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No Sukkah? No Problem: This Rabbi's Got You Covered, Literally

By Linze Rice | September 30, 2015 9:20am
 Jews celebrate the festival of Sukkot by eating meals and studying in a sukkah, or hut.
Jews celebrate the festival of Sukkot by eating meals and studying in a sukkah, or hut.
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Lubavitch Chabad of Illinois

ROGERS PARK — City-dwelling Jews who've yet to find a place to construct a sukkah for the current holiday are in luck — for the second time, members of a Rogers Park synagogue are taking the ceremonial spot on the go.

The synagogue uses two pickup trucks to carry sukkahs, or ceremonial huts, where the Jewish festival of Sukkot is celebrated. They'll drive them around to various spots across the Far North Side on Wednesday afternoon.

Rabbi Yoel Wolf, of Chabad of East Rogers Park, said he thinks of them as "a mitzvah on the spot for people on the go."

The week-long festival runs from Sunday Sept. 27 to Sunday Oct. 4. Jewish people around the world eat meals, learn from scripture and spend time with family inside the huts as part of the celebration.

The huts must be outside, but many Jews in the city don't have yards or rooftops to construct a proper sukkah. So "Sukkah Mobile" was born to bring the tradition to Jewish doorsteps across the city, Wolf said.

Wolf said a Jewish leader had "encouraged his followers, myself included, to celebrate Jewish pride by practicing the Jewish holiday not behind closed doors but out in the open in an attempt to share this joyous and meaningful holiday of inclusiveness with others."

While this is the synagogues' second year using the mobile sukkah in Chicago, Wolf says the religious group has practiced the tradition around the world for decades.

It's an important tradition to uphold and help others to participate in, he said, because "we all eat inside together in brotherhood and recognition that at the end of the day Gods protection is what sustains us."

On Wednesday, a mobile sukkah will visit the following locations:

12 p.m.: Clark and Balmoral

1 p.m.: Pratt & Sheridan

1:30 p.m.: Loyola "L"

2 p.m.: Devon market

2:30 p.m.: Morse "L"

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