Sukkot in the Mea She’arim Neighbourhood of Jerusalem

​This is a postcard with a photograph of a street in Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea She’arim during the festival of Sukkot. The black and white photograph depicts homes, each with a sukkah built on the balcony. A sukkah is the temporary dwelling in which Jews traditionally live during the seven days of Sukkot. The sukkot in the photograph are made of wood and tarpaulin with branches used as schach, the special roof that characterizes a sukkah.

The specifications of a sukkah are detailed in the Mishnah and other codes of Jewish law and state that nothing may come between the schach and the sky. This is why sukkot are built on balconies and not on the street below, where they would be underneath the balconies.

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Discussion Questions

Observation

• What catches your attention when you first look at the photograph?
• What is the main focus of the photograph?
• Describe the surroundings.

Reading Between the Lines

• What are the structures on the balconies?
• During which festival was this photograph taken?
• What are some of the specifications for building a sukkah?
  Which features can you see illustrated in the photograph?
  How are sukkot used?
  How long are they used?
  Why are sukkot built on the balconies and not on the street?
• In what neighborhood was this photograph taken?
• The photograph was taken in Mea She'arim.
  Where is the neighborhood located?
  What type of community is it?
  Find Mea She'arim on Google Earth and take a "tour" of the neighborhood.
  Who lived in Mea She'arim?
  Search the internet for information about the neighborhood and compile a list of five interesting facts about the area and its residents.
• What would you expect to see if you walked around the streets of Mea She'arim?
  What sounds would you hear?

Connections

• How has the Mea She'arim neighborhood changed since the photograph was taken in the mid-twentieth century?
  Have you ever built a sukkah?
  What did it look like?
  What was it made of?
  How you visited other people's sukkot?
  How did the other sukkot compare to your own or the ones in the photograph?
  What was similar and what was different?

Creative Ideas

• Build a model sukkah following the rules described in the Mishnah.
• Write a short story that takes place in one of the sukkot depicted in the photograph.

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