City Jews Celebrate Succoth Festival

By Galina Stolyarova

Staff Writer

Published: October 17, 2003 (Issue # 911)

Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times Members of the city's Jewish community taking part on Tuesday at the start of celebrations in the Great Choral Symphony.

The world's Jews this week are celebrating Succoth - the Jewish Harvest Festival - which begins on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Tishri.

The dates change every year in the Gregorian calendar that is used throughout the world, but always fall in September or October.

A week long, Succoth is perhaps the most cheerful Jewish holiday. This year's Succoth runs from Oct. 11 through 17.

The word succoth means booths, and refers to the makeshift huts in which Jews lived during their 40 years wandering the desert.

During Succoth, a special ceremony is held each day to remember Hebrew ancestors and to thank God for the harvest. According to centuries-old tradition, families should gather for meals and sleep inside booths as well.

These days, very few people can afford to be so dedicated, and some Jews construct a succah, the singular of succoth, in their gardens or even balconies, and decorate it with whatever fruits and vegetables they can find.

In Israel, the roofs of succoth are built primarily with branches of olive trees and decorated with local fruits and flowers.

In St. Petersburg, the booths - in the courtyard of the Great Choral Sinagogue on Lermontovsky Prospekt - were covered with the branches of a fir tree. Local weather has been at its worst this week, with pouring rain and cold winds forcing Jews to hold most of the festivities inside the synagogue.

"Succoth is a family holiday, with sharing [of roof and meals] being an important part of its philosophy," said Menahem Mendel Pevzner, principal rabbi at the synagogue.

Sharing food explains its second name, the Feast of Tabernacle.

"Naturally, Succoth should be held in booths, but this year the weather really made it impossible, and we had to make an exception."

Magicians, acrobats, a childrens choir - and, of course, the children, who made for a good half of the crowd - created a cheerful, hospitable and cosy atmosphere for the holiday.

In line with another tradition, many people have special plants in their hands. During the festival, Jews take the four plants and fruit - the etrog (citron), the lulav (palm tree), haddash (myrtle) bush sprouts and branches of the willow tree - and tie them together.

The four plants represent four types of people - etrog symbolizes the virtuous, demonstrating purity of mind and deeds. The palm tree represents the learned, but not necessarily those who lead a good life, while the myrtle sprouts symbolize the opposite - not refined intellectuals, but those with a good heart. The willow tree is for those who possess neither intellegince, nor a benevolent soul.

"The idea is very obvious: take the etrog, it is bright and has a fine aroma, while the willow tree is not really impressive," said Rabbi Tsvi Pinski of the tradition, and its unifying spirit. "But all people are human and should live in peace."

Several hundred people turned out for the St. Petersburg event.

In New York, however, Jews celebrate the holiday by the thousands. A video of the Succoth festival in Brooklyn, New York, showed whole streets filled with people, dancing and singing. But after decades of harsh repression in Russia, and several waves of emigration the difference is hardly surprising.

"I grew up in the Soviet Union, and my father, who himself spoke Hebrew was afraid to teach me the language," said Yulia Degtyaryova, who runs a childrens choir in Jewish school Beit Sefer Menahem. The choir performed in the synagogue as part of festivities Tuesday.

"The result is that very few families speak the language, and in most cases it is Yiddish, not Hebrew. Of course, these days many families teach their children without fear."

Masha Golokhova, nine, sings in the choir.

"I like Succoth very much, and this is already the third time I will take part in this holiday," she said. "Jews have a lot of holidays, and we learn all about them in school. I enjoy those lessons about our culture and history."

Rabbi Pinski follows strict Succoth traditions.

He and his family take their meals only in booths throughout the week of festivities. But he said more and more people are joining them in the Great Choral Sinagogue for the Jewish holidays.

"There are hundreds and hundreds of people, who maintain these ancient traditions here," he said. "Not all of them are religious, while some live very far from the synagogue, and would only be able to come once, but the most important thing is that the historical tradition lives on."