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‘Sukkah’ helps Jewish family mark harvest
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · October 12, 2017


You won’t find a Jewish synagogue in all of Cedar County, but five miles northeast of West Branch, at dusk on Oct. 4, lights blinked on inside a small, rectangular hut.
From the outside, the inner glow revealed through the drapery walls a panoramic view of daytime Jerusalem.

Inside the hut, Doug and Kristine Klein, and Doug’s mother, Ruth, sit down to a meal of salads, eggs and fresh bread chosen to reflect the blessings of a bountiful harvest.

The hut, big enough to park a car inside, is called a “sukkah,” which translates to “booth.” Doug built it for the eight-day Jewish harvest festival known as “Sukkot,” which celebrates how God provided for the Israelites after escaping slavery in Egypt.

The Feast of Tabernacles, or “Feast of Ingathering,” runs Oct. 4 through 12 for those Jews living outside of Israel.

“It’s a tradition,” Doug said. “We follow it the best we can.”

The Kleins moved to their Charles Avenue home in 2010, after that year’s Sukkot. Doug built the family’s first sukkah, a temporary dwelling, in 2011 and every year since. However, this was the first year to use the wraparound skyline view of Jerusalem.

“It’s spectacularly beautiful,” Kristine said.

Like his mother, Doug was born Jewish. Kristine converted. Doug pointed out several historic and religiously significant sites on the canvass, like the Western Wall — formerly known as the Wailing Wall and the only wall that remains from the original temple — to Dome of the Rock which, built by Muslims, is a shrine believed to represent where Abraham nearly sacrificed his son, Isaac.

Doug twice traveled to Jerusalem, once spending a year there to study.

Enveloped by this picture of “the center of Jewish life,” the family sits at a tablecloth-covered picnic table. Strings of lights hang from the tops of the walls, illuminating the interior with a soft radiance. In the top corners hang okra, lavender, gourds and asparagus, decorations from their gardens to reflect the harvest theme.

The festive meal include “our finest food” to “honor the holiday and being joyous,” Doug said. Honey on the table represents “hope for a sweet year.”

He said some families eat meals in their sukkah. Other sleep there. Some adorn it with nice furniture and lean back and stare up at the sky through a gap in the bamboo roof.

Yes, a gap — another feature of a sukkah — to look up at the starry sky and remember “a higher presence above us,” Doug said.

A sukkah should not be attached to a house nor be placed under an overhang, Doug said, among other specifications.

And, this is a harvest festival, implying the harvest is complete. Jews are not to work, not watch TV and not even answer the phone for the first and last two days of Sukkot. The Kleins said they make arrangements ahead of time if they think they will be needed.

“It’s a special time of year,” Kristine said. “It’s like drawing a curtain around your life and taking a step back.”

The family participates in “spiritual activities” during the holiday, she said.

“It reminds (us) that we’re here on a temporary basis,” Kristine said.

Doug calls it a “blessing” to be surrounded by the picture of Jerusalem while living in Iowa.

“We feel very lucky to be in the Cedar County area, where we can conduct our lives in a way we feel it should be conducted,” he said. “I’m thankful for that every day.”



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Editor's note: This article was updated Oct. 19 to correct the spelling of Klein, to correct the name of Abraham's son to Isaac, and to clarify that Muslims believe the Dome of the Rock is the place where Muhammad ascended into heaven.