Open Doors Sukkot

Overview of Program 

The University of San Francisco (USF) Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice (JSSJ) is leading a celebration for the eight-day Jewish harvest holiday of Sukkot (“Feast of Tabernacles”), co-sponsoring with multiple other USF departments, programs, and centers.

Installation

A sukkah is the name given to a temporary structure described in the Torah, in which the Children of Israel are instructed to dwell as an annual commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt. Its construction based in detailed legalese, this ritual offers a unique perspective on space and time. The paradoxical effect of a sukkah’s design produces a building that is an embodiment of contradictions, simultaneously open and closed, new and old, timely and timeless, mobile and stable, familiar and unusual. JSSJ will provide a sukkah in one of the most visible places on USF’s Main Campus – Welch Field (between St. Ignatius Church and Kalmanovitz Hall).

Themes and Program

Built at a crossroads of campus activity, the sukkah will be a social justice nexus designed to serve multiple communities, both on- and off-campus. Through the experience of being in an outdoor/indoor communal sukkah, we aim to build a temporary space that will welcome people to conversations around identity, difference, responsibility, and faith. Utilizing guest speakers, shared meals, performances, and learning, each evening event will feature programming dedicated to the amplification of a specific theme related to the overarching idea of “Open Doors.” During the day, the sacred space of the sukkah will be available for use; classes can meet, people can share a meal and time with one another.

Beginning five days after the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur, Sukkot is named after the booths or huts (lit. sukkot in Hebrew; sing. sukkah) in which Jews dwell during this week-long celebration. According to rabbinic tradition, these temporary structures represent the huts the biblical Israelites dwelled in during their 40 years of wandering in the desert after escaping from slavery in Egypt. Sukkot is one of the three great pilgrimage festivals mentioned in the Torah (Five Books of Moses). The biblical directive, or mitzvah, to “dwell” in a sukkah can be fulfilled by eating one’s meals there or even, if possible, sleeping in it.

Some Jews observe the rituals around this holiday because they believe they have been instructed to do so by God. Others, especially those who identify as Jews via culture or ethnicity rather than religious belief, find contemporary meaning in this
holiday based, at least in part, on the following:

1) The ritual of creating a temporary dwelling helps remind us of the transient nature of life, which can serve as an impetus for our working to better ourselves as individuals and members of larger collectives.
2) Many sukkot are built to structurally embody openness, an idea critical to the ritual of welcoming others, both literally and spiritually.

Aside from the dwelling in a sukkah, another major ritual focus of this holiday is the waving of the “Four Species.” According to rabbinic tradition, if one has the financial means one should acquire a lulav and etrog. A lulav is comprised of three small branches—one each from a palm, a myrtle, and a willow—held together. An etrog is a citrus fruit known in English as a citron; some liken it to a large lemon. During this ritual practice one holds the lulav and etrog together, shaking them and waving them in various directions.

“…I recently took my university students to our local Jewish Community Center, we took a trip to the building’s roof to see their sukkah…Once we reached [it], our host asked the students how one could evaluate whether or not this was a kosher sukkah. In other words, he said, can any structure be a sukkah? Or does it need to have a setnumber of walls, be made of particular material, and so forth? After learning that none of the students had ever seen a sukkah before, our host used the following example by way of explanation… You have just started college and are living with someone in your school’s dormitories who is not familiar with Christmas. At the beginning of December you decide to put a small Christmas tree in your relatively tiny room. But how would you define the tree? How would somebody know it’s a Christmas tree and not something else? How tall would the tree have to be? Is there a minimum height? And what would the tree need to be made of? Is plastic okay, or would it have to be natural?…Can anything be a Christmas tree simply if someone designates it as such?”

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1. Built outdoors.
2. Minimum 2 walls.
3. Walls can be made of any material, but must be able to withstand a normal breeze.
4. As for its size, big enough for one to be able to “dwell” in it; others say the min. can be approx. 2’ x 2’.
5. The roof—also called Skhakh—must be made of natural materials that grew from the ground and were subsequently cut.
6. Some consider it a requirement to be able to see the stars through the Skhakh. Others require the Skhakh to provide more shade than it permits sun to shine through.