23 CommentsBwog, with all its Jewish grandmotherly wisdom, guided you through Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Now grab your etrogs, kids: it’s Sukkot!
Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, is kind of like the Jewish version of Thanksgiving, but longer… and in huts. An eight-day-long harvest festival, this holiday recalls the 40 years when Moses and the ancient Israelites wandered through the desert before reaching the Promised Land. Jews eat in the sukkah (“booth”) to commemorate the Israelites’ make-shift shelters. Check out these avant-garde holiday huts from New York’s annual Sukkah City design competition in Union Square.
Yesterday, a Chabadnik (from our very own Columbia Chabad House on 625 W
113th St!) was chilling outside the bookstore. These members of the Hasidic movement, Chabad-Lubavitch, aren’t out to convert you—just to tell you about fun Jew things. Anywho, he was holding a lulav, a long palm branch, and an etrog, a lemon-like fruit. Waving the lulav and etrog—the Four Species—is a mitzvah specified by the Torah. Plus, etrogs smell nice.
On Yom Kippur, Bwog challenged you to get invited to a break fast dinner. Before Sukkot ends, eat dinner in a sukkah. Bwog’s friend counted eleven of them throughout Columbia University.
Our friends at Chabad encourage you to join them for Simchat Torah, the end of the festival, on Thursday night. This will involve dancing all night long with ancient Torah scrolls in hand!
Update, 6:15 p.m.: Cart chaser Conor Skelding spotted this Sukkot Cart trundling about campus this evening.
Photo by Conor Skelding
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23 Comments
@uyhm so annoying….LEAVE ME ALONE
IM NOT JEWISH
@jew12 ..yet
@CURFC Woohoo! We get to wave phallic symbols in a pagan fertility ritural!
@apikores “These members of the Hasidic movement, Chabad-Lubavitch, aren’t out to convert you—just to tell you about fun Jew things.”
You’re kidding, right?
@Sukkah hunter There are 3 sukkot at JTS and one in each of its two dorms. There is also apparently one at Union TS and there is a sukkah in the Barnard courtyard.
@Anonymous there are also Sukkahs at:
1) Hillel on 115
2) Chabad on 113
3) the Bayit on 112
4) on 110 street between broadway and amsterdam at Ramath Orah
5) multiple sukka mobiles at random locations provided by Chabad Columbia
@Anonymous I love Chabad at Columbia!
@Simple Because we’re the chosen people.
@Anonymous the above is the most arrogant statement issued in the history of humankind.
@The above Is the most errantly hyperbolic statement on the internet.
@Anonymous think of a more hyperbolic one
@Anonymous or more arrogant I should say
@Come on. I suspect you might not be familiar with Jewish humor. It’s heavily ironic…
@Anonymous …touche
@No problem. Go Yankees!
@aha So you’re from out of town then? On a serious note, though, the idea of being chosen is a central part of American culture as well– manifest destiny, shining city on a hill, etc.
@Anonymous True, but those things were also bullshit and are now recognized as such (by all but the dumbest among us).
@ColumGirl Damn! I love me some Jews!!
@Anonymous why are all the holiday hops jewish holidays?
@Carolyn We don’t mean to single out one religion, but most of the major Jewish holidays happen in September. A few weeks ago, we wrote a holidayhop for the Muslim holiday, Eid. (http://bwog.com/2010/09/10/holidayhop-eid-ul-fitr-edition/). If we’re missing any holidays, let us know: tips@bwog.com
@Anonymous 11? where? no seriously, i could really use a list.
@Anonymous There’s definitely one in the EC courtyard, one in the little community garden behind Havemeyer, and of course, one at the Kraft center. I’m not sure where the other 8 are, though.
@11? where did that number come from?