Pimp My Sukkah

Each year around the High Holy Days, I start feeling sorry for myself since my family isn't Jewish and, until recently, I haven't been affiliated with a synagogue or havurah: wah, wah, no one sends a card to me at Rosh Hashanah whine, whine. No one understands about Yom Kippur, wee, wee, wee.Blech. (and I'm using that in the Mad Magazine sense, not talking about a stove cover used on Shabbat...)This year, I decided to get everyone involved! Here's the e-mail I sent to one and all:
In October, I am building a sukkah, and I need your help. What, might you ask, is a sukkah? A sukkah is a three-sided temporary dwelling that -in part - symbolizes the 40 year trek of the Jews through the desert , highlighting the transitory, uncertain, but beautifully abundant nature of life. Sukkahs are built in the middle of High Holy Days** & left up for seven days: we often eat and sometimes sleep in them! Friends and family stop by for meals and singing, too. Here's where you come in. Sukkahs come in lots of forms, large, small, pre-fab, plain, all as individual as the people who erect them, but the best ones are homemade with loads of decorations. My Sukkah is going to be a large wooden frame with "walls" of decorated white sheets. The roof has to be natural material through which you can see the stars and feel the rain, so I'll use some palm fronds from my tree. I'd like to send you a plain white sheet and some indelible markers or paint sticks for you to use to decorate it. Typical decorations would be olives, pomegranites, pumpkins, gourds, Stars of David, biblical-looking towns, palm trees, prophets (7 prophets are supposed to "visit" the Sukkah!) , camels, sheep, "Israel or Bust" signs, you get the idea. Sign your names somewhere on the sheet and if you want to add any embroidery or sewn-on beads (wooden or glass) to your artwork, go for it. Anything rain-proof is great! These sheets will be out in the elements then will be cleaned and used again, I hope, year after year. I'll also send a stamped-self addressed large padded mailer for you to return the sheet in and later, pix of the finished sukkah. All you have to do is have fun and be creative.I thought of this idea because most of my family is far-flung and not Jewish (although we have Jewish ancestry from my Mom), nor are many of my dearest friends. I want you all to be "with me" in some way during this special time, and I would be both tickled and honored to be "surrounded" by you while in the Sukkah. I'll add a few chairs, a small table, candles, fairy lights, paper lanterns some hanging fruit, paper chains and toast you with a glass of wine! If any of you are in town during Sukkot, (you know who you are...) you hafta come over and hang out in the Sukkah. I'll send the dates later.So, unless you want to embitter and depress your (circle one) Aunt, Sister, Ma, In Law, Best Friend, please give it a go! So far, everyone seems jazzed about it, can't wait to see my sheets!