Sukkot: Past, Present and Future

Sukkot has always been an exciting time for me stretching back to my childhood.

The contrast between the solemnity of the Yamim Noraim as against Sukkot, the season of rejoicing always struck me. The making of the Sukkah dating back to my childhood in England up to the present day in Israel was and continues to be special.

So here we go on a nostalgic trip back to the 1960s in Edgware (Northwest London) until to today in Ramat Beit Shemesh Aleph.

Money was always tight when I was a child. To that effect, the Sukkah was made out of discarded old doors nailed together. The doors were sourced by my late Father z.l and one of his brother’s, Uncle Sol z.l.

The next job was to assemble / build the Sukkah. The first item on the list was to make a right angle with the doors on to provide stability on which the others could be attached. Dad did this with Uncle Sol, building each of the family Sukkot one by one. It was my job to hold the post in our home for the doors to be nailed to. The weather was immaterial. I remember doing this standing outside at night in the rain. It was always special to be involved. Uncle Sol always referred to the post as a “stampoller” a word that I have yet to find in usage anywhere else. If the nails were hammered in at an angle, this was called, “cleating the nails”.

Eventually, we started becoming upwardly mobile and a corrugated plastic roof on hinges was made, followed a few years later by making the whole Sukkah with corrugated plastic which was stored from year to year.

In 1972, Dad decided to build a “permanent sukkah” using the plastic and making two walls out of wood with a built-in door. Unfortunately, he was persuaded to make a bonfire to dispose of the excess materials, which resulted in one plastic wall warping. Guest would always ask “Why do you have three wooden walls and one plastic one?”

The permanent Sukkah became a boon in 1973. As we already had it built, all that was needed were the Schach, decorations, and lights. This allowed more time for fund raising for Israel. (As an aside with my friends who were only teenagers at that time, we spent most of Chol hamoed collecting for Magen David Adom).

The Schach was aways made using laurel leaves. I think we were probably one of the last Sukkot to hold out against mats!! The local florists would always charge exorbitant amounts of money for laurel leaves. As a result of which, my Uncle Jack z.l. decided to plant some laurel bushes in his garden for Sukkot. Eventually all the gardens became a laurel bush plantation, supplying the family, local Rabbonim and other families with my Dad usually organising cutting them and delivering them for free.

In later years, after Uncle Jack’s passing, a local gardener pruned his customers laurel bushes in advance of Sukkot and then resold then. As he was Jewish, he felt that he had a share in the mitzva and so looked after his Jewish  customers.

It was Uncle Jack who bought the lulavim on behalf of the family. You read the stories with the children waiting to see the lulav – I lived it.

One year Dad decided to break with tradition and buy Pine tree branches. The smell in the Sukkah was amazing, but the pine tree needles falling in our food less so. Suffice it to say it was the first and last time we used them.

The Sukkah was always decorated with fruit. Dad often bought rare fruit to make the decorations more special. I always felt that the beautiful smell in the sukkah from the fruit and leaves was a little taster of what Gan Eden might be like.

The decorations in Uncle Jack’s Sukkah included a wooden grey painted Magen David. It always seemed incongruous. Orthodox men tend to  wear a kipah and have tzitzit, with less orthodox had a necklace with a Magen David. After his passing it went to Dad and eventually to me. The story is that it belonged to the man called ? Mr Yakobi who had the first Sukkah in Edgware, and he brought it with him from Germany before the war. When he went into a nursing home, he felt that my Booba’s house was the best address for it, as it was the second Sukkah in Edgware. Following my Dad’s passing it was given to me, and it now resides in our Sukkah in Ramat Beit Shemesh. I wish that I knew the full story behind it. There must  have been a reason for  bringing it  from Germany.

All family Sukkot had white sheets covering the wall.

Why?

Because we did!! The tradition continues in our Sukkah.

My in-laws Sukkah had bedspreads on walls, it felt very middle eastern. Maybe it reflected the Turkish roots of my late my father-in-law z.l.

In 1982, the first year of our marriage, we decided to convert the brick shed in the garden which had a broken metal roof. The neighbours saw us removing the broken metal roof and said how pleased they were that we were sorting it. When they came back later that day, they found it was now thatched with laurels, and a plastic cover over it. They never asked.

Like many newlyweds, money was not in abundance. Near the dental hospital in which I was working was a large fruit market. The stall holders could not work out why I was buying a variety of goods, but each in small numbers. The market was near Dean Street Shool with many of the traders being members. I have never seen a Sukkah with not only roof covered in fruit, but also the walls.

Our Sukkah was always decorated with traditional pictures and symbols / pictures / flags of Israel, in the hope of one day having a Sukkah in Israel.

Being England, the weather was usually cold and wet over Sukkot. To that end, Dad always put a heater and carpet in the sukkah. In 1983, the sukkah was built on to the back of the dining room at the back of our house. It was an unusually hot year. With the heater on the time switch, it felt like “yetziat mitzrayim”, as there was no door to open to let the heat out.

By 1986, we had moved again, our first Sukkah being put up against the dining room door. In 1987 a permanent brick one was built. It had carpet and a heater. We had regular guests every year on the first night. When they brought their future daughter in law with them, she was told “the Kandler Sukkah is always bright and warm”. Sadly, that was the year the time switch did not work!!

In 2020 we sold the house with my surgery that was by the side of it. The new owner knocked down the Sukkah as part of their expansion. It was probably the most miserable Sukkot in my life. The weather was mainly cold and damp, and the material Sukkah that we bought did not have a roof. The highlight was joining the Simchas Beis Hashoeva with Chabad Holland, where my cousin is the Rabbi in Rotterdam.

HOWEVER – we were looking ahead, because six weeks later, we achieved a lifetime’s ambition – ALIYAH.

2021 was my first Sukkot in Israel. Sleeping in the Sukkah was an amazing experience. The heater that was always in the Sukkah in England has now been replaced with a fan.

Finally, we were able to buy a flat in Ramat Beit Shemesh and so in 2023 the first Sukkah was made in a flat that we owned in Israel.

Baruch Hashem, we are here. Only Olim can appreciate how amazing it is to celebrate Chagim in Israel, and in particular as a citizen. B’ezrat Hashem, it will be for many more years.

I hope this year will not again be tinged with sadness of last year. We have a poster of the Beit Hamikdash which is part of a campaign in memory of Daniel Perez HYD, who fell in Gaza two years ago on Simchat Torah. (https://mizrachi.org/hamizrachi/hamas-battle-for-jerusalem/).

We pray and hope that the hostages will come home very soon, and real peace will reign over our country.