SEASONS OF JOY AND LIGHT

The holidays of Sukkot and Hanukkah bring favorite annual traditions to the Skirball.

Perhaps more than at any other time of year, the entire Skirball campus is full of festivities celebrating what it means to live Jewishly and visitors engaging in rituals that invite us to imagine a better future.

The celebration of Sukkot, the harvest festival, is beloved. A holiday that invites one and all to share in the bounty of Jewish life—what could be more Skirball?

Artist Gray Hong of Highland Park floral studio Moon Jar Design, erected this year’s sukkah. They began the process by asking visitors a seemingly simple question, “What brings you joy?”

Says Hong, “Joy is a powerful emotion, capable of lifting us to do great things. It is important to recognize our joy(s), to name them and to honor them...I reflect that ‘our joy’ is something different than ‘my joy.’ It is collective, shared, and felt in community with others.”

Hong wove the answers into the floral garlands that hung from the rafter of the Founder’s Courtyard, transforming the space into a sukkah and a glorious physical reflection of our selves. Architect Moshe Safdie has said of the Skirball, “you’re inside while you’re outside and you’re outside when you’re inside.” Sukkot at Skirball brought everyone in, and all our innermost feelings out. This shared abundance was again in full effect during our annual Hanukkah Festival, when generations came together to light the holiday candles. Jewish law commands those who celebrate Hanukkah to make the light of the menorah public and Skirball President Jessie Kornberg reminded us why, “When it feels like the shadows are rising to darken Jewish gathering and celebration, the strength and joy of the holiday comes not just in your own claiming of the light, but in joining your light to a community of others.”

During the Hanukkah Festival, visitors of all ages made hand-crafted torches that were used to lead visitors around the edge of the pond in the courtyard and turn on the pillars of light while families and friends danced in circles to the music of Mostly Kosher, a favorite local klezmer-rock band. And in those joyful dances, as it was with garlands hanging on Sukkot, there was no first and no last, each individual an equally vital link in the chain that strengthens our community.