This is part two in a short series, view part one here.
Sukkot at home
We were excited to be able to celebrate the festivals in Israel, and not just in Israel but in Judea and Samaria (aka – The West Bank). Over the past 8 to 10 years we’ve celebrated Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles) here at home in our succah that has painted murals on the outer walls, a big party and inviting guests for dinner most nights. This year would be different. This year we would be in a different succah. This year we would be guests. This year we would go to Jerusalem.
At home, the livestock for that season was sold, the harvest brought in and processed, and the summer jobs were complete. Before we left for our trip I had shared how excited we were to be able to take our tithe to Israel, even to Jerusalem, and to use that money to celebrate the festival according to Deuteronomy 12:17. So the morning before Sukkot began we headed out to Rami Levi to buy desserts and snacks to share with our fellow harvesters and our roommates. I cannot tell you how fun that was!! And knowing that the meat and cheese were kosher was a complete relief – because we couldn’t read labels on many items.
There were about 250 harvesters with us and we were spread out between several camps, but for the festival we would all be together in one large group. Since our accommodations couldn’t hold all of us indoors, we gave the few rooms to the couples with the youngest children and to the eldest harvesters. The rest of us were assigned rows, by family, in the vineyard. Yes, we slept out under the stars, in the vineyard, all week long. What an experience! You sure can hear a lot through the grapevine. LOL
An oasis in the desert
After our morning of festival preparation shopping (along with hundreds of other locals) we headed down to a spring in the desert with the majority of the harvesters while some of the young men stayed back at camp to enlarge our existing succah and get the cots set up. As the guys worked hard, we played in the water and had lunch together. Some of us were getting anxious to help get the preparations completed for the festival. There were temporary toilets to put together, picnic benches to be built, the succah surely needed to be enlarged and food to prepare. So after lunch our caravan of harvesters headed back to our camp to complete the preparations. I’m sure that the guys who were setting up the cots were happy to have us out of the way because when we arrived, boy were there a lot of us!
We spent the first day of Sukkot, a festival sabbath, together studying the Scriptures, dancing, eating and enjoying getting to know the others whom we had not yet met. The desserts we had purchased were added to what was already on the menu. It felt good to be kind of sneaky in sharing with the group as we left boxes of baked goods and sweets in the kitchen to be added to the menu. After dinner and dessert several of the men led the group in the Birkat HaMazon, the after meal prayer. Our family has prayed a short version of this prayer after each meal for several years so we were familiar with it but to hear it sung in it’s entirety was a delight. Already our Sukkot had been tremendously blessed and we were just in the first few hours of the festival.
The first morning I woke up in the vineyard, not yet aware of my surroundings, I was upset and puzzled to hear a man (who is not my husband) clearing his throat and moving around on his cot. As I opened my eyes I realized I was not at home, I was not in my room and I had no idea where I was. Then all of the sudden I realized that I was hearing Mr Whoever-it-was “through the grapevine” and started to hear others rustling about, and I about cried trying not to laugh and wake everyone else up. After that morning I never forgot where I was when I woke up in the vineyard!
The week of Sukkot was spent working a little, touring a bit, spending time with the other harvesters and hosting our own guests in our succah. Driving from here to there and seeing all the sukkot that families had built was inspiring. To be honest, we’d never seen any sukkot other than our own before this. One day we went into the Old City in Jerusalem. What a treat that was!! The city was packed with festival partiers – a festival street party outside the Jaffa Gate with musical performers, food, bright lights and colorful booths. As you can see in the photo, it was full inside the Old City. It wasn’t just on the steps where we were packed in like sardines, it was the whole place! I can’t explain to you what that feels like. Being one of many worshipers in Jerusalem for Sukkot was indescribable.
Part way through the week my husband and our friends headed back home. It was a strange feeling to be left behind in “The West Bank” as my husband returned home to go back to work and care for the farm and the children and I stayed to continue the harvest. There was never a concern for our safety, but being so far apart and so far away from home was a strange feeling. There was a lot of work to be done and both of us stayed busy enough that the time passed quickly. And before I knew it, “home” was no longer an ocean away – it was right under my feet.
The day after my husband returned home, the children and I were scheduled to help out at the ICEJ Feast of Tabernacles Conference. That was quite an evening! Meeting people from all over the world, sharing with them about what we were doing in Judea and Samaria, visiting with others who were volunteering at the conference as well and having a chance to walk around Jerusalem together for a little while. At least one woman we spoke with joined us in the vineyards to harvest a few times. I believe she was from Singapore.
Several times during the week we had tour bus loads of guests join us after hearing that there was a group of foreigners in Judea and Samaria who came to help farmers with their harvest – just like Isaiah and Jeremiah said would happen. These were mutually encouraging visits between our groups and have forever changed the way I understand several things. I’ll share more about these events in another entry soon.
For the final sabbath our group disbanded and returned to our various camps to spend the final day together. Before the final day of Sukkot the three of us headed back to the store to spend the last of our festival money on snacks and sweets to share with our roommates – cookies, ice cream, juice, etc. While it was nice to get back to our small ‘family’ it felt strange to have everyone gone. The festival was coming to a close and we weren’t ready to say good-bye just yet.
The festival of Sukkot is a foretaste of when King Messiah reigns from Jerusalem and all the world worships Hashem in unity. It is a reminder of what is yet to come. The festival ends with a special day, a day that reminds us of eternity with our King. If eternity with King Messiah and the King of Kings in Jerusalem is anything like this Sukkot was, I’m more ready than ever before! You should join us next year, in Jerusalem!!!
