Sukkah Building Basics

Sukkot begins four days after Yom Kippur. It is one of the three pilgrimage festivals. Sukkot,
a Hebrew word meaning “booths” or “huts”, refers to the Jewish festival of giving thanks for
the fall harvest, as well as the commemoration of the forty years of Jewish wandering in the
desert after Sinai.

In ancient times, people would make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem to bring the first portion of their harvests to the priests to show thanks to God. On this holiday, we build small temporary shelters called Sukkot (plural for Sukkah) where families eat, socialize and even sleep, weather permitting.

Sukkot come in many variations, but there are some guidelines to follow when building them. Two important ones are:
• A sukkah has to have at least 3 walls. Only one can be an existing wall, like the side of a house. The walls may be constructed of any material, generally canvas, wood, or metal. Today, it is possible to buy ready-to assemble sukkah kits.
• The roof is to be temporary, covered with loose branches from trees or anything that grows out of the ground, and has been cut off from the ground. According to tradition, this roof covering, s’chach should give shade and yet allow those in the sukkah to see the stars through the roof
at night.

From Holiday Happenings from the Union for Reform Judaism