Essex County Adapts To Celebrate Jewish Holiday Amid COVID-19 – Newark, NJ Patch

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Gatherings are limited in New Jersey due to the coronavirus pandemic. But that didn’t stop several creative efforts to celebrate the Sukkot holiday in Essex County, which took place earlier this month.

Catch up with a few below.

HOSPITAL SUCCAH TENT

To help Jewish patients and staff observe the week-long Sukkot festival, University Hospital in Newark – for the first time – erected a Succah tent that accords with the tenants of Jewish law.

According to a news release from the hospital, the weeklong festival, which ran this year from October 2 to 9, memorializes the Israelites who dwelled in temporary shelters, or “succahs” during the 40 years they wandered in the desert. Jewish law requires followers to leave the permanence of their homes, once a week during Sukkot each year, to spend time in a succah tent.

Dr. Nathan Zemel, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi who serves as one of the hospital’s community chaplains, conceived the initiative.

Zemel reflected on the fact that when he was earning his medical degree at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), it was difficult for Jewish students to observe the holiday without a Succah tent nearby. With the support of University Hospital leadership, he enlisted the help of Orthodox Jewish students at the Rutgers School of Dental Medicine to erect the tent in a parking lot outside the emergency room entrance.

The Essex County chapter of Hatzalah, an international volunteer emergency medical service organization, provided University Hospital’s Succah tent. It meets the height and width requirements stipulated under Jewish law, and is set away from any overhead structures. The roof is made of bamboo and reeds.

Zemel said the succah will be used primarily during lunch breaks, and because of public health guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic, occupancy will be limited to four people.

COVID-19 has played a spiritual role, one that underscores the meaning of the holiday, Zemel said.

“We see that there is a power above us that does control, intervene and guide our lives, and that we show our trust in that higher power, rather than the permanent structures that we have built around us,” Zemel said.

TRUCK-MOUNTED SUKKAH

Friendship Circle, which runs a lauded special needs learning facility in Livingston called LifeTown, also made an effort to adapt the holiday amid the pandemic in Essex County this year.

The group created a heartwarming “traveling sukkah” mounted on a flatbed truck, which enabled them to visit children with special needs and their families, along with other immune-compromised individuals and homebound seniors.

During their visit to the sukkah, people also got the opportunity to partake in the tradition of making a blessing and shaking the “Four Species,” containing a citron fruit, palm branch, willow twigs and myrtle stems.

COVID-19 safety precautions included social distancing, mask-wearing and hand sanitizing.

“In Jewish tradition, the holiday of Sukkot is known as a particularly festive and joyous holiday,” Friendship Circle CEO Rabbi Zalman Grossbaum said. “This year, because of the pandemic, many people will not be able to join family or friends or visit a communal sukkah and we wanted to bring the joy of the sukkah directly to them.”

‘SHAKE THE LULAV’

Chabad of Montclair offered a similar service this year, running a “Sukkah Mobile” that traveled to local homes and businesses.

“The vehicle may be a Ford, but the Sukkah is an after-market addition,” Chabad Montclair wrote in a post before the holiday. “We’ll come over and give you a few minutes to enter your temporary and safe sukkah. You’ll be total ‘in’ this mitzvah. You will have a few minutes to shake the lulav and have a fresh baked kosher bite.”

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