Take that, sukkah!

Sukkot: more than just bad puns.

As I mentioned before, Sukkot in Israel is awesome. Rebecca of Holy Laughter in the River totally agrees. Only a country like Israel used to economies of space and water could provide a sukkah that is suspended off of a building. I'm not sure if that is kosher, but it still looks awesome. According to Rafi G of Life in Israel there were 80,000 Jews at the Western Wall in Jerusalem who were blessed by the Kohanim. As Nick Dupree points out that's "more Jews in one place observing a festival than any time in Jerusalem since the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 C.E." If you aren't sure where exactly the Western Wall is, or haven't yet been to Jerusalem, take the virtual tour, courtsey of Rachel at Save A World.

JTA provides a top 12 list ala bangitout.com of "ways you know that it is Sukkot in Israel." Why 12? I'm not sure, it might be reminiscent of the 12 tribes. Speaking of Bangitout, here are a few of their offerings: top 10 ways to be a Succos show off, and top 30 Succos/Simchat torah pick-up lines.

Back in galus* Knitter of Shiny Things from Still in the Woods talks about the satisfaction of participating in Jewish rituals, seperate from the gender implications and Yehonatan Chipman says that Sukkot is "defined by symbolic mitzvot." I personally find these mitzvot kind of pagan, shaking certain species of tree in specific directions while holding a citrus fruit, in a booth. This is not even as bad as kiddush levana, the blessing of the moon where we recite a blessing, and jump from foot to foot. No kidding, it really happens every month.

Long story short? I'm going to Israel next Sukkot. For real.

*Galus is a yiddishized version of the word galut, which means diaspora, but has a definite perjorative connotation.