Sukkot in Calabria,Italy

Bringing Our Traditions Home

By Rabbi Barbara Aiello
Photos by Domenico Pulice

Here in Calabria, we stand in solidarity with Jews all over the world as we celebrate the festival that my daughter often called “Jewish camping.” We Jews are eating and even sleeping outdoors in a temporary little hut called a sukkah as we observe the holiday of Sukkot. In all of the Torah, the sukkah is the only structure that we are commanded to build. The Torah requires us to construct the sukkah in a manner that allows us to see through the roof and look up to the stars so that we can fully experience our connection to the natural world.

The sukkah reminds us of the time when we Jews lived in the wilderness and it asks us to remember how fragile and how temporary all buildings really are — even those constructed with bricks and mortar or with stone, steel or cement. The blessings under the sukkah are as important as the structure itself, especially the ceremony that features a strangely shaped fruit and a bouquet of branches — Jewish symbols that offer an important lesson. Interestingly, the Sukkot fruit, called etrog in Hebrew and cedro in Italian, is native to Calabria.  A fabulous etrog farm, which appears to be operated by Orthodox Jews, functions only several miles from our synagogue in a town called Santa Maria del Cedro. I am often asked if I collect my etrogim there. Sadly, no. As a woman rabbi who wears a kippah, I was prohibited from entering the farm! Under the sukkah we wave the etrog and the lulav. This activity celebrates the four natural species: the etrog (the citrus fruit), the myrtle branch, the willow branch, and the palm branch. The three branches are held together in the woven container called the lulav.

• The small, almond-shaped leaves of the myrtle branch symbolize our eyes, reminding us that we must not close our eyes to injustice in the world.

  

• The leaf on the willow branch, long and thin, represents our mouth — meaning that it is not enough to acknowledge injustice. Instead, when we’ve seen injustice, we must speak up against it.
• The palm branch, long, stiff, and unbending, symbolizes our backbone and tells us that we need strength to stand up to injustice and strength to take action.
• Finally, when we take the branch bouquet called the lulav and hold it against the etrog fruit we notice that the etrog is shaped like the heart muscle, meaning that all we do to make the world a more just place must be done with love and compassion — with a good heart.

Here in Calabria at Sinagoga Ner Tamid del Sud, we Calebresi enjoyed our mountain-top sukkah, built beneath the pergola, the grape arbor where we regularly make our Shabbat Kiddush blessings. More than fifty of our members, friends, and neighbors joined together to celebrate this joyful Jewish festival and to emphasize this happy occasion. We used paper in the shape of apples to record our thoughts on what is good about our world. From genitori e nonni (parents and grandparents) to fiume e montagne (rivers and mountains), our sukkah decorations were inscribed with personal blessings and messages of hope.

In the glow of a bright full moon, we dipped apples in honey, enjoyed music and song, visits from biblical guests (ushpizin, a 16th-century custom which originated among the Kabbalists), and shared family stories and precious memories. We are Italian b’nei anusim, and thanks to help and encouragement from Kulanu we are beginning to discover and embrace our Jewish roots. We are reclaiming traditions that were stolen from us during Inquisition times — and the tradition of Sukkot is only one of many Jewish celebrations, festivals, and memorials that point the way to our return to Judaism and offer us a heartfelt “Welcome Home.”