‘Tis the Season : Challahbear
Description: ’Tis the Season Finally the whirlwind of the Fall Jewish holiday season has come to an end. I love the fall holidays (minus the lack of food on Yom Kippur thing, of course) and look forward to the …
Date: 2011-10-24T17:02:15+00:00

# Challahbear

Breadcrumbs and other ramblings

# ‘Tis the Season

Posted by ilana

Oct 24

’Tis the Season

Finally the whirlwind of the Fall Jewish holiday season has come to an end. I love the fall holidays (minus the lack of food on Yom Kippur thing, of course) and look forward to the special foods and traditions each year. But since finishing school, they’ve become a lot more exhausting. Traveling to see family, making time for synagogue, cooking all of your favorite recipes, and entertaining – heck, just being a guest for holiday dinner parties, gets to be a lot events and effort.

Just about everyone has heard of Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur, so when I take off of work and head home (or to Baltimore to stay with family friends for Yom Kippur, usually) no one is surprised. Friendly coworkers ask me how my holidays were and I can usually even benefit by sleeping in for a couple of extra hours. But after Yom Kippur, we the Chosen People get overloaded with more – Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah. While these holidays are less well known than the “High Holy Days,” they are an integral part of the fall holiday season, and are observed with just as much effort by traditional Jews.

For me, observing Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur are non-negotiables, but as I’ve entered the abyss of “adulthood” I’ve had to make some compromises and trade-offs to keep me sane. I decided that taking off from work for multiple days every week for all of Tishrei (the Jewish month) would not be the best way to allocate my annual allotment of vacation time. Instead, I typically spend about half of my vacation days each year celebrating holidays with my friends and family inPittsburgh – usually Rosh HaShana and the first days of Passover in the spring. Even though I go to work, I still try to find ways to acknowledge the special time and celebrate these holidays with friends in the DC area.

This year I had the special privilege of introducing Kirios to Sukkot and Simchat Torah. (Let’s be honest – Shemini Atzeret is quite possibly the most marginal significant Jewish holiday.) Since Kirios was vacationing and visiting family in Cyprus during the holidays last year, he had already learned a lot about them. I had already overcome the hurdle of describing a lulav. (a collection of a palm, willow, and myrtle branches traditionally shaken with an etrog, citron, during the holiday – so you can see, if you haven’t grown up with this tradition, it’s going to sound a bit nuts!)

Since I live in an apartment building, I rely on celebrating vicariously through the meals my parents host in their sukkah at home in Pittsburghand on the kindness of being invited for meals and events by friends who do have sukkahs. This year, I was fortunate enough to visit two sukkahs. The first belongs to my friend from college and his parents, and every year they host a lovely open-sukkah party on Shabbat afternoon. They have an impressive spread of both dairy and parve treats, and it’s always a great time to gather with friends and enjoy the crisp autumn air. Last year I actually had a fever during this event, and was devastated that I missed it. But the beauty of the holidays is that they return the next year. The second sukkah I visited belonged to a friend I first met in USY and her housemates. We shared an intimate dinner together on the Sunday night of Sukkot, chatting about what we’ve been up to like any other night. But the following night I returned (this time with Kirios, who had returned from his trip to New York) for an open event my friend hosted – snacks, music, hookah, and overall chillaxing in her sukkah. It was Kirios’ first time being inside a sukkah, and he even shook the lulav and etrog. I enjoyed the dichotomy – a very laid back evening hanging out with a group of people, and at the same time observing the special, albeit odd, Sukkot traditions.

And then there was Simchat Torah… my very favorite holiday. When my mom was growing up, her synagogue on Long Island would give the children candy apples to mark the occasion. I was always a fan of the singing and dancing on the bimah, and my synagogue would hand out candy and miniature toy Torahs. Because I grew up in Squirrel Hill, which has so many synagogues in walking distance, I began to “shul hop” for the holiday each year starting in 9th grade. My conservative synagogue’s services would end around 8 or 8:30, and a group of us teenagers would start making our rounds to the orthodox and Chabad synagogues where the party (service) was still going on. Usually we’d wander home around midnight, in order to appease or parents. In college, I would first attend services at Hillel, and then join Chabad on the other side of campus where they would close down a traffic circle near the freshman dorms for dancing in the streets before proceeding onward to the Chabad house itself.

Since “becoming a grown-up” Simchat Torah has remained a special treat. This year, I coordinated with several of my go-to Jews, as well as Kirios and a non-Jewish friend/coworker of mine who was interested in participating in the festivities. We met at AdasIsrael, a large Conservative congregation which offers frequent young professionals programming and a $99 membership for those under 35 (not surprisingly, several of my friends and I are members there). Adas offered snacks and free libations for the young professional crowd in a room adjacent to their family services. It was a large who’s who, and I enjoyed catching up with friends and acquaintances – those I had planned to meet up with, folks I knew from college, even a girl from home in Pittsburgh. But I barely had time to mingle before being pulled into the other room for the traditional singing and dancing. When the services concluded, I rallied my troops and we hustled to get to Chinatown, where Sixth & I’s festivities were just ramping up. As we arrived, the crowd had flood outside to a blocked off I Street and circle dancing continued. I ran into more familiar old faces, I carried a Torah, and I even met a recently retired Postal Service employee (who worked in Government Relations with my friend who came along) who was one of the rabbis leading the service.

All in all, Sukkot and Simchat Torah were happy celebrations for me, and having Kirios experience some of the traditions as well made them extra special this year. But honestly, I’m tired. And I’m not disappointed that for the first time in a month there are no holidays to celebrate this week. Although, I suppose Halloween is just around the corner…

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Filed under: Holidays, Trying New Things

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