What are those little wooden huts that I see outside of Hasidic homes in the fall?
This is another Basic Judaism question. The little hut is called a sukkah (SOOK-uh or soo-KAH). It is erected for the Feast of Sukkot (soo-KOTE, or SOOK-us if you speak Yiddish). This is a biblically-ordained holy period (seven days long) that is not specifically Hasidic, but belongs to all Jews of all denominations. However, I will say that Hasidim are more scrupulous about putting up a sukkah than are some other types of Jews. So maybe that’s why people associate the sukkah with the Hasidim. In the King James Bible, the Festival of Sukkot is called The Feast of Tabernacles. However, we should point out that the Hebrew word for "Tabernacle" is not Sukkah, it is mishkan (meesh-KAHN) — two totally different things. The Mishkan was the fancy Tent of Worship where the Jewish priests in olden days performed the sacrifices and other ceremonies with Moses in the wilderness. A sukkah is a rustic, temporary shelter that the Jews lived in while wandering in the wilderness — and that
