REMEMBERING THE SUKKOT HOLIDAY ON OCTOBER OF 1943
Today is October 1, 2012, the first day of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. The last time I celebrated this holiday,was when I had the opportunity to visit my family in Washington,D.C., was during the month of October 1943,when I was given a furlough (time off Army service,when I was stationed in Camp Gruber, Oklahoma as a soldier in the 542d Field Artillery Battalion,of the 42d Infantry Rainbow Division).
Sukkot known as the Feast of Booths,is a biblical holiday celebrated on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Tishrei .It is one of the three biblically mandated festivals,on which Hebrews were commanded to make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem,and lasts seven days (eight in the diaspora).The Hebrew word sukkot is the plural of sukkah, booth or tabernacle which is a walled structure covered with skhakh (plant material such as leafy tree overgrown or palm leaves)
The sukkah is intended as a reminiscence of the type of fragile dwellings in which the Israelites dwelt during their 40 years of travel in the desert after the Exodus from slavery in
Egypt. (From Wikipedia)
When I visited my family in 1943, we lived at 713 4th Street,SW, where I grew up. What was different about our sukkah is that it was located next to our kitchen. Walls were not
needed.Our kitchen had a window on the left side of the sukkah when entering, so food could be handed directly into the sukkah from the kitchen.The right side of the structure was the
yard wall,and the direct front was also a brick structure of the house building. An entrance door had to be built, and then the top as most sukkahs had to be covered with skhakh.
I had another furlough in May of 1944,and that was the last time I saw my father. He passed away on August 19, 1944, when I was stationed in my permanent field artillery facility known
as Ft. Sill Oklahoma, I was able to obtain an emergency furlough at that time,and with the help of a Warrant Officer, Charles L.Brown,obtained enough money to make the flight to
my Dad’s funeral.
The Sukkot holiday of October 1943 indeed is a Sukkot never to be forgotten.
Larry Rosen Blog www.LarryRosen.org
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