Only Sukkot

Before the Sukkot holiday trees in Jerusalem are trimmed 

 

so that the branches can be used as schach to cover the tops of sukkot. 

There was no building freeze last week in Jerusalem as the city transformed itself for the Sukkot holiday; 

 

all kinds of sukkot — small ones on the rooftops 

 

and also large ones; 

 sukkot on the sidewalks 

 

and where the sidewalks are too narrow, in the streets; 

 

on poles off the ground 

 

and even built around trees. 

Some neighborhoods 

 

are crowded with sukkot 

 

while in others they stand alone. 

How many are there? 

 

Some are easy to see, 

 

while others are not so easy to see, 

 

and for some, well, you just have to know where to look… down. 

 

Some sukkot are very private 

others are hard to avoid. 

On Sunday there were crowds for hours after Birchat Hacohanim 

 

trying to get in to the sukkah on the plaza near the Kotel, the Western Wall 

and on Friday there were crowds of visitors at the sukkah 

 

on the grounds of the International Christian Embassy on Rachel Emenu Street. 

Whether the sukkah 

 

is a clever one on a small porch 

 

alone by the garage, 

 

or a sukkah as if on top of the world, another week and most will be gone until next year. 

 

Sukkat shalom, Sukkat shalom