President’s Corner

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The Importance of Family As We Celebrate Sukkot!

As we have completed the High Holy Days and now celebrate Sukkot, I find myself thinking a lot about family, traditions, and the memories we carry with us.

Last year, I wrote about growing up in Rochester, NY, and about the “sukkah” of my childhood. It wasn’t really a sukkah in the traditional sense—it was our screened-in porch. But to me, it was absolutely magical. We would decorate it with pictures of fruits and vegetables, spend time together as a family, and somehow that simple porch became a very special Jewish place.

This Labor Day, I took my kids to Rochester, and one of the things I’ve been most looking forward to is taking them to see that porch. I want them to stand in the same place where I stood as a kid and see the little corner of the world where so many of my Sukkot memories began.

I’m sure they’ll look at it and think, “Dad, this is the sukkah you’ve been talking about?”

And maybe it won’t look quite as magical to them as it did to me.

But that’s okay.

Because I think that’s what makes Jewish traditions so special. They don’t have to look exactly the same from one generation to the next. What matters is that we keep telling the stories, making the meals, hanging the decorations, gathering our families, and creating new memories along the way.

For the past 15 years, my own family has built our sukkah together. We’ve pulled out the decorations, tested the lights, argued about where things should go, and—most importantly—spent time together. My kids have grown up with these traditions just as I did. And now, as I take them back to Rochester, I realize that I’m not just showing them a porch. I’m showing them a piece of my story.

There is something incredibly meaningful about that.

I think the same thing happens through the Beth Shalom Men’s Club. The events we plan, the meals we share, the laughs we have, and even the conversations that happen when we’re simply standing around together become part of our own stories. We may come to a Men’s Club event for the food, the activity, or just to get out of the house for a few hours, but what we often take home are the memories—and the friendships.

Some of those moments may seem small at the time. Years from now, though, we may find ourselves telling our kids or friends about that crazy event, that great meal, or the night when everyone was together and nobody wanted to leave. Those are the moments that make a community feel like family.

Judaism gives us this wonderful connection between generations. The traditions that were important to our parents and grandparents become part of our own lives, and then, almost without realizing it, we find ourselves passing them on to our children. Sometimes it happens through a holiday prayer or a family recipe. Sometimes it happens around a dinner table. Sometimes it happens with friends at a Men’s Club event. And sometimes, apparently, it happens on an old screened-in porch in Rochester.

As we celebrate the holidays this year, I’m especially grateful for those connections—for the memories I was given, for the memories I’m creating with my family, and for the friendships and experiences we continue to build together at Beth Shalom.

I hope you’ll join us this year, make some memories, share some laughs, and maybe even create a story that we’ll still be talking about years from now.

May we all find time this year to share our stories, celebrate our traditions, and make a little magic with the people we love.

Chag Sameach,

Ron

Congregation Beth Shalom Men’s Club President