SUKKOT CELEBRATION WITH CHILDREN

 

Ever since 2008, Gobind Sadan sevadars have been holding interfaith education classes for children every Sunday. Children from Gobind Sadan come to them willingly, and have learned about all religions, recited Nam, meditated, and become closer to God. On Sunday, 12 October, many came for a special celebration of the Jewish holiday Sukkot. 

Sukkot is a festival commemorating the time when the Israelites were wandering in the desert for 40 years after being freed by Moses from slavery in Egypt. In remembrance of the crude shelters they made for themselves along the way, Jewish families construct simple huts with roofs made of leafy branches and then eat their meals and perhaps sleep in them for a week. At Gobind Sadan, sevadars and gardeners created such a sukkah at the place of Jewish worship. Once it filled with children, Irina Zelmanova, a visiting sevadar from Israel, taught them the meaning of the sukkah, as well as the meaning of the menorah (candle stand) there.  She concluded with the Sh’ma Israel, the special prayer that is engraved in stone at that place. Afterward, children and foreign sevadars enjoyed kulfi in matkas while sitting together cozily in the Sukkah.