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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

 

The quiet streets and pleasant weather on Yom Kippur were wonderful.

But traffic and humidity have returned to the Jerusalem streets,

 and so has the noise of pounding hammers, as thousands of sukkot  popped up overnight.

Then it seemed as if everyone went shopping.

 

Shopping for food,

shopping for clothes,

 shopping for…wicker.

 As the week began, 

 

colorful sukkah holiday decorations went on display

and signs went up.

A large sign announced the arba minim market off Jaffa Street, near Machaneh Yehuda, the shuk.

Outside, there were decorations, but inside

early bird shoppers could examine the merchandise carefully and avoid the crowds later in the week.

Outside the shuk,

and all around Jerusalem

 hundreds of mini-bazaars filled with sukkah decorations

and displays of etrogim and lulavim could be found.

 

Not everyone was shopping;

these workers were busy

installing bollards

and a yellow security fence

all along Gan Sacher, Sacher Park.

Preparations for the Sukkot holiday events in the park were well under way on Sunday.

Visitors come from around the world for the holiday celebrations in the city center,

including thousands of Christian pilgrims for the Feast of Tabernacles parade.

 

This year, parking on the sidewalk at Gan Sacher will be very difficult, but walking should be safer.

Chag Sameach!

Happy Holiday!

 

At the end of the long Rosh Hashanah holiday weekend

there were mountains of garbage on some Jerusalem streets,

but sanitation workers were up early and out clearing the mess away.

It took several days for stores to restock their supplies of food and drink.

People stocked up before the long holiday weekend

causing some stores to post apologies for running out of milk.

During the week, customers had to come early before supplies of regular milk ran out.

Daylight savings time ended on Saturday night, as the clock in Israel changes after Rosh Hashanah.

Sunrise is earlier, but the merit of this law which makes the Yom Kippur fast day end earlier

and prayer times later has been questioned  because the holiday season falls so early this year.

Not everything concerned food or fasting this week.

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was at the Beit Hanasi, the President’s Residence

on Wednesday morning.

After the visit, she left with a procession of vehicles, but with little fuss and no noise.

While traffic was disrupted briefly, much of the  increased traffic and honking this week is caused by

some of the thousands of visitors in rental cars trying to figure out how to get out of a wrong lane.

The Clinton motorcade and thousands of visitors passed by the growing Shalit family encampment

near the Prime Minister’s Residence, where TV trucks came early in the morning for a good parking spot

before the meeting of  Netanyahu, Clinton and Abbas on Wednesday evening .

Gilad Shalit is still being held captive in Gaza despite his parent’s extensive efforts to get him out.

Starting early in the morning, hundreds of people walked to the Old City

all day long, until late at night when

crowds of men and women filled the Kotel, the Western Wall Plaza, for special prayer services.

Over the Yom Kippur holiday there will be no car or bus traffic, and businesses will be closed.

The music on the radio before the holiday changes to somber themes

and the bus sign gives the traditional greeting for the days leading up to Yom Kippur,

“G’mar chatimah tovah”, may you be sealed for a good

and healthy New Year.