Every year, I teach my students some of the more creative laws of sukkahs, the temporary “booths” Jewish people sit in for the 8-day holiday now in progress.  The Sukkah Handbook (by Rabbi Hadar Margolin) has a great picture of an elephant being used as a sukkah wall.  Check it out!  It is right there in the Shulchan Aruch 630:11), the highly regarded Jewish Code of Law. And if you are wondering, it is also ok to build a sukkah on a wagon or boat (Shulchan Aruch 628:2, Mishna Brurah 11, 14), on a camel or on a tree! (Shulchan Aruch 628:3).

There is more room to be creative in building a sukkah than people may think.  This comes in handy during this most unusual Covid-19 year.

For those who live in the suburbs, building a sukkah in an ordinary year is no big deal.  There are snap together kits for sukkahs of all sizes, and it is easy to buy a schach mat (bamboo, etc) for the top of the sukkah. 

For those who live in a city like Manhattan, it is more complicated.  The sukkah must be outside with a clear view to the sky—with nothing hanging over it.  That means no trees, no roofs, no balconies.  For that reason, there are very few sukkahs in the city.

Manhattan residents usually go to their synagogue for communal meals.  Or they go to a restaurant with a sukkah.  One can argue that the sukkah is an early prototype of the perfect outdoor dining spot for these Covid days!  Jews have been eating outside in the somewhat hilly autumn for years!

Other Manhattan residents are lucky enough to spot a Chabad sukkah in a public park or along various walkways on the Upper East Side.   Here is a piece I wrote 3 years ago for Chabad.org about sukkahs on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.   They playfully called it “When a Private Sukkah Costs $4 Million, Where Do We Eat?”  People are free to drop by and use it anytime.

There are also Chabad bicycle sukkahs, and sukkahs on the back of pickup trucks.

But this year, there are extra challenges.  I want to thank Chabad and JLIC, the OU's Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus (OU-JLIC) at Binghamton University, for creative, safety-minded thinking.  They have come up with ways to build a sukkah which allows for maximum openness and flow of air.

See the pictures below for photos of a Chabad sukkah in Tel Aviv which is open on the sides and has “private pods” for diners to eat in family units, distanced from other sukkah guests.  The next photo is of sukkahs offered to students at Binghamton University with the “minimum” number of walls required by Jewish law.  The next photo is of a sukkah at Manhattans’ Bagels and Co—for one or two diners at a time.  The final sukkah is a common site around the country—Chabad sukkahs for one or two—on a pickup truck.

Enjoy a happy, safe Sukkot.  It is nice to know there are ways to ensure both!

I have read many articles in the past few months, written by people with disabilities, noting that Covid-19 has given people without disabilities a very small taste of what their lives are like—from people with mobility issues regularly not being able to attend in person meetings or getting around the office easily, to deaf people feeling left out of meetings due to lack of interpreters.  They all end by hoping the world will just be bit more understanding and accommodating for everyone if and when we return to work.

My hope and prayer is that the Jewish World will also continue to be more inclusive and accommodating.  We are off to a good start!  Countless synagogues of all denominations and entire Jewish communities have worked hard to meet the needs of congregants unable to attend in person services, life cycle events or classes.

In this blog, I have documented a few, from community wide shofar blowing on the streets of New York and LA, to virtual classes.   There were countless Shabbat Shuva drashes, as well as rich online pre-holiday programming for people of all ages.

I have been particularly struck by the number of pre-holiday Yizkor services offered.   I attended one this past Thursday offered by Manhattan’s Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun.  And Chabad held a Yizkor service at 9 am Sunday (Erev Yom Kippur), advertising, “Join thousands as we remember our loved one…”   In the KJ Yizkor, Rabbi Chaim Steinmatz noted that Yizkor is traditionally recited when the community gathers, and that, this year, many in the community were gathering virtually.

All the years I have been attending synagogue, I have noticed people rushing to shuls of all denominations to “say Yizkor”—even if they had to then turn around and go back to work.  Or they had to get to shul at great cost.   It is not easy for everyone to get to shul—due to age, disability, financial means and more.  Offering Yizkor virtually, especially before the holiday when technology use isn’t an issue for the more observant, is brilliant—and inclusive.

There are obvious halachic (Jewish law) challenges.  Though we are seeing innovation and creativity in both the Conservative and the Orthodox worlds.  There is an old say: “Where there is a rabbinic will, there is a halachic way.”  This may not be true in all cases—but it means there is room for more “play” within the system. 

Some Conservative rabbis were not comfortable using Zoom on Shabbat and holidays. They were a bit more comfortable when they learned they can leave Zoom “on” for the whole service without touching the controls. Then, Rosh Hashanah came along.  Zoom apparently ends a meeting automatically after 24 hours of being on.  The two-day holiday of Rosh Hashanah would have been problematic—until a clever Conservative rabbi working on this issue contacted a colleague in California who had a congregant who was a higher up at Zoom.  Lo and behold—they found a way to allow Zoom to stay on for 48 hours!

And finally, a playful accommodation.  A clever Jew in Melbourne, Australia found a way to bring the kaparah ritual to Australian Jews on lockdown—he rented a plane with chickens aboard and had the pilot fly “kaparah patterns” over Melbourne!

I pray that 5781 is a year of continuing to be creative and therefore even more inclusive!