Haredim Puzzled By World’s Use Of Sukkah Decorations In December

Bnei Brak, Israel, December 16 – Israeli ultra-orthodox Jews voiced confusion this week upon seeing vast stretches of foreign cities and towns decorated with tinsel, a material obviously intended for the Sukkah.

The holiday of Sukkot ended two months ago, and Jews of all stripes have by this time dismantled their temporary dwellings for the festival and disposed of, or at least stowed, the decorations. The sight of decorations festooning the streets, houses, businesses, and public facilities across Europe and the Americas therefore sparks bewilderment.

Tinsel decorations for the Sukkah enjoy a robust market in Israel in the weeks preceding the holiday, which marks the end of the harvest season and usually occurs in October. The decorations, almost invariably of Chinese manufacture, feature traditional Sukkot colors of red, green, gold and silver, and include such identifiably Sukkot-themed items as hanging baubles, colorful strings of lights, and reflective, frilled streamers.

Seeing the decorations in use now, closer to Hanukkah, puzzles the Haredim, they report, since no such trappings are a typical part of Hanukkah observance. “I can sort of understand how maybe a totally ignorant sheygetz might get confused between one eight-day holiday and another, on both of which we say a full Hallel,” allows Gedalya Kloister, 50, referring to non-Jews and a series of Psalms of thanksgiving, respectively. “But I can’t see getting them completely confused like this. Everyone knows the decorations have no place outside an actual Sukkah anyway.”

Despite the puzzlement, some orthodox Jews appreciate the aesthetics of the decorations in their current context. “Sukkos is partially a harvest festival,” says Nosson Nota Tannenbaum, 28, using the Eastern European pronunciation of the holiday’s name. “But it’s wintertime now, so obviously the trappings are going to be different in this season. I kind of like the way everyone uses fir trees as a vehicle for displaying Sukkah decorations.” He acknowledged that although a nod to Hanukkah might be more appropriate this time of year, olive trees are notoriously hard to come by beyond the Mediterranean.

“I especially like the way some families have even put up whole scenes of people visiting a family in a Sukkah,” adds Tannenbaum. “Even though it’s obviously not a kosher Sukkah and there’s always a woman and a baby, who should be pottur,” meaning exempt from the obligation.

“Also, there are sometimes animals, which is just weird.”