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Reflecting on Simchat Torah

Howard Lev

Thanks to social media and electronic devices you can check in on Foursquare and read the Mishkan T'filah prayer book on a handheld device at the same time. Yet for all the modern inventions, the Torah remains unaffected.

Rethinking the Holy Days

Rabbi Donald Kunstadt

I’ve come to the conclusion we need to change the date of Simchat Torah. Our Jewish festivals must be re-envisioned as inspirational community gatherings of joyful spiritual Jewish celebration. Every single festival needs to be a time of great community involvement and meaning.

Building Sukkot for Ourselves and Others

Raechel Banks

Somehow, it always seems to rain on Sukkot. The week before the holiday usually falls during the first nice days of fall— this year my housemate packed away her summer clothes this past weekend, and I wore jeans instead of shorts for the first time in too long.

Celebrate Torah

Rabbi P.J. Schwartz

Every year, the season of reflection and renewal is culminated by the celebration of Simchat Torah (literally “the rejoicing of the Torah”).

Galilee Diary: Booths

Rabbi Marc J. Rosenstein

Spread over us the sukkah of Your peace. Blessed are You O Lord, who spreads out a sukkah of peace over us, over the entire people Israel, and over Jerusalem.

Drawing Near to Torah

Debbie Niederman

I did not have a typical Reform Movement upbringing, and would say that the three years I lived on an island in Alaska are probably most emblematic of that.

Fragility and Strength: A Litany of Hope for Sukkot

Rabbi Phyllis Sommer

The sukkah is a symbol of fragility. We build the temporary structure each year and know that it is only meant to last for the week-long holiday. It sways in the breeze. The raindrops land inside. The animals nibble at our decor. We know it could come crashing down on us.

Check Out Our Sukkah Gallery!

At the start of Sukkot, we asked all of our social media friends, fans, and followers to share a photo of their sukkah. We received some great submissions, which we couldn't resist sharing more broadly. Check out the thumbnails below and click through to see a larger version of each picture.

This Year Let’s Put Food Justice at the Center of our Fall Harvest

Sukkot is the Jewish holiday celebrating the harvest and commemorating the booths or huts the Israelites built while wandering in the desert. As a people with agricultural roots, Jews have found many ways to mark the seasonal and environmental changes that occur throughout the year. The Shalosh Regalim, the three pilgrimage holidays of our tradition (Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot), celebrate the three times each year that our ancestors journeyed to Jerusalem to make harvest offerings at the Temple.

It’s Hard to be a Jew at Christmas, But Even Harder on Tu BiSh’vat

Kelly Hershberg

It is a truth universally acknowledged that it can be difficult to be Jewish at Christmas time. It has seeped into North American cultural consciousness so thoroughly that South Park even wrote a song about it, complete with trademark expletives.