Wednesday night is the first night of Sukkot, a fun and funny Jewish holiday (In Hebrew: “Sue COAT,” in Yiddish: “SOOK us”). During its seven days, Jews are commanded to build and live in an outdoor lean-to type structure (a Sukkah; sukkot is the plural) the construction of which is governed by incredibly detailed (petty?) rules. Standard decorations, mostly a kid activity, often include fruit and paper flowers. People may but mostly don’t live in their lean-tos. We often eat meals there. If you want the detailed how-to for the holiday, including instructions for waving plants around (yet one more commandment) click here

As with some other Jewish holidays, two things are being observed. In ancient times, people say, people slept out in their fields to bring in the harvest. Sukkot also commemorates the tradition that the children of Israel were homeless and slept in temporary shelters. (While to me, this seems like a perfect occasion to go camping; if you look carefully, you may see sukkot on high-rise balconies and brownstone backyards).

So why, apart from the commandments in Leviticus, should leftist, secular, agnostic, atheistic Jews like me eat under the stars, vulnerable to rain and cold (The roof of the sukkah, should be made with materials which grew in the ground and were cut – tree branches, stalks of grass which are only loosely bound)?

We connect with our farming past, camping in the fields, eating congregate meals with other farm workers. We remember our origins as homeless people. While in their dessert wandering the children of Israel had no homes. Our ancestors, the Habiru, it is said, were alien migrants; trespassers who were the subject of frequent complaints by local authorities. The holiday gives us the chance to identify in practical ways with lower income homeless and immigrant people. Do our synagogues feed the hungry, house the homeless, hide the undocumented? Do we advocate for social change on behalf of people like us? In our city, hundreds of thousands of eligible people lack food stamps, tens of thousands are without homes, food pantries and soup kitchens are short of food . Feeding the hungry is necessary, as is sheltering the homeless. Changing the brutal and irrational social welfare policies of Mr. Bush and Mr. Bloomberg is a sukkot task for all of us, in my view.

In the context of urging Jewish left activism Jewish Women Watching an anonymous collective plans to decorate Sukkot with challenging political messages urging Jews to “Embrace The Trayf” They’ve published a collection of postcards which urge Jews to go further in political activism than is customary. Their press statement, below:

“Jewish Women Watching, the anonymous collective of feminist rabble rousers, will be appearing in sukkot around the country in the upcoming week. In addition to a surprise personal appearance at the JCC sukkah (details below), thousands of Jews receivedSukkot decorations from the renegade group.

Unlike the uninspired plastic fruit and paper chains that normally adorn the sukkah, JWW's decorations consist of postcards urging the Jewish community to take their social activism one step further. Each postcard juxtaposes a social justice issue that is considered "kosher" in the
organized Jewish community with one that is considered “treyf”. For example, while fighting anti-Semitism is encouraged, fighting racism, sexism, and homophobia does not get the same stamp of approval.

In two other postcards, JWW critiques the focus on band-aid solutions versus more sustainable projects. The underlying question of these cards is: “If we really want no one to go hungry, then shouldn’t we be doing more than mitzvah day?” The most inflammatory card points out the Jewish community’s extraordinary focus on human rights abuses against Darfurians while ignoring human rights abuses against Palestinians.

In all of these cases, the group demands that the Jewish Community “embrace the treyf,”that is, devote resources and attention to issues that are considered treyf as well as those already stamped kosher.

"Only once we start examining our own behavior, and working for justiceeven on those issues that make us feel uncomfortable, will we truly becommitting ourselves to Tikkun Olam" said JWW’s Bella Abzug. Particularly meaningful at this time of year, JWW draws inspiration from the holiday of Sukkot to communicate these ideas. Reb Beruriah, another member, explains, “The sukkah is a fragile dwelling, and for it to be kosher, it must be
open. Sukkot is a time when we step outside of our comfort zones. We need to go beyond ‘safe causes’ and challenge the status quo.”

To see JWW in person, make sure to check out the Sukkos Mob on September 29 at 8:00pm at the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan, located at 334 Amsterdam Ave. at 76th St.”

Personally, I think their campaign, while valuable in its goal, is wrong headed -- because it sneers at actually useful actions that synagogue members undertake -- like building houses in New Orleans. But check it out for yourself and -- for an essay supportive of this campaign from Jspot, click here.