You build a sukkah. Yup, we are planning ahead and are about to purchase a sukkah kit in order to build our own little slice of, well, of the memory of ancestors’ wanderings in the desert. Now this is a bit of weird ritual, I admit, but trust me when I tell you that it is all about family getting together. My favorite on that page, by the way, is the Greenberg Sukkah (well, I also like the Sukkah by the Lake but I’d need a cottage first). I plan to get some lattices as well…
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Having actually spent some nights in flimsy thatch shelters in the middle of the desert in Israel, I can personally testify that it is awesome, and that the backyard sukkah experience doesn’t come close.
So I recommend the genuine wandering-in-the-desert-sukkah-camping-adventure for a full ancestor memory experience. All you need is some food, water, a can-do attitude and a few splif–er, good friends. Yeah. Try it, you’ll like it.
Advice noted.
But what about when it rains? Sukkot is in October…
Point is: “it is not our nice houses which shelter us, it is G-d who shelters us.” This is a very useful lesson. Getting out of the house teaches this very well. A bit of rain is part of the fun. You go indoors, naturally; there is no requirement to get cold or wet, but you are forcibly and experientially reminded to appreciate the nice house.
There is a good reason for rituals.
Either: 1) G-d is not an idiot, and therefore, does not command us to do stupid rituals, or, 2) stupid rituals would not have been transmitted for three thousand long years. Stupid, useless, or “wierd” rituals would have been shoved aside and forgotton, during so much time.
Theologically, take your pick; some believe, some don’t, and some believe a little bit, sometimes.
But, one of these two views has to hold. Logic has spoken. We should not spit on something that has been carefully carried on for so long, and that obviously does not hurt anybody.
Even the poor, who cannot afford their own, can take at least one meal in somebody’s succah. That counts.