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Sukkot starts on Friday 25th, light candles at 6:01pm. On Saturday night, light candles after 6:59pm from a pre-existing flame. Yom Tov ends on Sunday night at 7:00pm.
Last days: Shemini Atzeret starts on Friday 2nd Oct, light candles at 6:07pm. On Saturday night, light candles after 7:05pm from a pre-existing flame for Simchat Torah. Yom Tov ends on Sunday night at 8:06pm. Clocks move one hour forward to DST this weekend.
Mincha continues after Sukkot on summer schedule at 1.45pm at A-P GF/459 Collins, using the WhatsApp group to confirm a minyan each day.
Weekly sushi & shiur continues on Wed at 1.20pm at A-P GF/459 Collins – and via zoom – followed by mincha at 1.45pm. Current topic: property set-backs. Details here and on the WhatsApp group.
Thought of the Week with thanks to Annette Charak
“It’s Sukkot this weekend, so it’s sure to rain” a friend laughingly said to me this week. We are certainly conscious of the elements on Sukkot. It is a festival where we let everything in to our temporary home: the sunlight and moonshine, starlight and mist, wind and rain. We feel the elements, which is exactly the point. Indeed, acknowledging the vulnerability of our dwellings during Sukkot, the rabbis argue about how strong a wind a sukkah should be able to withstand in order to be considered kosher.
But it’s not just the weather that we let in. As part of our tradition of radical hospitality, the foundational Jewish practice of hachnasat orchim, we invite guests, including the ushpizin, the founding men of the Jewish people, and in more modern incarnations, the ushpizot too.
And at the same time as we let everything in, we also let go: of our material dependence, and of the physical things we think of as permanent and secure. We surrender ourselves – to the elements and to the presence and shelter of the Divine – and we do so joyously in keeping with this festival as z’man simchateinu, the season of our rejoicing.
Chag Sukkot sameach