Holiday Evokes Both Hardships and Renewal

Jews at Temple Etz Chaim shook branches made of myrtle, palm and willow leaves before eating outside in a thatched hut on Thursday, the first day of the harvest festival Sukkot.

“This is a holiday to thank God for renewal,” said Rabbi Shimon Paskow, comparing the day to Thanksgiving. The holiday’s theme is people being persecuted and escaping to a fruitful land.

Sukkot occurs on the 15th day of the seventh Jewish month, which usually falls in September or October.

Aside from celebrating the time when farmers harvest their fields, Sukkot reminds Jews that their ancestors spent 40 years living in temporary desert shelters.

Those observing Sukkot eat and sometimes sleep in the sukkahs, or huts, for an entire week, to remind themselves even in prosperity that there were times when it wasn’t so easy for their people.

Members of the Axelrad family of Thousand Oaks said it was important to them to come to their Conservative synagogue to celebrate the seven-day holiday.

Kevin Axelrad, a clinical psychologist, rearranged his schedule so he could do the mitzvah, or commandment, of shaking the lulav and etrog--branches made of myrtle, palm and willow leaves and a lemony smelling citron.

Shaking these branches--which each symbolize something--in six directions is a way to show that God is all around.

“It’s a time to reconnect with history and bring social consciousness to mind,” Axelrad said.

Holding their two small daughters, Rachel and Hannah, Maureen Axelrad added that the holiday reminds her of nature.

For others, Sukkot was a chance to return to childhoods in which Jewish tradition played a significant role.

Al Klein, a graduate student of biology and teacher at Cal State Northridge, said he hadn’t been to services since he was a boy in Hebrew school. Just coming back to visit the rabbi and eating in the leafy sukkah brought back nostalgic memories of the happy holiday.

And some came to Temple Etz Chaim to learn something brand new.

Joseph Everson, a professor at Cal Lutheran University, brought his religion class to learn about Sukkot as it studies the Hebrew writings.

As newcomers to the Sukkah celebration, many of Everson’s students--who ate sweet noodle kugel and watched others singing and shaking the lulav--seemed surprised that they never had heard about the holiday before.