segs@mhuxv.UUCP (slusky) (10/10/84)
As a public service to all you VusVusim, I'm going to educate you, like it or not, as to proper (meaning Libyan) observance of the upcoming yom tob Sukkot. First of all, it is not normative Jewish practice to build a sukkah of wood, burlap, or pipes. A sukkah is a temporary structure. If the aforementioned materials are used to build a sukkah, they will continue to exist even after the sukkah is disassembled. Thus the sukkah will not have been sufficiently temporary for the truly orthopractic. But, what is truly temporary? Well, as my greatgrandfather Hakam Hakam was known to say, "When you eat the donut, the hole is also consumed." (Now I'll bet you never heard an Ashkenazi Rab say that, at least not in JudeoArabic.) Thus we real Jews build a sukkah by digging a large hole in the ground. After Sukkot we fill in the hole and the sukkah ceases to exist, a truly temporary structure. It may be a bit dusty or muddy but in your heart you know you're right. Above-the-ground sukkot are for assimilated, Westernized Ashkenazim and are just imitations of houses which are a Slavic thing not a Jewish one. Of course, this means we have to climb in through a hole in the s'khakh. And speaking of s'khakh, we do not use gourds, evergreen boughs, Indian corn, or any of that Ashenazi dreck. The s'khakh must be vegetable material which is no longer living. Therefore it is imperative to use something which is truly known to be non-living. Here in Libya we use sheets of perforated kelp. Should it rain, it wets the kelp. Then the kelp releases its ineffable aroma and you really know it's dead. The use of kelp also brings Sukkot into harmony with the prayers for rain of S:mini 'Atseret via the kelp-ocean-rain-water connection. And as to visitors, forget Abraham, Moshe, and Dovid ha Melekh (not to mention Sarah, Miryam, and Mihal). We real Jews invite present-day kings to sit in our sukkot. Now it can be tough to get the royal family of Tunisia to climb into a hole in the ground covered with smelly seaweed, but if over the centuries you've developed the right connections ... Hag Sameakh! Estrallita Nassim Hmessa Albez -- mhuxv!segs