Whale of a Succah

Succoth is a special time of year. Families leave their homes and joyfully go live in their small succahs, discovering in the process how little they need to be truly happy. Every family finds a way to imprint their succah with their own style, their own creative flair, if for no other reason than to make them easier to locate in the maze of succahs downstairs. Each family has their individual collection of kindergarten masterpieces, pictures of Jerusalem, decorated posters of Talmudic sayings, tinsel, greenery, and all things arba minim.

When my son got married, two and a half years ago, I discovered something new: The Succah theme. The Eisenbach family, into which he had married, has decorated their succah with a different theme each year, usually chosen by my newly minted, and very creative daughter-in-law, Tzion. The Eisenbachs live in Eshel Hanassi, an agricultural high school near Beer Sheva, where Tzion’s mother teaches.

When she married my son, Josh, Tzion extended the tradition to her new succah. The first year, the theme was home, and so the Succah decorations reflected that feeling. The second year, the theme was The Clouds of Glory (Annenei HaKAvod). Tzion expanded the theme by making each cloud represent one of the Ushpizin. For example, Yosef HaTzaddik’s cloud was made up of papers in various colors to represent the coat of many colors. It was quite brilliant actually.

So liking the idea, I decided to have a theme succah myself. Every year when we bid farewell to the Succah we request of Hashem, “May I merit in the coming year to dwell in the succah of the skin of Leviathan.” And I wanted to make sure that happen, even if I couldn’t single-handedly bring Mashiach.

While it’s not exactly clear what creature the legendary Leviathan is referring to, that’s what we call whales in Hebrew. So for the next few months, I scoured the Internet, and crafts fairs, looking for whale ornaments. I sent out a call for whales and many of my friends responded admirably, one of them, making me a whale crafted from wire. Another sent me paper goods with whale pictures and a whale sheet I used as a tablecloth. I had whales of every size and material – wood, ceramic, balloon. I gave new meaning to the call “Save the whales” – as in save them for me. And of course, my daughter-in-law Tzion, crafted me a beautiful huge whale as well.

So along with the aforementioned standard succah decorations, my succah held an impressive assortment of leviathanim (there are several varieties you see). And when I packed them up, and once again said that I wished to merit to celebrate next year in a Leviathan Succah, I felt more secure in my request and, just to be sure, I added a few more to my collection this year.

I believe that another reason that people like to decorate their Succahs in their own style is that it’s sort of like a homemade greeting card a child would give their father to express their love. And we hope that our Father in Heaven appreciates our efforts, our creativity, and our desire to have a personal relationship with Him.

As for me, I plan, bli neder, to keep adding to my whale collection until, G-d willing, we get the real thing. And, when Mashiach comes, bezrat Hashem soon, I will be happy to gift him my whale collection.

Chag Sameach!