F4: Succot

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Introduction

If you are using this material for a 10-15 minute
assembly, you might decide that you simply want
to teach your 'audience' something they never
knew before about Succot. If so, a good place
to start is by asking straight out for people to call out anything they know about Succot. This way you can avoid going over what is obvious. The chances are that most people probably won't know about at least one section of this chapter.

What's in a name?

- This is another short activity which should fit snuggly into an assembly slot. Start by asking if anyone knows the name of the next Jewish festival (or the last one, or the one that starts tomorrow - whatever is most appropriate when you run an assembly on Succot!). It is unlikely that anyone will come up with any other name than Succot. Ask if anyone knows any other names for this festival. At the most expect another name, although it doesn't matter if all 4 names are guessed. Either way, write up all 4 names on a chalkboard/flipchart and explain the meanings of each one. If you have enough time take a hand-up vote on which name seems to be the most appropriate or the best or the most ridiculous (or all).

- If you want to use this idea for a longer meeting (such as a Jewish society meeting), this can be taken further to last between 30-60 minutes. Instead of going to a vote, split the group into 4 smaller groups. Each one is the spin doctor team for one of the names, and they get the name plus relevant information on a piece of paper. They then have 10-20 minutes (depending on your time limit) to come up with a rousing speech in favour of their name. Each team must choose one of its members to read out the speech to the whole group after the allotted time is up. Once all speeches are made, a vote is cast to see which name should be the official name for the festival.

Shmini Atzeret

- For a regular assembly: Read the paragraph on Shmini Atzeret. Stop before reading 'the best explanation...' and ask if anyone has a suggestion as to the reason for Shmini Atzeret. It is possible that some of your co-pupils have heard other explanations (which are not neccessarily wrong). After hearing a few, read on to the end of the paragraph. Then ask who buys that explanation? If not why not? See if anyone can come up with anything better.

From joyous celebration...

- After explaining about the Book of Ecclesiastes, ask someone to read the quote in the paragraph (if possible give everyone a copy of it when they first walk in). Before explaining it, ask if anyone has any idea as to what it means. Whether you get any answers or not, give out the explanation in the paragraph (or your own if you can word it better). Either end here or continue. How far you continue from here will depend on how much time you have (i.e. assembly or meeting):

- Ask everyone to think of (but not say) any time when they were a bit too quick to say something, and ended up wishing that they hadn't said it. Get them to think about whether a)they wish they wouldn't have said it at all, or b)wish they'd have worded it differently, or c)maybe should have said it at a different moment. Ask for hands up who feels a) then b) followed by c).

- If you have the time and space to split people into groups of 6-12 per group, do so now, making sure you get a mixture of a's, b's and c's in each group. If smaller groups are not possible, it isn't a problem to continue in one large group. Either way, ask anyone who doesn't mind to tell the rest of their group the main points of their story without going into too much detail. Stress the importance not to include names (you don't want to start a lunchtime riot in the playground!). Once someone has told their story, everyone else in their group votes whether they think it fits into the a, b, or c category. This bit of the activity can last as long as you think suitable depending on how much time you have and how co-operative the group is being. 30-45 minutes is probably long enough however.

- To conclude, explain in your own words that we all say things that we regret, but the important thing is what we do next - do we apologise and try and explain, or blindly defend what we said even though we know we are wrong.

- A completely separate activity can be run using the verses from Ecclesiates on the back page of this chapter. These words were used as the basis of a hit song in the 60's. You can have a real laugh trying to act out an appropriate (video clip( whilst someone reads the verses. Either prepare this with a couple of friends in advance, or ask for a few volunteers on the day. Either way, the idea is to mime an action for each of the lines.

- An alternative short activity could be to read out the verses, then ask for 5 new pairs of (a time to..... and a time to....( which would be more relevant to teenagers living in the 1990's. Get people to call them out. If you have longer, it would be interesting to actually look at the words (give them out or have them written up large) and see which lines - if any - are still relevant as we approach the new millenium, and which are more outdated. Can we replace the outdated ones (if there are any) with more appropriate words? This can be done as a large group, or in pairs or in smallish groups.

The Four Species

For an assembly, you could prepare a short skit (you'll need 3 friends to help you if you can persuade them!) based on the 4 types of Jew. It could either be 4 separate skits each consisting of 1 of the types in exactly the same situation but acting how they would, or possibly all 4 together arguing about/ discussing an issue. After a few minutes stop and ask the audience what are the 4 types of Jew you are portraying. Then read out the relevant section of this chapter, and finish by asking them what type of Jew do they think they are (it can be very poweful to finish an (activity( with an a personal question which no-one gets to answer out loud). Another fun and thought-provoking way of presenting this, would be to begin by reading out the paragraph about the 4 types from this chapter, then ask for 4 volunteers. Tell each one of them in secret what his/her type is (probably best to give them a slip of paper explaining it to save time). Then set a scene in which they all interact as their types. After a few minutes freeze, and get the audience to guess who was which type.

Imaginary guests...

The following are ideas for longer meetings (an hour or more). They will require a little preparation in advance, but it will be worth it:

Explain the idea of the Ushpizin and read out the 7 names. Split everyone up into 7 groups, and name each group after one of the Ushpizin. Give them all some basic information about their figure (which can be faxed or posted to you for free from Makor-AJY - number above!) and if possible a Bible (with English translation). Each group has about 20 minutes to write up a short biography of their figure, including the reasons why they are included in the list of honoured guests. Once time is up, everyone gets together and you explain that this room is your succah and you are the host. You walk into the succah and before you sit down you explain that you want to invite the ushpizin in. Each guest is now introduced (by their group) as if they were introducing an after-dinner speaker at an event. The point of this is that each group will only study one of the figures, but at the end everyone will learn about all 7.

A variation on this is to explain that due to cutbacks, only 4 (or any number between 1 and 7) ushpizin are invited this year. Each group has to prepare the case in support of their figure. After all cases have been presented a panel decide on which ushpizin make it onto the guest list.

Alternatively - read the paragraph on the ushpizin. Ask if anything springs to mind when you've read out the list (i.e. what is strange or prominent about the list). The answer is that they are all men. Explain that this list was made 400-500 years ago and it's time we redressed the balance between the sexes! Start off a discussion about which biblical women in should be included on the list and which of the men should be moved off to make way for them. It would probably be helpful to have some information on a selection of appropriate women, as your audience may not have much knowledge of them.

A slight variation on this would be to suggest that seeing as 4-500 years have passed since the list was made, there may be personalities in Jewish history during those years that deserve to become Ushpizin. Using any available resources (you know who to get in touch with by now!) the group tries to find one Jewish figure from the last 500 years to fill each of the 7 personality traits (i.e. kindness, victory etc).

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