Sukkot!
All the holidays are on shabbat this year, it feels like. And there’s crossover with another notable calendar time in the US: daylight savings, which I forgot about until I saw this on my calendar.
Sukkot is very exciting. I remain entangled in BDS Lulavquest 2020 (or, I suppose, 5781). I have etrog and myrtle and plans for obtaining willow, but the person I ordered the palm fronds from does not seem to have shipped them and is not responding to messages, so that’s. cool. :( I am hoping this is the first of several years of diaspora-sourced lulav/etrogs, though, and next year should hopefully go more smoothly. I’ve added a calendar alert to remind me to start looking into sourcing in June.
Next week I will talk about my favorite bible book Kohelet, since it’s read at the end of the holiday. #DepressedJewishRepresentation
If you want to learn about really old Sukkot traditions, there’s apparently an open-access book about them in the 2nd temple era and early rabbinic period.
But first, a little belated yom kippur content. In facepalm news, Mike Pompeo wanted to visit the Thessaloniki Jewish Museum on Yom Kippur. Better stuff: Maia Brown and Shelby Handler did a new translation of the hebrew vidui (confessional prayer) Al Chet. I also stumbled upon some beautiful art inspired by this powerful Yom Kippur drash from Rabbi Ariana Katz.
Sephardi content: A bakasha by the Ramban was translated into English for the first time. Jorge Bayona wrote about Sephardic support for Phillipine independence in the turn-of-the-century Ladino press, and The Jewish Museum of Turkey posted an image of El Telegrafo, a ladino newspaper published in Istanbul around the same time. (via instagram)
Jewish Currents next issue is housing-themed. The editors of Jewish Currents put their responsa about the next issue (on housing) online. It’s mostly great! But “If the coronavirus has taught us that all health is public health […] then similarly, all housing must be public housing.” made me wince, as it overlooks many problems with both public health and public housing. Some health needs are individual, not population scale, and have been deeply neglected in the pandemic; so too are some housing needs, such as accessibility, also often neglected when averaged out over the population.
Here is an online learning opportunity for ya, if you like mishnah:
And of course, the Jewish Pet of the Week! It feels like cheating to pick a viral post, but this sukkot hamster is just too cute to skip. See you next week!
