Good morning. It’s Wednesday already. This week is flying by.
As is the case every fall, things are getting a little heavy on the Jewish holiday content.
It’s a very busy season for my people. I think, though, that we’re over the hump (Yom Kippur) and heading toward the downward stretch, through Sukkot and Simcha Torah (Oct. 23-25) that will culminate in the last signifiant – culturally, if not religiously – Jewish holiday.
That would be Chanukah (or perhaps you prefer Hanukah, or Hanukkah, or one of about 20 different variations that are floating around out there, as per the interwebs).
Today is the start of a holiday that I recall with great fondness from my youth, but don’t observe now that I’m an adult: Sukkot, which starts tonight at sundown and lasts through next Wednesday, Oct. 23.
This week-long holiday, which starts five days after Yom Kippur, celebrates both the fall harvest – sort of like Thanksgiving, though the backstory is very different, and the 40 years that the Israelites spent wandering in in the desert after escaping slavery in Egypt.
Wait, you’re saying, I thought that was Passover? Well, yes, and also no.
Passover, which by the way, is a spring festival, commemorates the Israelites exodus from Egypt. What we’re doing now is commemorating the decades they spent wandering around in search of themselves and a homeland. There is a slight distinction there, but the two are definitely different.
“Sukkot” is the Hebrew word for “huts” or “booths”, which is why this holiday is also known as the Feast of Booths.
The main focal point of the Sukkot celebration is the construction of an open-air hut made of wood called a “sukkah“, which is traditionally topped with branches and is meant to be a reminder of how the Israelites slept while wandering. (An alternative interpretation is that a “sukkah” is reminiscent of a sort of makeshift shelter a farmer might construction to take respite while working long hours in the fields).
If you’re really observant, you eat ALL your meals in the sukkah for the duration of the holiday. If you work outside the home during the day, there are communal sukkahs that you can access – usually built and maintained by a synagogue or Jewish community center, but also potentially located on private property where the owners welcome members of the community.
This is particularly helpful for city dwellers who might not have a backyard in which to construct their own sukkah, though some people opt for smaller versions on their balconies – if they’re lucky enough to have one.
Aside from the sukkah, there are a few other Sukkot rituals. The main one involves a bundle called a “lulav” made up three kinds of plants – palm, willow and myrtle twigs, held together with a citrus fruit called the “etrog” which is a sort of oversized lemon – that one waves in all six directions (north, south, east, west, up, and down) while giving thanks to G-d.
It is VERY important that if your etrog has an in tact “pitam” – the little nub of the stem that connected the fruit to its tree of origin – you take ever care to preserve it and not let it break off. If it came with a pitam and the pitam breaks or falls off, the etrog is no longer valid for prayer, but if it showed up without a pitam to begin with, you have nothing to worry about.
The seventh day of Sukkot is Hoshana Rabba, which is observed in synagogue by making seven circuits around the bimah while carrying the Torah.
One then takes the willow branches out of the lulav and smacks them against the ground until their leaves fall off. This is apparently your last chance to get square with G-d, repenting for any sins that you might have conveniently forgotten to mention during the Days of Awe.
It’s not too bad a night for eating en plein air, as the French say – as long as you bundle up well. The day will be partly cloudy with a chance of rain or (gulp) snow showers and temperatures in the low 50s. It will be generally clear in the evening and overnight, with temperatures dipping down into the 30s.
In the headlines…
The United States has warned Israel to increase the flow of humanitarian supplies into the war-devastated Gaza Strip within the next 30 days or risk losing military aid, American officials said.
The warning came in a letter signed by the American secretaries of defense and state that was sent on Sunday to Israel’s defense minister and its minister of strategic affairs. It was confirmed by a State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller.
Israel’s Supreme Court ordered the Israeli government to explain why there appears to be no comprehensive system in place to facilitate evacuations of sick Gazans who are not involved in the Hamas-Israel war to other countries for needed treatment.
Harris dropped into a Detroit art gallery yesterday accompanied by three Hollywood stars for a conversation with Black men about entrepreneurship as both she and Donald Trump sought to energize key constituencies their allies worry may be slipping away.
Harris also appeared at a town hall-style event in Detroit, broadcast live and hosted by the morning radio program “The Breakfast Club,” featuring Charlamagne Tha God, who is especially popular with Black males.
Harris agreed with the radio host Charlamagne Tha God that Trump was a fascist, going a step further than she had before in casting her Republican rival as a dangerous authoritarian leader.
Harris and Trump — locked in a very tight presidential race — are both said to be considering sitting down with podcaster Joe Rogan in the days before America picks its next leader.
Trump yesterday repeatedly dodged a question about whether he had spoken to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia after his presidency ended but added that it would have been a “smart thing” if he had.
Trump has been offering up new tax cuts to nearly every group of voters that he meets in recent weeks, shaking the nerves of budget watchers and fiscal hawks who fear his economic promises will explode the nation’s already bulging national debt.
With three weeks left before Election Day, Trump is pushing to the forefront of his campaign a menacing political threat: that he would use the power of the presidency to crush those who disagree with him.
Even if Trump wins over a large number of nonwhite voters, it may not help him secure the presidency. It may, in fact, make no meaningful difference in his quest for 270 electoral votes.
Trump declared himself the “father of IVF,” a fertility treatment that has come under threat following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Over the past few weeks, Trump has become a lot richer, and so have shareholders in the social media company that bears his name. Shares of Trump Media & Technology have nearly tripled in value since bottoming out in late September.
A county judge in Georgia blocked a new rule mandating a hand count of election ballots across the state. Enacting such a sweeping change for the November election, he said, was “too much, too late.”
The Supreme Court heard arguments over whether a truck driver fired for failing a drug test after using a “wellness product” which was falsely advertised to be free of THC may sue the manufacturer under a federal racketeering law.
A majority of the justices seemed ready to side with the driver, Douglas Horn, on the narrow question before them: whether he could satisfy the law’s requirement that he had been injured in his “business or property.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul deployed New York State troopers yesterday to help the NYPD take control of a stretch of Jackson Heights, Queens, overrun by crime and prostitutes nicknamed the “Market of Sweethearts.”
Mayor Eric Adams of New York saw donations to his re-election campaign take a nosedive after his federal indictment last month on five counts of bribery, fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations.
Adams raised about $190,000 in campaign cash in the past three months — his smallest haul to date — but already had enough to potentially qualify for $4 million in matching taxpayer funds.
Adams raised just $92,500 for his legal defense trust over the third quarter of the year — a slowdown that comes just as the stakes for him and his private attorneys have risen to precipitous heights.
Adams announced that Chauncey Parker is the city’s new Deputy Mayor for Public Safety, replacing Phil Banks, who resigned earlier this month after being ensnared in one of several corruption probes into Adams’ administration.
Parker, 64, a former deputy commissioner in the Police Department in charge of public safety initiatives, also served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York — the office that charged Mr. Adams last month with bribery and fraud.
“We’re so grateful for this opportunity and we’re going to go off and get some stuff done,” Parker said during a news conference.
The appointment of Parker drew a recently rare show of praise for Adams amid his criminal indictment and corruption probes encircling cronies he installed in high-level roles.
At his weekly press conference yesterday, Adams again brushed aside questions about his legal troubles while setting ground rules for what he would and would not answer amid federal investigations into him and his administration.
Legally speaking, Adams and his defense team may be able to take some comfort in recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court overturning corruption convictions.
The controversy of Adams’ both sides Mets-Yankees baseball hat won’t die. More here and here.
Even Adams’ college newspaper – the Marist Circle – has picked up the story of his fight against corruption charges.
New York City’s top doctor is on his way out — and he’s leaving months earlier than expected. Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan emailed his staff yesterday morning to inform them that his last day in office will be this Friday.
Adams dashed any hope for a last-minute intervention by City Hall to halt the controversial eviction of the Elizabeth Street Garden in Nolita.
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden and its supporters are fighting a proposal to build a 14-story apartment building that would cast shadows on the garden.
The number of migrant children arriving in the Empire State without a grownup is soaring, with nearly 7,000 kids now showing up solo in the Big Apple every year, according to records revealed.
The New York City DEP is set to end land purchases in most of the Catskills region, winding down a decades-long program that has protected the watershed of the city’s upstate reservoirs while angering many residents and local officials.
It will soon be possible to experience in New York City the haunting atmosphere of the secret annex, the warren of narrow, shadowy rooms where Anne Frank wrote her diary.
Outspoken Columbia business professor Shai Davidai was banned from campus after he clashed with anti-Israel protesters and confronted school officials last week during the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state.
The candidates duking it out in one of the most hotly contested upstate districts are putting some distance between themselves and the top of their tickets.
Democratic congressional candidate Mondaire Jones denied once again that he was attacking Hochul specifically when he was quoted in a New Yorker article saying he wanted a governor like former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
First-term Hudson Valley Republican Rep. Marc Molinaro unwittingly posted an endorsement video from an influencer who’s promoted 9/11 conspiracy theories — before deleting the post this week.
First-term Long Island GOP Rep. Anthony D’Esposito and Democratic rival Laura Gillen slammed each other’s records in a debate, dueling over ethics, taxes, the migrant crisis, abortion, and whether transgender athletes should compete in women’s sports.
Two new grant programs have been announced by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets to offer financial support for beginning farmers and socially and economically disadvantaged farmers.
Millions of residents who have suffered from negligence at nursing homes across the US can trace worsening health outcomes to fraud committed by the operators of those facilities, according to a new fiscal analysis that appears to be the first study of its kind.
A federal judge in Buffalo struck down a portion of New York’s gun laws that would prohibit someone with a concealed carry permit from bringing a firearm on private property open to the public unless the owner had posted signs affirmatively allowing weapons.
Byron Brown resigned yesterday as Buffalo’s longest-serving mayor (19 years), its first Black mayor, and its only mayor to ever win election as a write-in candidate.
Brown starts today as the president and CEO of Western Regional Off-Track Betting.
In its first semiannual report, a state-appointed monitor for the Orange County IDA did not find any major compliance issues nor violations of policies, laws and regulations. But it did list more than 20 recommendations to strengthen oversight.
The Coxsackie-Athens Central School District says it’s canceling the remainder of the varsity football season because it doesn’t have enough players.
The City of Rensselaer has 18 projects included in its application to become the latest Capital Region city to be selected for a $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant from the state.
Troy Mayor Carmella Mantello’s proposed 2025 budget of $117.2 million raises city property taxes by 1.89 percent and includes $26 million for replacing remaining lead lines carrying city drinking water over three years as part of a five-year capital plan.
Work is continuing on a new location for Chick-fil-A at the corner of Central and Colvin avenues in Albany.
Megan Marshack, who as a young aide to Nelson A. Rockefeller found herself at the center of sensational conjecture about the circumstances of his sudden death in 1979, died on Oct. 2 in Sacramento. She was 70.
Her death, at a live-in medical facility, was announced in an obituary that her brother, Jon Marshack, said she had written herself last year. It was her first public comment since she witnessed Rockefeller’s death – also at age 70 – on Jan. 26, 1979.
Photo credit: George Fazio
