Hello again from Max – your Cheder Correspondent. It has been a very busy time at Cheder.
Since I last wrote we have had many different Jewish festivals including:
- Rosh Hashanah
- Yom Kippur
- Sukkot
- Simchat Torah
For me, Sukkot was the best of all; because we made a Sukkah (which is a tent made of branches and fruits). It is also meant to be open to the sky. I loved hanging the leaves and fruit onto the Sukkah. As part of the ceremony, we shake a Lulav and Etrog. The Etrog is a citrus fruit like a lemon. A Lulav is a palm branch, twisted together with myrtle and willow. We shake them in six different directions to celebrate the harvest in different parts of the world. The Lulav also sounds a bit like rain when it is shaken – a bit like a rain dance.
After we built the Sukkah, Rabbi Anna read from the Torah scrolls; and then we had our tea inside the canopy.
The next festival was Simchat Torah – which I really enjoyed. Simchat Torah is the festival that celebrates reaching the end of the Torah and then starting again. Rabbi Anna taught us some dances with the Torah scrolls and it was very fun. After that, the grown-ups threw sweets at the children for them to eat. My little brother got most of the sweets!
Signing off for now – MAX