Jewish holidays were designed for Israel - opinion

• Published date: 25 September 2021
• Author: MICAH HALPERN
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The Gregorian calendar, the calendar used most everywhere else in the world, certainly the Western world, does not correspond with the Jewish calendar. It does not accommodate for Jewish holidays. In many places around the globe, neither do the seasons nor the weather.

The Jewish holidays were designed for Israel.

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Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are acknowledged as the High Holy Days by most of the Diaspora – and that is a blessing of its own sort for Jews living outside of Israel. Because of the elevated status of these days, most businesses understand when employees express the need, or the desire, to take those days off. In fact, many companies offer them as part of the list of company holidays one can choose to take off. And many schools and universities do not offer classes on Rosh Hashanah (or at least, on day one of Rosh Hashanah) and on Yom Kippur.

Sukkot is another story.

In Israel, Sukkot is celebrated by all. Even if you don't build a sukkah almost every person celebrates because almost everyone is off from work on the holiday, also known as the Holiday of the Tabernacle – a fancy name for a sukkah. The weather is balmy and eating under the stars is a nice distraction from everyday life.

In the Diaspora, the celebration is not quite the same.

Taking time off for Sukkot (and Passover and Shavuot) usually comes under the heading of vacation time. And most years, the season has already changed. In the United States that would make it a chilly fall.

But if you live in northern Europe, you are probably wearing heavy jackets and craving hot soup. Sleeping outside in the sukkah, as many children like to do and many adults feel obligated to do, is an act of bravery. One friend, originally from northern Europe and now a Jerusalemite, reminisced about celebrating Sukkot in Denmark.

He described their special sukkah table, which was designed and built around a heater. And he told me about the sukkah roof when the meals finished and the pole that was used to lift the "schach," so that the heavy snow did not cause the roof to come tumbling in. The roof had a "doohickey" just like the "doohickey" on a car that keeps the car hood from falling on you.

When they finished using the sukkah, they propped up the roof so the snow would slide off. When they came back into the sukkah, the roof was lowered.

That was a temporary fix. In...