What Jewish holiday is it today? WHat were people carrying on the way to temple?

[Anonymous]

Most questions posed here, no matter the religion, could be answered by google. But then, the trolls wouldn’t have anything to do all day long.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why can’t you google it, instead of demanding Jewish people do labor for you on one of their high holidays?

This is so ridiculous and why people are afraid to ask questions. No one is demanding “labor” of anyone.

OP, your question is fine. It’s good to learn about other cultures. Ignore the harpies

Yes but the answer could easily be found on a google search. It's just OP's laziness.

Every question on this forum could be answered by Google but the point is the conversation among the community. If we’re not having conversation, this entire website is moot

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why can’t you google it, instead of demanding Jewish people do labor for you on one of their high holidays?

Wtf?

First, it’s Sukkot. I’m not Jewish but I know this because of osmosis. (Growing up in Montgomery county gives you a sense of what the holidays are). Secondly, that person wasn’t demanding anybody have any particular faith or religion to “labor” for them. If somebody is so observant that it would be labor then they wouldn’t even be on the Internet or DCUM.

Yes, they could’ve googled but they didn’t. But instead of answering the question people here act like jerks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I once asked a friend what a religious procession in my neighborhood was and ended up converting to that religion. Questions are good, answers from generous people with the knowledge to answer are welcome.

Thanks to PP 16:15 for a clear and compendious explanation.

Amen!

BTW, what is a good gift to bring to the hosts of a Sukkah Open House? I don't know if they drink wine, so would like to bring something else.

[Anonymous]

Since it's a harvest holiday and just generally goes with the theme of "fall," I think you could bring a nice gift of dried fruits and nuts, flowers or a potted plant, some pretty gourds, etc.

[Anonymous]

As an aside to this- there are some GREAT orthodox tik tokkers who are educating me a lot on Judaism. TheRealmelindastrauss and MiriamEzagui are great for giving insights and answering questions as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why can’t you google it, instead of demanding Jewish people do labor for you on one of their high holidays?

Yikes! There is nothing wrong with asking a friendly question about a group comprising less than 2% of the American population. Google is great, but learning from other humans is much more powerful. Also, learning from an insider gives you different information than learning the formal answer to your question from various (sometimes conflicting) websites. Finally asking an anonymous question on a forum that people can choose to ignore cannot be construed in any way as forcing another person to do emotional or intellectual labor for you. Not everyone wants to educate other people about their ethnic / religious / political / whatever group but some people are happy to do so. Those of us in that "happy to educate" category don't need anyone to speak for us. There are things that you can only learn from another person - this may not be one of them - but it's still an innocent and reasonable question.

The best way to build a multicultural society is to reduce fear and misinformation and to encourage respectful communication, dialogue and education (from those *willing and interested* in that job). Harshing on people for asking open and honest questions isn't particularly helpful to that project. As a Jew, I care about whether people will stand up against things like misinformation, QAnon, Nazis, violent white supremacists. I don't care about things like whether people I do not know and will never see again mistakenly say "Merry Xmas" in a country where >98% of people celebrate Xmas or whether they ask me questions like this. After all, I can probably provide a more interesting, contextual, funny, and enlightening response than Google.

To answer, it's the holiday of Sukkot (booths, tabernacles) and the plants in the bag are a palm branch (lulav), 3 myrtle branches (hadas), and 2 willows (aravot). There's also a box with an etrog (citrus fruit). During Sukkot services, these items are held together and shaken in 6 directions during certain prayers.

If it seems just a little bit pagan to for a religion that officially rejects paganism to be shaking items from the natural world in six directions during a harvest festival - I have no comment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why can’t you google it, instead of demanding Jewish people do labor for you on one of their high holidays?

Not a high holiday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why can’t you google it, instead of demanding Jewish people do labor for you on one of their high holidays?

Yikes! There is nothing wrong with asking a friendly question about a group comprising less than 2% of the American population. Google is great, but learning from other humans is much more powerful. Also, learning from an insider gives you different information than learning the formal answer to your question from various (sometimes conflicting) websites. Finally asking an anonymous question on a forum that people can choose to ignore cannot be construed in any way as forcing another person to do emotional or intellectual labor for you. Not everyone wants to educate other people about their ethnic / religious / political / whatever group but some people are happy to do so. Those of us in that "happy to educate" category don't need anyone to speak for us. There are things that you can only learn from another person - this may not be one of them - but it's still an innocent and reasonable question.

The best way to build a multicultural society is to reduce fear and misinformation and to encourage respectful communication, dialogue and education (from those *willing and interested* in that job). Harshing on people for asking open and honest questions isn't particularly helpful to that project. As a Jew, I care about whether people will stand up against things like misinformation, QAnon, Nazis, violent white supremacists. I don't care about things like whether people I do not know and will never see again mistakenly say "Merry Xmas" in a country where >98% of people celebrate Xmas or whether they ask me questions like this. After all, I can probably provide a more interesting, contextual, funny, and enlightening response than Google.

To answer, it's the holiday of Sukkot (booths, tabernacles) and the plants in the bag are a palm branch (lulav), 3 myrtle branches (hadas), and 2 willows (aravot). There's also a box with an etrog (citrus fruit). During Sukkot services, these items are held together and shaken in 6 directions during certain prayers.

If it seems just a little bit pagan to for a religion that officially rejects paganism to be shaking items from the natural world in six directions during a harvest festival - I have no comment.

Creepy is as creepy does. But you be you, word salad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Since it's a harvest holiday and just generally goes with the theme of "fall," I think you could bring a nice gift of dried fruits and nuts, flowers or a potted plant, some pretty gourds, etc.

Thank you for these ideas — all lovely and it will be fun to pull some combination together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why can’t you google it, instead of demanding Jewish people do labor for you on one of their high holidays?

It’s hardly labor to answer a question. If you’re observing Sukkot such that you can’t reply to a message board post, you also probably can’t read the post in the first place on the chag.

[Anonymous]

Oh wow
Grumpy people

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why can’t you google it, instead of demanding Jewish people do labor for you on one of their high holidays?

I wonder if this my coworker who gets weirdly testy about the subject of Judaism and will say things like “that is so insulting to Jews” even though she isn’t even Jewish (her husband is, she did not convert) and is just looking fur something to be aggrieved/superior about.

Ironically, I am Jewish and none of the stuff she think is offensive offends me. Like this question, which was not disrespectful, does not concern a high holy day, and is a totally reasonable thing to ask after seeing what OP saw. It would be like saying “I saw some folks leaving the Catholic Church near my office with smudges on their foreheads, but felt weird asking them directly what this was about— can someone tell me what Catholic holiday this is and what the smudges are?” See, not disrespectful, totally fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why can’t you google it, instead of demanding Jewish people do labor for you on one of their high holidays?

This is so ridiculous and why people are afraid to ask questions. No one is demanding “labor” of anyone.

OP, your question is fine. It’s good to learn about other cultures. Ignore the harpies

Ignore the idiots who love to call other harpies on dcum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why can’t you google it, instead of demanding Jewish people do labor for you on one of their high holidays?

Not a high holiday.

Acutally, I just learned Sukkot and Simchat Torah are considered High Holidays. I am Jewish and actively involved in my synagogue and learned this last week! We were discussing the dates of something at a board meeting and all of the members were like we can do it "after the high holidays, like October 6th" and our Rabbi was like after the holidays is October 18th! Who knew? So I looked it up and although colloquially we refer to the high holidays as Rosh Hashshanah and Yom Kippur, it does go through Simchat Torah.

And this is why it is absolutely fine that the OP asked the question. I don't feel like I'm doing the "labor" of answering it. If I don't want to answer I don't have to. And look at all of the lovely discourse one wouldn't have with a simple Google.