WHEN: October 10 – October 17 TIME: 9:00am -5:00pm
WHERE: Jewish Center of the Hamptons driveway, 44 Woods Lane, East Hampton
CONTACT: office@jcoh.org Tel: 631-907-8528
Beginning five days after Yom Kippur, Sukkot is named after the booths or huts (sukkot in Hebrew) in which Jews are supposed to dwell during this week-long celebration. While normally on Sukkot, the Jewish Center of the Hamptons erects a ‘sukkah’ (a makeshift ritual hut), we have decided that a community sukkah is not a good place to gather during this COVID era. So this year, we have adapted the Sukkot tradition to create our very first Drive-Thru Sukkah.
Pull your car into the driveway at the Jewish Center of the Hamptons, scan the code using your smartphone to download a prayer card and watch a video of Rabbi Debra Stein, Cantor reciting the Sukkot Blessings. Then, drive into our sukkah, recite the traditional blessings, and dwell and reflect on what our lives can and should be in the year to come.
JCOH’s Rabbi Josh Franklin explains, “On the holiday of sukkot, we reflect on the fragile and ephemeral nature of life. We read from the book of Ecclesiastics, who reminds us: “Everything is but mere breath . . . all is mere breath (Ecclesiastes 1:2). In other words, we are vulnerable, and life is fleeting. Dwelling in or driving through a sukkah isn’t simply Jewish camping, it’s a symbolic reminder of the ephemeral reality of life.
Our community has hung photos of individuals that we are symbolically invited as guests into our sukkah this year including: “Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Heather Booth, Bob Moses, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michel Schwerner.” You can learn more about each of these individuals when you drive through.
SHABBAT MORNING & SIMCHAT VIRTUAL TORAH FESTIVAL SERVICE
OCTOBER 10 @ 10:00 AM VISIT: jcoh.org/live
Join us virtually for our Shabbat and Simchat Torah service. While this year, we won’t dance as a community with the Torah scrolls, we will still be reading from the very end of Deuteronomy, and then starting the beginning of the Torah with Genesis.
