I have a sukkah on my deck.  Or, at least, I will have one on my deck in time for Sukkot.  The Brotherhood at my shul decided to put on a workshop with the help of Home Depot.  Immediately, my husband and I signed up.

 

This is not my first sukkah.  It’s my second.  The first was one my parents built in our basement.  It wasn’t what you’d call kosher—not only was it in the basement, but we threw a flowery bedspread over it.  You couldn’t see the sky, but it was kind of harvesty.  I remember eating sandwiches in it.  And I seem to remember a cluster of plastic grapes.  It’s a good memory; I smile when I think about it.   

 

But in the ten years my husband and I have owned our home, I haven’t wanted to build a sukkah.  Something this year made me think about having one.  Maybe it was something my rabbi said years ago—each year do one thing more.  Like baby steps to observance.  This resonated with me.  I can handle doing one more thing each year.  So the first year it was packing up my kitchen for Passover (not just putting out paper plates and plasticware).  The second year it was stepping up our observance of Shabbat.  This year…Sukkot.

 

So we went to the workshop.  We watched the nice man from Home Depot put the sample together.  At first, it seemed so fast and easy, bzzzzz, bzzzz, bzzzz, three screws in like nothing.  But then forty-five minutes in to what now seemed like a major construction project we asked a contractor who was there how much he would charge to build a sukkah for us.  My enthusiasm began to wane. 

 

While we were starting to loose faith in our DIY abilities, my daughter was picking out paint colors for our sukkah (Benjamin Moore Tropicana Cabana—same as her room) and my son was deciding which fruit to string up and asking if he could sleep in it with our dog.  In my heart, I had committed to do this.  Every year we’re going to be busy.  Every year there will be reasons not to build a sukkah.  I felt like if we didn’t build one this year, we never would.  “We have to have a sukkah,” I told myself.  And I really wanted to build it together with our children.  I lovingly remember my basement sukkah, and I want to provide my children with similar memories.

  

In the end, we made a donation to Brotherhood and drove home with everything we need.  All we have to do is reassemble the beams, put up canvas walls, decorate with palm fronds and fruit (oh, and paint it Tropicana Cabana.) 

 

So here we are:  our first year with a sukkah.  I’m so excited.  I’m already planning an open house (I’d say open sukkah, but by definition, it’s already open).  I’ve invited my daughter’s Girl Scout troop over, and I’m thinking about organizing a progressive dinner among all the sukkot in the neighborhood (ok, first I have to find out if there are any other sukkot in the neighborhood).  What a great way to connect with friends and neighbors.  I used to love going into our synagogue sukkah as a child.  Now I can’t wait to cut out construction paper leaves and fruit with my children. 

 

So, I may not have a field to harvest (we had a blueberry plant this summer, but I didn’t water it enough) but I’m going to have a sukkah.  And, if you happen to be in the neighborhood and see a blue sukkah, please stop by…everyone’s welcome…maybe I’ll get some real grapes this time.

 

Happy Sukkot!

 

(This article was originally published in the Baltimore Jewish Time.  Look for Modern Jewish Mom columns in the Jewish Times the third week of every month.  If you are interested in publishing Modern Jewish Mom articles, please contact Meredith at meredith@modernjewishmom.com.)

 

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