Shir Tikvah, Portland Oregon
Torah - Learning Gemilut Hasadim - Social Action Avodah - Prayer Singing Meditation

Sukkot Sept. 30-Oct. 7

Join us for Erev Sukkot Tefilah. This fall harvest holiday invites us to stop and consider all the blessings we harvest every day of our lives, and respond to them in the following ways:

1. We are obligated to give thanks for the successful gathering of the harvest by sharing it: Shir Tikvah does a food drive for the Oregon Food Bank every fall. If you haven’t yet sent in a check to the OFB or brought a bag of food to services with you, you still can any time, right through the end of September.

2. Help build Shir Tikvah’s communal Sukkah
Sukkot is upon us only five days after the end of the High Holy Days – the annual fall celebration of the harvest, and, in Shir Tikvah minhag, apple pressing and apple cider consuming.
Our sukkah will be raised this year in the back yard of Mia Birk and Glen Coblens (contact the office for their address–it is NOT correct in the directory!) – bring skhakh*, bring a vegetarian dish, and bring a donation for the Food Bank!
We’ll say the blessings for the sukkah, and wave our lulav and etrog together. All ages welcome!

*although skhakh, the roof of the sukkah, was originally all palm fronds, we NorthWest Jews use whatever works: corn stalks, bamboo, Doug fir branches, anything you can bring which is long.

Build a sukkah at your home if you can, and eat a meal in it. The sukkah reminds us of the fragility of all our dwelling places. In these difficult economic times we especially think of all those who have lost their homes due to foreclosure.

3. Decorate the sukkah! The more you fuss over a sukkah, the more you can help your kids fight their Xmas tree envy! You can use colored lights, crepe paper, or whatever you wish to make your Sukkah gorgeous. And you’re fulfilling the mitzvah of hiddur mitzvah, making whatever mitzvah you do as nice and as beautiful as you can.

4. Invite the ushpizin, the traditional guests, to your sukkah, along with the guests from among your friends who might drop by. For more on the ushpizin, click here.

5. Buy a lulav and etrog (locally sourced!) and use them for Hallel during Sukkot tefilot all week long. Contact the Shir Tikvah office to reserve yours.

 

The Sukkot Carbon Footprint Challenge
You shall take the fruit of the hadar tree, palm fronds, and branches of willow and myrtle, and celebrate the harvest before God for seven days. (Lev.23.40)
What’s the carbon footprint of a lulav and etrog brought all the way from Israel? Every year, wherever they are, at least since the modern age of fast transport made it possible, Jews have always delighted in having the Four Species of Sukkot come all the way from Israel. But in recent years, questions of environmental responsibility have begun to challenge our sense of the best Jewish choice for the planet on Sukkot.
Imagine, then, how one might feel when one discovers that the willow is from New Jersey, the palm fronds from Egypt, and the etrog most possibly was grown in southern Italy. As our ancestors might have put it, what is God’s will in all this? In modern translation, what is the ethical way to fulfill the mitzvah of Leviticus 23.40 in the celebration of Sukkot?

This year our lulav and etrog will be as locally sourced as possible. Etrogim from California, myrtle and willow from the Northwest, and palm fronds from Tualatin (don’t ask!) Would you like to be a part of this process? We’re looking for anyone who might be interested, so we can arrange to get as many as we need. Cost is certainly going to be lower than shipping them in. More details will come as they are available, but let us know if you might want a set–you can back out at any time! Click here to send us an email showing your interest!

And if you are interested in procuring a etrogim set through last year’s supplier, you can contact Avrohom at 718.253.4824 or zionetrogim@aol.com

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