Sukkot and Mitvot

Happy Sukkot! I was in St. Louis for Yom Kippur so I missed week 3, but Steve led a great discussion about Yom Kippur and technology. They looked at an interesting ad campaign by www.offlininginc.com and discussed the implications of the ads. What do you think?

Week four was all about Sukkot. (well, except for the random tangent we went on about Yom Kippur and swinging chickens and funny Yiddish phrases. See here)

We talked about Sukkot and they listed everything they knew about the holiday. It was a lot! We then had a discussion about the different elements and purposes of holidays and how they are a time when we should be especially thinking about tikkun olam. I challenged them to think of some social issues that relate to Sukkot. They came up with homelessness, because we remember when our people were homeless, and we build sukkot or impermanant homes for the holiday. They did a little research and found out that it is a commandment that Jews should make sure that people in the community are not homeless. They also thought about hunger, because Sukkot is a harvest holiday. Just as we are thankful for the wonderful food we have, must we think about those who do not have enough to eat. Lastly, they thought about welcoming the stranger because of the tradition of Ushpizin or welcoming guests in the Sukkah. We talked about being welcoming to people at school, and also about the pros and cons of trusting strangers. (see Couchsurfing)

I then asked them to research organizations that we could donate our Tzedakah to that relate to Sukkot. Both groups chose local organizations -- The Central MO Food Bank to fight hunger, and Habitat for Humanity of Columbia to fight homelessness. We ultimately chose to donate to the food pantry becuase they decided that the money would help more people that way. We donated online for instant Tzedakah!


We ended class by tweeting something they learned. Check out the tweets!

• Our class donated $27.50 to the Mid Missouri food band. We talked about Sukkot and Mitzvot today!!

• We ended up donating to the food bank because it connects, since we are feeding the homeless
  

• i learned that there's a website where you can find strangers to stay with while you're traveling.
  

• there is a jewish law that says that everybody needs good permanent housing
  

• during Yom Kippur people swing chickens around their heads to get rid of their sins. we also learned about yiddish words and what they mean.

Read this for more on Sukkot and homelessness.

-Amanda