Last Thursday, Oct. 17, Jews all around the world celebrated Chag Sukkot, the holiday of Sukkot. As a Jewish educator and the director of an afterschool program committed to Jewish children’s learning, I have always loved celebrating Sukkot with children.
In the days leading up to the holiday, we discussed with the professional team how to make Chag, the special holiday days at the beginning and of the holiday, feel different. Many people associate chag with restrictions, similar to those on Shabbat: no driving, no electricity, no writing, etc. But we wanted to make chag special not in terms of things we’re allowed to do and not allowed to do – but in terms of what makes this day feel different. A day where we celebrate what is already here instead of creating new things.
We didn’t use art supplies or do any coloring or painting to explore Judaism. We didn’t write our interpretations of texts, as we usually do. We were just with each other as we already are.
On Chag Sukkot I saw the ways in which our children engage with their Jewish environments using their full bodies and senses, each child encountering Judaism from where they currently are.
I went out to the Sukkah (outdoor booth) on Thursday and felt immense Hakarat HaTov, gratitude, for what we do.
At our school, I saw the 2nd and 3rd grade children in the Nitzanim (“Buds”) group waving the Lulav and Etrog, the four special species for the holiday. The children were smelling the myrtles and feeling the texture of the citron. I asked them what they felt in their bodies as they shook the species, and heard responses ranging from “weird,” to “itchy,” to “excited.”
I saw the kindergarten and 1st graders in the Shteelim (“Saplings) group, sitting on a blanket discussing a text about Moses. When one child arrived a little later, I helped him get snack and say both the snack Brachot (blessings) as well as the special blessing for sitting in the Sukkah. There is an extra blessing today; what an exciting moment!
And I saw the nursery school children in the Shorashim (“Roots”) group, eating snack with their educator, enthralled in the Sukkot story she was reading to them.
All in one Sukkah, on one Thursday afternoon.
It was a moment of true harmony. It felt like everyone was right where they are supposed to be in life.
There was a buzzing of sounds and sights in that Sukkah that carried over indoors as a big second grader and nursery three-year-old child worked together to connect PVC pipes for our child-sized Sukkah and hang up the fabric walls with pins.
I left thinking about how when we talk about a Sukkah, we often talk about a confined structure. But it’s a structure with a door and a roof that is see-through, that allows light to emanate forth from within to the rest of our lives. That’s how I think about Jewish children’s education, where Jewish children come to learn and grow as full human beings. It is a place where the light from the children’s worlds pours in, informing all that we do inside. And it is a place where each of our lights emanate forth to everything that we do, back into the child’s world.
Rabbi Daniel Atwood (he/him) is a rabbi and Jewish educator who passionately believes in making Jewish learning accessible to all. Most recently, Daniel served as a Jewish studies and Hebrew teacher at Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School, where he helped students from first grade to middle school find their voices in Jewish texts and traditions. Daniel was ordained as a rabbi by Yashrut in Israel in 2019, and recently completed his M.Ed. with a concentration in Jewish Instructional Education from Gratz College. When not building the Jewish future, Daniel loves all things baseball and exploring Chicago.
