This article is for you. The Jew who has never built a sukkah before, or vaguely remembers that the last time you helped to build a sukkah, you were four-years-old and your job was to hang streamers from the ceiling.
Like the house Anne Frank lived in when she and her family were in hiding from the Nazis, Sukkot is a secret holiday, translated literally, as booths. Sukkot is a pilgrim’s holiday, honoring those who wandered forty years in the desert and those who made arduous journeys to the holy temple of Jerusalem while living in temporary dwellings along the way. A symbol of life’s fragility, it is made of branches and beams with ample space for the intrusions of sun and rain.
