ACI stands for Americans and Canadians in Israel. They were a g-dsend to us in helping out with all our problems of living in Israel. The following is from my book, "Letters From Israel.", pages 220-221.

We picked up two older ladies in Karmiel in our new red Fiat and drove into Haifa, and met the bus we were to take on the Carmel. (This was the same area that just recently suffered a horrible forest fire). We went to the West Bank, or Samaria to be more specific, and it was quite an eye opener for us. Ha, I had to get up at 5:00 am and went to bed at midnight because we had such good late night TV. I woke up sneezing, which was a surprise, and took an allergy pill, so fought sleep all day and night. It was so terrible. Yes, I do get that way once in a while and can't stop sneezing.

Anyway, what happened was that we drove on the highway from Haifa to Tel Aviv along the coast. It is a lovely drive, and turned left at Kvar Saba, went into that little teeny town and out of it, and we found ourselves in Samaria. I was so shocked! It's practically on the other side of the highway.

We stood at a plaque where Sharon and his men had fought not too recently and saw our highway and cars. It was unreal! We drove deeper into Samaria and saw Arabs, sheep, a little Arab town outside Kafar Saba, and in the distance Ramalla, which was a larger Arab city.

I saw lots of land that looked somewhat like Eastern Oregon, and finally came some twenty-five minutes later to a Jewish settlement where we had lunch in their succa. We brought our own sack lunches with us.

This settlement is made up of mainly Israelis and a few Americans who are very dedicated and Zionistic. One of their people is a non-Jew who is a Japanese man recently from Japan who has a paper factory there where he makes paper for computers. He goes to services, and once got all dressed up in his Japanese robes and proceeded to take movies of the Friday night services until he was asked to please stop.

They are building beautiful homes but no apartments there, and are almost ready to move in. The establishment is six years old. You know that house in Ontario on the corner with the red tile roof and wood sides? One house I saw looked like that one. The other houses had the same roof but were made of cement.

The point is this. The shape of Israel decided by the United Nations is really weird. They gave us the seacoast from Haifa to Tel Aviv, and that's it. The land adjacent to us is ancient Samaria and Judea. How dumb! We should have that land.

We continued from this place to the Roman ruins where King Ahab, a Jewish king, also lived and we walked all around. The weather was so warm and pleasant. I got a suntan from it. It was incredible to see all the stonework, columns, and amphitheater. Then we went back to Haifa and drove home. We had left Haifa at 8:15am and got back to Safed at 4:30pm with lots of time to rest and explore at the ruins. No wonder Begin didn't want to give up Samaria and Judea. Remember, it's within stone throwing distance of our highway. You just wouldn't believe how close it is to us. The problem is that they don't just throw stones at us anymore.