Hot on the heels of Yom Kippur comes the eight day Jewish Festival, Sukkot. During the week of Sukkot Jewish families sleep, eat and entertain in huts, called sukkas – a bit like something you might see on Gilligan’s island and generally plenty of fun for the kids!
At the heart of this festival are three sorts of handheld branches as well as a citron fruit, the branches are known in Hebrew as the lulav and the fruit as an etrog. These are all held together in a daily ceremony signifying renewed devotion towards God and acceptance of human diversity.
The Goodlife went over to the home of Rabbi Rosenthal . Whilst mum and the kids were baking in the kitchen the Rabbi was setting up his sukka. Unusual in their veganism however orthodox in their Judaism, he and his wife were in the hubbub of pre-festival preparations, when they kindly took the time to tell us about this Festival of Joy.
Listen to this episode from ABC Sunday Nights with John Cleary.