OK - so here is how ours starts each year. I have built this one out of ceder and coated it in an exterior wood stain. There are no metal fasteners, just through tenons and doweled wedges. I will show you a detail shot tomorrow.

Each piece can be disassembled and all are labeled. The rest of the year it gets stored in the garage.

What is to be read in the sukkah? One time honored choice is "Ecclesiastes" or in the Hebrew "Ḳohelet" - The origin of the expression, "to everything there is a season" is from that book, thought to have been written by Solomon.

well...

I know its been a busy summer and I am preparing for High Point and also for a new Home store called "Elemental Arts" that I am opening in downtown Canton, but I did just notice that it has been some time since my last post!

The Jewish New Year and holidays of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are behind me so it is a good time to begin anew. And what would a Jewish Carpenter be thinking about right now? The holiday of sukkot which starts in a few days with the full moon and is one of the more colorful and purely fun of all the holidays. AND because it takes place outside in a "booth" or hut (meaning of sukkah) and because a sukkah is made of wood, I have some ideas to share about its construction. In the next few days I will post pictures of the sukkah I built several years ago and which is made to be portable and reusable. It is also friendly to the spirit of the holiday as it has no metal fasteners. (potential instruments of war after being melted down)




One of the key aspects of the holiday are guests. It is commanded to entertain guests, to share a meal or something to drink in the sukkah and to dwell (sleeping bags are needed at night here in NE Ohio) in it. Some come on over for a glass of wine or beer... Decoration is done with natural and specified materials such as willow branches (which we have) and palm fronds (which we don't) so we will use grasses, corn stalks. tree branches and other materials for this temporary - emphasis on temporary building. It is not supposed to be built "too well".