A group of 11 HDS students, faculty, and friends recently gathered behind Andover Hall for what has become an annual tradition: Building the HDS sukkah.
Led by Rabbi Sally Finestone, the denominational counselor to Jewish students at HDS, the multifaith group spent over an hour assembling the poles, walls, and special branches for the roof, known as the s'chach.
"The building is so fun!" said Gabby Goodman, MTS '16, who helped construct the sukkah this year and is co-chair of the Jewish Student Association at HDS. "It's a different kind of teamwork. You're with all these people you know from the classroom, but this was about building. It's physical. That kind of work feels different."
The sukkah is the centerpiece of the Jewish holiday Sukkot, which began the night of September 27th and runs for eight days.
Often described as a hut, the sukkah is supposed to be a temporary and somewhat fragile structure built from natural materials and open to the elements. Traditionally, Jews relocate all their meals to the sukkah for the holiday and celebrate with friends and family. There is also a custom of welcoming in a different Biblical guest each night, known as the Ushpizin of Sukkot. There are special blessings said upon sitting in the sukkah, and the holiday is also celebrated with special plants, known as the lulav and etrog.
According to Finestone, the sukkah represents many things, including a commitment to hospitality, recognition of dependence on God, and a celebration of the harvest season.
"We've been putting up the sukkah for over 20 years," said Finestone. "And the nicest thing about the building of the sukkah is that it is always done by a combination of Jewish students and students from other faith traditions. One year we had seven different faith traditions represented by the seven different builders. So it's a very lovely symbol of a community coming together."
For Jewish students at HDS, the building of the sukkah is not only fun, but religiously useful.
"I'm so glad that it's there," said Michelle Bentsman, MTS '17. "There is even a lulav and etrog in the Office of Ministry Studies, and it's so delightfully convenient that I can go out and use it in the sukkah, which is right there."
The HDS sukkah joins a number of other campus sukkot, including ones at Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School, the Chabad at Harvard, and Harvard Hillel. Both Chabad and Hillel also host a number of social events throughout the holiday, inviting all members of Harvard to learn about Sukkot and celebrate in the sukkah.
"We open for lunch over Sukkot, and we get about 60 to 70 people a day," said Rabbi Getzel Davis at Harvard Hillel. "We also run events. People are in the sukkah for all reasons. Some people definitely need it for halakhic [Jewish legal] reasons, some just are there to enjoy it. It creates this wonderfully warm communal feeling. You don't know who will sit down at your table!"
Every year, there are usually some necessary sukkah repairs mid-holiday, from rain or wind. This week, despite the days of heavy rain in the Boston area, the HDS sukkah has remained standing. There is also a long-standing custom to sleep in the sukkah, when weather permits, and on October 1, some students braved the rain and stayed overnight, bringing a tarp for the ground and sleeping bags to protect against the cold.
How did it go?
"It was fine until about 4 am," Goodman said. "When the sprinklers turned on."
The sukkah will remain on the Campus Green through October 6. Until then the entire Harvard community is welcome to come in and share in the holiday.
—Shira Telushkin