Sukkot: Paradise in a hut

Leopold Pilikhovski. Sukkot. 1894–1895 Paradise in a hut. From October 1 to October 7, Jews celebrate Sukkot - a festival of Kushchev. These days it is customary to build huts, arrange noisy feasts, make a bouquet of four species of plants and purchase an exotic citrus fruit Etrog. The days of trepidation and repentance were left behind, ahead - days of fun and joy, the feast of Sukkot crowns a series of so -called autumn holidays. The summer months of the Jewish calendar are poor in the festive dates, in the fall, the completely unique stage of the calendar cycle opens. It begins on the New Year-Rosh A-Shan, which Jews celebrate Tishrey on the first day of the autumn month

* * The first month in the Jewish calendar. This year, 1 Tishrey - the day of the creation of Adam and Eve - was on September 17. . If the spring month is Nisan and the festival of Passah (Easter) tells about the special fate of the Jewish people, they marked its birth and entry in history, then the meaning of the autumn holidays is more universal.

According to legend, the world and the first person were created these days, and therefore, in a month of Tishrera, each, like Adam, remains alone with its creator. The emblem of this dialogue becomes the custom of trumpet into Shofar - Barani Rog. Its lingering exciting sound symbolizes a prayer that lies outside the tongue and does not require translation. During the feast these days, it is customary to dwell bread in honey and wish each other a good and sweet year. In addition, they want to be recorded in the book of life. But the expectation is inseparable from responsibility, since Rosh A-Shan paradoxically combines the holiday and day of the Divine Court.

Festive meal in Sukka. From the engravings of Bernard Picara, 1722 Three Dialogs

Building a sukka. Engraving on a tree, Poland, XIX century.

The main motive of the first ten days of the Jewish year is repentance, Tshuva. The meaning of the Hebrew word “Tshuva” is much more capacious and multi -digit than its Russian translation: this is a return, and even an answer. The dynamics of the first ten days is drawn in the central prayer of the New Year's liturgy-the famous medieval prayer of Rabbi Amnon from the Mainz: “The verdict is recorded in Rosh a-Shana, and in the post of yom kipura

* Yom Kipur is a day of day. It falls on the tenth day of Tishrey's month. It is fastened with a seal: how many people to leave and how many are created, who to live and who to die, who is at the end of the days, and to whom it is untimely, to whom death is from the water, and to whom from the fire, to whom from the sword and to whom from the beast, to whom from hunger, to whom from earthquakes, and to whom from Mora (...). But repentance, prayer and charity cancel a heavy sentence. ” It is in this triple dialogue - with his conscience, with the Creator and with the Near - the essence of the following New Year of the Day of Day, or the Atonal Day - Yom Kipur. On the eve of the swarm, forgiveness of loved ones, and strict daily post is carried out in prayer and meditation.

The zodiac constellation of the month of Tishrey - Libra. Contrary to the existing opinion, the allegorical interpretation of the zodiac signs in Judaism is very common. The symbolism of balance embedded in the emblem of Libra hints at the nature of the autumn holidays. The thrill and repentance of the first half of Tishrey are replaced by glee and fun of the holidays Sukkot, Smini Aiteret3 and Simhat Torah

* Shimni Azerset - the eighth, finishing day of the holiday of Sukkot. The Simhat Torah (letters. - The joy of the Torah) completes the cycle of the annual reading of the Torah and begins a new cycle. . Indeed, in Jewish holidays, not only the idea of ​​updating, but also the idea of ​​cyclicity is important. This is the ancient rhythm of the agrarian year, and the cycle of the so-called "festivals-driving"-Passah, Shavouott, Sukkot, dating back to the mandatory visits of the Jerusalem Temple mentioned in the Pentateuch. This is the liturgical cycle of reading the Torah Scroll, which ends from year to year and resumes again in the month of Tishrey.

Daniel Lifshits. Six sages, 1990 huts

Mizra. Decoration for bitches. Bavaria, 1827

Sukkot is called a fifth harvest fee in the Pentateuch. It is in Sukkot, on the eve of winter, that they pray for heavy sediments - in this custom, the features of the climate of Israel echoing. And the main symbols of the holiday are associated with the plant world. This is primarily Sukka - a festive hut, designed to recall the wanderings of the Jews in the desert after the outcome from Egypt. The Torah says: "Live in the huts for seven days so that your descendants know that I settled the sons of Israel in the hut when I brought them out of Egypt." (Levita 23:43.) Sukka allows you to annually survive and comprehend the experience of a wanderer, devoid of reliable shelter and confidence in the future. The familiar way is turned into a succot: within a week a fragile and cold hut replaces the house. They eat, sleep, receive guests. The roof of the sukka cannot be dense, rain should penetrate through it and stars should be visible. The permeability of the hut does not allow a person to close, to close in four walls. It is no accident that it is in Sukkot in the synagogues that excerpts from the book of the Prophet Zachariah are read, telling about the upcoming Messianic association of peoples into this holiday. The image of Sukka allows not only to reconstruct the past, the drama of the outcome, but also to simulate the future.

Glass dish with national Jewish symbols, IV century.

There are several techniques for building a bitch. In the towns of Eastern Europe, the function of a festive hut was often performed by a veranda or gallery of the house. Usually, in such cases, the ceiling and roof were collapsible in order to give way to a special cover of branches during the holiday. There were roof structures on the hinges - it could be opened and closed again after the holiday. Nowadays, Sukka, as a rule, is built from improvised materials in the form of a small pavilion. What turns the usual construction into a festive hut is a special roof of branches, the creation of which is regulated by many rules and customs. In Russia, a lapnik layer is usually laid on a light crate from the boards. In Israel, these are mainly palm branches.

Guests

Mark Chagall. Holiday, 1914

Shalash, challenging the usual comfort, awakens in a person the need for protection from above. It is no coincidence that Sukka is associated with the wonderful clouds of glory, protecting the Jewish people from the vicissitudes of the path in the desert. The Kabbalistic book “Zoar” tells about seven mystical guests, the so -called Ushpisin, descending from heaven and who come in turn in each of the seven days of the holiday in the hut. Interestingly, the Aramaic word "Ushpin", according to some versions, goes back to the Latin Hospes - "guest". Ushpisin is the forefathers, prophets and the kings of ancient Israel: Abraham, Isaac, James, Joseph, Moses, Aaron and David. The custom to meet the “Higher Guests”, as they are also called, was widespread in the Hasidic communities of Eastern Europe. Some, entering the festive hut, welcome invisible guests, inviting them to share the meal. There is also a custom daily invite the poor man to Sukka, whose name corresponds to the mystical guest of this day. Every day of the holiday corresponds to one of the biblical figures, nevertheless, it is often emphasized that the remaining six accompany the host. From here it began to start the custom to light one festive candle in honor of the “main” guest or in each of the seven days - seven candles in honor of all. Many traditionally devote to the guest of the current day, his virtues and merits of a small table speech.

Decorations

Casket for Etrog. Grinded silver, coinage, engraving, Augsburg, Germany, 1670–1680

Contrary to the temporary nature of Sukka from the Talmud era, it was customary to decorate it carefully and with love. The hut was covered with carpets, hung up paintings and folk pictures, tapestries, did not spare the expensive utensils, and fruits and lanterns were suspended to the ceiling. In the collection of the Israeli Museum in Jerusalem there is Sukka, belonging to the Feller family from the Swabian city of Fishah. It was made around 1837 and used until 1910. The walls of the bitches consist of numbered boards. This allowed every autumn it is easy to assemble and disassemble the entire structure. The boards were painted with oil paints in the spirit of the folk picture of a village carpenter: biblical episodes are adjacent to sketches from the life of the owner, the Swabian town corresponds to the image of ancient Jerusalem.

Sukka is a special sacred space where the usual course of time is interrupted and the events of the past are experienced by a person as a personal spiritual experience. Therefore, their mnemonic function is so important in the jewelry of Sukka. The decor gives the form to what is happening in the tent, entering the present into the history of generations, translating it into the language of symbols.

Sukka, Fishah, 1837 Plants before the six -pointed star became a national Jewish emblem, this role was played by the images of the temple seven -heater, the New Year's lamb horn (Shofara) and, finally, the ligaments of the four species of ritual plants of the festival of Sukkot. First of all, it is a citrone, in Hebrew Etrog - a fruit similar to a lemon from a citrus fruit. The other three - the escape of the finite palm, the branches of myrtle and the branches of willow - are collected in a certain way in a kind of bouquet. Countless interpretations of his symbols unite, perhaps, only one thing - the search for unity in diversity.

Each element in a plant bunch has certain advantages, but is deprived of some others. For example, myrtle is very fragrant, but inedible, and palm fruits are delicious, but inferior to it in aroma. They can become one, they can only complement each other. Since in Judaism the natural does not exist in isolation from the social, the etrog and a bunch of three plants are perceived as a model of ideal society. In it, the sage, who is symbolized by the Etrog, is adjacent to the ignoramus (willow), and the intellectual (palmam) can realize his plans in alliance with a person of action (myrtle). From the point of view of the individual, four species of plants gathered together, in the interpretation of Kabbalah, build an image of an ideal personality, a harmonious person. Etrog will be his heart, the palm branch - the spine, the leaves of myrte form the eyes, and the strips of willow leaves - the mouth.

The festival has another name - “The Time of our Joy”. Until the end of the month of Tishrei, prayers of repentance should not sound, and spiritual forces gathered during the holidays should be enough for a whole year in advance.