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Sukkot 5778 next up...

IshChayil

IshChayil

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This Wednesday night is the start of the Sukkot season.
If it's your first year to do Sukkot or if you are just getting into the biblical Feasts this one is great for the family. Grab some scrap lumber or bamboo or whatever you can get your hands on (I used mostly PVC pipes one year) and build your Sukkah!
I mean the Hebrew word Sukkah, not the Russian word which means female dog... yes the bad way too :p

The mitzvah is to build a Sukkah (Booth) a pseudo-cube shaped structure and to ישב (YeSHeV) in it.
This is an interesting word because it can mean "sit" or it can mean "dwell" like "live in".
So in our tradition we consider that mitvah fulfilled if you just eat a meal (sit) in the Sukkah but of course it's best to be thorough and more fun!

In Israel this time of year you see Sukkot (plural of Sukkah) all over the place. It's a dangerous time for construction sites as there are no Lowes in Israel and coming across Lumber is not so easy and kids will ironically steal from a construction site to build a Sukkah haha. So construction sites are on lock down now.
You can get really creative with your Sukkah.
In Jewish tradition we like to decorate it with various fruits hanging by strings and usually we cover it with some kind of leafy tree branch, palm branch etc. We do other fun stuff on this holiday like waving tree branches around and shaking fruits ... more to come.
It's a great time for kids and reminds us how our ancestors dwelled in Sukkot as they wandered.
There are some neat deep things about this holiday but for now I just want to remind folks it's coming up.

BTW I like to use holiday lights on my sukkah.
Here is a good resource for folks just getting into the holidays and/or learning Hebrew
Hebrew 4 Christians Sukkot celebration the site balances between Messianic and Hebrew roots so it's a resource that should keep most of us happy in this forum.
On Sukhot we actually MUST be happy. It's referenced as z'man simchateinu - the season of our joy!

חג שמח chag sameach!
 
Last year we took our veranda and transformed it into a type of sukkah using pine branches around the front to semi-enclose it. The older kids and myself then slept out there whenever it was warm enough. Unfortunately we're in the wrong season down here, it's early spring, so still a bit cold to really camp out with the kids and rain is frequent, hence why we used the veranda (if we didn't have a roof and a floor, it would just get wet and muddy, and we would end up not actually using it), and evergreen branches (everything else is only just budding). We decorated it with lights, tinsel, baubles, all the non-christmassy stuff we had lying around in our old christmas decoration boxes. We then lived out there as much as practical - eating most meals out there, reading, playing with the kids, it was our default place to be if we had no reason to specifically be somewhere else.

This year we're planning to do something similar. We plan to cook on the barbeque as much as possible, and we have a firepit on the lawn so we can have fun evenings with the kids around a fire if it isn't too cold.

Just some ideas to get people thinking.
 
I think we're going to pitch our tent in the back yard. I could do something a little more rustic I imagine but it sure seems like a tent fits the bill. I'll look into it further though. The weather is going to be perfect here, 70's to 80's during the day and lows in the high 50's and 60's. Fall in Georgia is wonderful and it lasts all the way to early spring to boot!
 
FollowingHim said:
Last year we took our veranda and transformed it into a type of sukkah using pine branches around the front to semi-enclose it. The older kids and myself then slept out there whenever it was warm enough. Unfortunately we're in the wrong season down here, it's early spring, so still a bit cold to really camp out with the kids and rain is frequent, hence why we used the veranda (if we didn't have a roof and a floor, it would just get wet and muddy, and we would end up not actually using it), and evergreen branches (everything else is only just budding). We decorated it with lights, tinsel, baubles, all the non-christmassy stuff we had lying around in our old christmas decoration boxes. We then lived out there as much as practical - eating most meals out there, reading, playing with the kids, it was our default place to be if we had no reason to specifically be somewhere else.

This year we're planning to do something similar. We plan to cook on the barbeque as much as possible, and we have a firepit on the lawn so we can have fun evenings with the kids around a fire if it isn't too cold.

Just some ideas to get people thinking.
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Thought you folks who live down under were tougher than this. Too cold? You need to camp out in a tent in 22 degrees Fahrenheit. That's what my family likes to do.

It builds character :confused:
 
I know its not the same because of why we were doing it, but for several years we would hunt the holiday season in Iowa and rough it in a Teepee from December 26th through January 2nd. Good times!
 
Verifyveritas76 said:
I know its not the same because of why we were doing it, but for several years we would hunt the holiday season in Iowa and rough it in a Teepee from December 26th through January 2nd. Good times!
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Iowa in the winter? That's a lot rougher than my 22 degrees. Winner?
 
I once free climbed a rock face hundreds of feet tall at an insane elevation in the Sierrra Madres in August, and it was snowing.
 
ZecAustin said:
I once free climbed a rock face hundreds of feet tall at an insane elevation in the Sierrra Madres in August, and it was snowing.
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Ok I'm dumbfounded... did this really happen or am I missing some irony? It's the detail that has me thinking this may be real.
 
IshChayil said:
Ok I'm dumbfounded... did this really happen or am I missing some irony? It's the detail that has me thinking this may be real.
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It really happened. I was at mountain warfare training and it started snowing while I was climbing a pretty high face that was about two thirds up a very high series of cliffs.
 
ZecAustin said:
It really happened. I was at mountain warfare training and it started snowing while I was climbing a pretty high face that was about two thirds up a very high series of cliffs.
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wow...
respect.. were you praying?
 
IshChayil said:
wow...
respect.. were you praying?
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I should have been. I was mostly panickedly yelling at the young Marine top roping me to show me where the next handhold was so I could get off that cliff face.

My first child had just been born and it was the first time I was faced with mortality as a father. It changed everything. I was terrified. It wasn't even that more dangerous, I finished the climb and was very embarrassed at the top. They had cancelled everyone else from climbing so I wasn't completely unjustified but it wasn't anywhere near as scary as it impacted me.

Becoming a father had just rewired my risk taking appetite. I adjusted. I didn't become a coward or anything but I no longer enjoyed near death experiences.

It was a very eye opening experience though.
 
ZecAustin said:
Becoming a father had just rewired my risk taking appetite. I adjusted. I didn't become a coward or anything but I no longer enjoyed near death experiences.
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It's funny how that happens isn't it. When it's just your life to worry about you 10 feet tall and bullet proof, but when you have to think of your children it's completely diffrent. It's like we made that way for a reason.
 
Kevin said:
It's funny how that happens isn't it. When it's just your life to worry about you 10 feet tall and bullet proof, but when you have to think of your children it's completely diffrent. It's like we made that way for a reason.
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Wow I gotta agree with both of you @Kevin and @ZecAustin
I bought a paramoter some years ago and imported it; then I couldn't find an instructor.
In the old days, I totally would just go out to the beach and give it a try because why the heck not.
It's flying!!!! wow. But I can't imagine not being around to raise my kids and give them wisdom and protect them, etc.
It's really my worst fear for them to have that pain.

So ... even though I've read the 'Powered Paraglider (PPG) Bible" twice, taken all kinds of notes, know all the theory, watched videos etc....
I can't find a reputable instructor here and just not gonna take that risk (flying without instruction)
That amazingly, fun, fulfilling risk of FLYING foot dragging low level or up in the clouds flying.... for just a few gallons of unleaded ....
 
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Mojo said:
Thought you folks who live down under were tougher than this. Too cold? You need to camp out in a tent in 22 degrees Fahrenheit. That's what my family likes to do.

It builds character :confused:
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reminds me of the winter jamborees in Boy Scouts... nothing like waking up, seeing your breath vapor, and sticking your head back in your "mummy sleeping bag"
 
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