So, our backyard sukkah is up and waiting for sundown this Wednesday evening.
When I say "our," I mean more than just Peter and myself. When we moved to Demarest, New Jersey back in the summer of 2004, we knew we wanted to connect with our neighbors and to our delight there were three adjoining yards (two in the back and one to the side) with other Jewish families. They all had young children, while we were the empty nesters (barely......).
So, we proposed building one together. Peter and I supplied the materials, we all pitched in, and our neighbor Alan stores the pieces in his shed. Each year Alan and his kids pass the boards over the fence between our yards. Folks show up with levels and drills. This past Sunday, with my Mom in from Cleveland adding to the fun, it was up and ready to decorate in 90 minutes. We even paused for a group photo and to sing "Happy Birthday" to Sharon under the sukkah!
The best part is watching the children grow. One year a child will be barely able to hold the hammer and "pretend" to help, and in a blink of an eye she will be drilling a screw into a hinge. This year Sammy was big enough to scribble a drawing while his twin sisters created detailed sketches of pumpkins. One of his sisters has got it into her head (thanks to a terrific religious school teacher at our temple!) that it is a mitzvah to sleep in the sukkah. She's made it pretty clear that she'll be out there one night soon. So watch out Alan -- rumor has it you're the designated overnight parent!
Sukkot is a time to appreciate the bounties of nature but it is also a time to be grateful that we have a roof over our heads. That's not so for the many homeless families in Bergen County. I say families, because I'm talking here about the children who don't have backyards to build a sukkah. They don't have kitchens or bedrooms either. In 1986 a group of folks got together like our neighborhood friends. They wanted to build something really big. An organization to help homeless families (many of them working families) get back on their feet and into permanent housing. They've been doing that for many years now and have helped thousands of people.
This past year the group changed its name to Family Promise of Bergen County. Our temple will be one of the overnight hosting sites when the new system is up and running in a couple more months. Up to 14 people will be having dinner and sleeping over in classrooms that will be converted into bedrooms for a week this December. The start-up costs for the new program include buying a van and renovating space at a church in Ridgewood for a day center (with counseling and so much more for the families). Family Promise also runs a free drop in dinner program 365 days a year in Hackensack, helps with transitional housing, a summer day camp for children who are homeless, job counseling, referral services, and so much more.
At Kol Nidre services we announced a fundraiser for Family Promise called: My Family's Sukkot Promise to Family Promise. In remembrance of when our ancestors did not have a permanent roof over their heads (those forty years living in the wilderness after escaping from slavery in Egypt.....), we asked households to try to donate $36 - double "chai" - to Family Promise. That was on Friday night. By end of day on Monday, we had over $1000 collected. Since a generous donor on the Family Promise board issued a matching challenge, that translates into $2000. And we are still collecting through the end of Sukkot on September 30th.
I'm not planning to spend a night outdoors in our backyard sukkah -- even if the temperature is expected to be summer like the rest of this week. But when I look out and see a little girls and her daddy in sleeping bags later this week, I'll be thinking of those other children and their mommies and daddies who we have promised to shelter in our temple on their way back to self-sufficiency.
May all the children of the world be sheltered beneath the wings of God's presence, and beneath a roof in a home of their own.
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