http://www.boston.com/dailynews/274/world/Israeli_Jews_begin_weeklong_ha:.shtml

Israeli Jews begin weeklong harvest festival of Sukkot

By Jason Keyser, Associated Press, 10/1/2001 14:06

JERUSALEM (AP) Israeli Jews on Monday sought to set aside the turmoil of the past year and celebrate the festive holiday of Sukkot that commemorates the desert wanderings of their ancestors and the fall harvest.

In Jerusalem, huts built of wood and dried palm branches sprang up on balconies, where many sleep to remember the desert dwellings Jews lived in near the Red Sea after fleeing enslavement in Egypt.

Before the start of the holiday at sundown Monday, shoppers searched vegetable markets for palm leaves, willow, myrtle and citron, a large lemon-like fruit symbols of the virtues of the ancient patriarchs.

The weeklong festival, which starts on the first full moon of the Jewish year, also marks the harvest of summer fruits and crops and the beginning of the winter rains.

Amid renewed clashes between stone-hurling Palestinian youths and Israeli soldiers in West Bank streets, many Israelis looked to the holiday as a chance to escape the upheaval, preparing for big meals and an evening of dancing and music.

David Rosen prayed at Jerusalem's Western Wall, the outer wall of the temple rebuilt by King Herod in Roman times to replace the mammoth temple King Solomon built around 1000 B.C.

The 18-year-old seminary student comes daily to pray that Israel and the world will have peace and that the sick will be healthy. At the end of the holiday next week, he will join others dancing with the Torah, the holy book. Then he will spend the next year reading it through for another time.

In biblical times, Jews journeyed here to take part in sacrifices at the Holy Temple. People would juggle fire and dance under the glow of candles and torches.

Rosen said on this holiday, which follows a somber period when Jews reflect on the last year and atone for their sins, you have to be upbeat, even as you hear news of the region's conflict.

''It's a hard thing,'' he said. ''If you have a problem it should be on the inside. On the outside you should be happy.''

As he left the Wall, Rosen, who wears sidelocks, a prayer shawl and a black coat, wound through the maze of the Old City's Jewish Quarter, opting not to take a shortcut through the Arab section on the way to his home in the Ultra-Orthodox Mea Shearim neighborhood.

In the narrow passages of Mea Shearim, Rosen wove between children on bicycles and hordes of people carrying holiday decorations. Many hauled palm branches over their shoulders and had fistfuls of myrtle and dates.

Rosen wandered past tables displaying citron. People closely scrutinized the bitter, yellow fruit, which grows upside down on trees. Flawless ones can cost between $100 and $200.

The observant say blessings over them and the three other symbols and carry them in processions around synagogues.

-- Anonymous, October 01, 2001